Even before the pandemic changed how businesses function, soft skills were just as (if not more) important than hard skills in the modern corporate landscape. For high-performing businesses, good communicators and team players are more valuable than talented hotshots who can’t get along with others. That’s why new entrants to the business world must commit to mastering soft skills. Here are six valuable ones from the house of PERSOLKELLY that young recruits will need to excel at work:- 

Communication

Humans are a collaborative species. What we can achieve together is far greater than what individuals can do by themselves. That’s why those in control of recruiting talent give due weightage to how good someone’s communication or soft skills are. After all, communication serves as the backbone for collaboration. You can have heavily skilled members on your team but unless they’re good communicators, their performance would always leave more to be desired. So, give soft skills their due and think of improving them as a career-long pursuit. 

Being Solution-Oriented

No one expects young recruits to have everything figured out from the get-go. Managers know better and expect mistakes on the part of employees helming junior positions. However, trouble ensues when young recruits make mistakes but fail to take ownership of their actions. In other words, hitting a wall is okay but failing to bounce back from such obstructions is not. That’s why young members of the workforce need to develop a solution-oriented mindset. Instead of fearing even the tiniest onset of failure, young guns need to focus on minimising mistakes. They need to look at problems and default to thinking about ways of fixing them. It may sound hackneyed but the only real failure for young recruits is to give up. 

Time Management

Putting in the hours at work is important. You can’t expect to devote 15 mins to a problem that demands 3 hours and expect positive results. But, it’s equally bad to devote 3 hours to something that you should have wrapped up in 15 minutes. The takeaway here is that young recruits need to master time management if they want to scale their careers at a breakneck pace. To excel in fast-moving work environments, it’s vital to plan how you’ll use the time at your disposal. Even the simple act of mapping out your breaks beforehand can make a huge difference to your daily productivity. Lastly, make sure that you monitor how well you adhere to your time management plan. Make note of gaps in execution early on and optimise accordingly. 

Observation Skills

There’s a reason why ‘reading the room’ is such an essential skill in corporate environments. Professionals who are attuned to their surroundings excel at interpersonal communication and are great at inspiring action. Such individuals rarely engage in unnecessary conflicts and foster cordial workplace relationships wherever they go. But, let's shift our focus to how good observation skills can benefit freshers. Knowing the pulse of the people that you work with can catapult you to various exciting opportunities. It can get people to vouch for you and entice higher-ups to trust you more readily for big projects. All in all, cultivating the ability to ‘read the room’ will help you progress more rapidly in your career. 

Team Work 

As we’ve said before, talented teams can accomplish more than talented individuals can on their own. But, achieving common objectives is not the only place where teamwork shines. Working as part of a high-performance team is conducive to individual growth as well. Even someone as ridiculously talented as Lionel Messi performs better for one team than the other. He’s great when playing for Argentina but downright magical when playing for FC Barcelona. The takeaway here is that getting good at teamwork can help you achieve peak performance in corporate settings. It makes you an undeniable asset to every project that you partake in and pushes you towards excellence on all fronts. 

Adaptability

The business world is an ever-evolving entity. There’s no telling how technological innovation or unprecedented events (like COVID-19) may alter its dynamics. Thus, recruiters value candidates who show signs of adaptability and resilience. Even within business teams, top performers exhibit the ability to mould themselves as required by the challenges at hand. They showcase discipline yet remain fluid in their workflows and shift as necessary when push comes to shove (which it often does in high-performance settings). So, young recruits who wish to hold their own in a fast-paced, exciting work environment must become competent at thriving amidst change and unpredictability. 

Conclusion

Being good at what you do is inarguably important to attain professional success. However, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. We’ve tried to illuminate the rest in the blog above. So, we’re hoping that young recruits inculcate the soft skills we’ve talked about and achieve greatness from thereon. After all, striking the right balance between soft and hard skills is what truly makes the business world your oyster. 

This article was originally published o PERSOLKELLY blog here