These non-technical skills revolve around emotional intelligence, behavior, thinking, interpersonal connections, and communication, and their development is crucial for personal and professional growth.
In the era of AI, human skills are not just important, they are indispensable for the success of the organization. It’s the people, with their unique abilities to think, connect, and communicate, who drive growth and success. Your human skills are what make you an invaluable asset to your company.
The ability to work collaboratively in diverse teams towards a common goal with engagement and feeling empowered is valued and a critical aspect of leadership skills.
Reason of why human skills are so important
Below are some of them, and of course, there is more to them as human skills are a vast palette of different qualities. Let’s list them down:
- Enhancing teamwork and collaboration
- Improve communication with internal and external stakeholders
- Increase agility and flexibility towards different and unforeseen circumstances
- Foster leadership capabilities
- Contribute to retention and employee engagement
Some essential human skills to develop to stay trendy in the workplace
1. Communication
Obviously, the number one skill is to be an excellent communicator. Effective communication is a cornerstone for any successful relationships, meetings, and solutions. It involves more listening than speaking and understanding the non-verbal clues.
It is about clear messages, simple and easy to understand, repeated messages, and cross-checking to ensure that the message has been understood.
2. Teamwork
Working together with respect and integrity is required in any working environment. Collaboration, sharing, and supporting each other, despite everyone’s differences, creates growth and success.
3. Problem Solving
Analyzing the challenges and developing solutions is imperative for any job. Specifically, there is a need to have a positive outlook and look at how we can do this rather than why this happened (which can be dealt with later).
4. Adaptability
Being flexible and open-minded in challenging situations is required in this fast-paced world, embracing different ideas and solutions.
5. Emotional Intelligence
It is all about emotions. Start with your understanding, regulating them, and understanding and building rapport with your employees on an emotional level. High EI helps build strong relationships, trust, and teamwork.
6. Time Management
Prioritizing tasks, delegating, and managing your time efficiently will ensure you meet your and the company’s targets. Good time management increases productivity and reduces stress.
How can we increase human skills?
- Active listening
You can’t emphasize enough that you should listen more than speak. I call this 360-degree listening: listening with your mind, body, and soul, without judgment, being open and inclusive.
- Seek feed Forward
Feedforward, exactly as any comment will bring you and your organization forward. This is precious data that you can use to improve on any topic. Always ask for it. It’s in your Favor.
- Engage in team activities
Group projects and other ad hoc initiatives are essential to build your collaboration muscles as you must collaborate and find consensus.
- Embrace challenges
Step out of your comfort zone, try out new things, and raise your hand for anything new so that you can grow and show interest in the company and your personal development. You can only learn.
- Reflect on your emotions
Always analyze at the end of the day what you could have done better and how to respond better or handle any situation. Reflecting on these emotions and behaviors helps us to improve and hold ourselves accountable.
The role of Human skills in Career advancement:
- Building internal and external networks and relationships, which are the number 1 unspoken components of career progression
- Enhancing leadership as influential leaders are great human skills masters. It encompasses fostering trust, engagement, and conflict resolution.
- Increasing employability, as employers are increasingly looking for people who are excellent not only in execution but also in working together and fitting into the company culture.
In recapping the human skills aspect, incorporating and developing human skills shall be part of your daily schedule. As a lifelong student, you can ask for a mentor, attend some pieces of training or read books and listen to podcasts, enhancing this skill even further.
Which is the return on investment for your career progression, whether inside or outside your current organization.
Check out my blogs around personal development for more inspiration.