From the course: Navigating Complexity in Your Organization

Critical soft skills

From the course: Navigating Complexity in Your Organization

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Critical soft skills

- You may be a computer Jedi, a science guru, or a Ninja Master of mathematical theories. However, to be successful, you need more than just expertise in your given specialty, and you need more than technical expertise. What you need is people skills. Unless you are doing research on penguins by yourself in the South Pole, you will need people skills, and in case of the South Pole, you will need penguin skills. Now that's beside the point. Companies hire you to solve problems and they don't expect you to do it by yourself. They expect you to work with others and get along with them and get the work done. In this video, I want to share three essential people skills that will enhance your effectiveness at work. Now, people skills or non-technical soft skills. In contrast to hard skills, soft skills are the personal attributes needed for success on the job. The first peoples skill you should master is effective communication. Effective communicators provide clear and compelling guidance, opinions, and feedback. Ineffective communicators tend to find themselves redoing their work and the work of others. One practice that builds communication skills is talking directly to people face to face, being open to their feedback, and then following up with a timely email capturing the bullet points of your conversation. The second people skill you should master is connection. If you know how to establish strong bonds, goodwill, and common ground with the people you work with, then you have the ability to connect. When the connection is strong, you project a positive attitude, you create a welcoming environment, and you help people feel comfortable by valuing their opinions and their concerns. One practice that promotes connection is to build a supportive environment. Ask others what support means to them and how you can support them. Show interest in their work and appropriate interest in something outside of work. Be a person people want to work with. The third people skill to master is collaboration. Collaboration is working with others to produce or create a result. Collaboration increases our influence and effectiveness. Working together can create a greater impact and stronger results than working alone or competing with each other. One practice to promote collaboration and get the best out of each contributor, think of being a symphony conductor who encourages harmony, staying on pitch, striking a balance among the diverse instruments, all engaged with one vision with one heart. The conductor may need to signal more volume from some and less than others to get the desired impact. So try these three practices to enhance your people skills and your team will perform well, harmonize and add value to all who observe.

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