Soft-Skills May Not Be That ‘Soft’
As the necessity of working with a community, we are focusing on technical and non-technical skills together. There are basic rules for technical journeys and improvements. When you get a promotion on your work, it is could be some kind of measurement of technical skills. Right? But how can we measure our non-technical skill improvements?
Have you ever cried in the office toilet? Did you leave any meetings when it continues? Or did you turn off your camera and adopt passive-aggressive attitudes in Zoom meetings in remote working? I did it all. All of these reactions were not due to my lack of technique, but due to my inexperience in non-technical issues. Do you think that being able to laugh at situations where you give such reactions, expend a lot of effort to correct them, and stay open to communication to eliminate the problem, is a measurement of the development of your soft skills?
Time to tiptoe toward.
The word “skill” highlights the practical function. The term alone has a broad meaning and describes a particular ability to complete tasks ranging from easier ones like learning how to kick a ball to harder ones like learning to be creative. In this specific instance, the word “skill” has to be interpreted as the ability to master hardly controlled actions.
Further,
“Soft skills”, also known as common skills or core skills, are skills applicable to all professions. These include critical thinking, problem-solving, public speaking, professional writing, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professional attitude, work ethic, career management, and intercultural fluency. This is in contrast to hard skills, which are specific to individual professions.
Otherwise,
“Hard skills”, also called technical skills, are any skills relating to a specific task or situation. It involves both understanding and proficiency in such specific activity that involves methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. These skills are easily quantifiable unlike soft skills, which are related to one’s personality. These are also skills that can be or have been tested and may entail some professional, technical, or academic qualification.
Nowadays, I think the things we call soft skills are actually not that ‘soft’. It may seem like it’s not a must as its lack is not the first priority measured in a job application, but its absence can cause major problems in business life. I may experience conflicts because my soft skills are insufficient in a job where I am technically competent, or because technically very good people are bad at soft skills. Just like in all areas of our lives, a problem at work can also cause trauma. Therefore, we should improve ourselves in soft skills as well as hard skills.
Now, if I were to offer you to go mountain climbing, you would try to learn climbing methods. Because the main goal is to climb. But this climb also has a descent. And in mountaineering, the majority of accidents happen while descending because reaching the top brings intoxication of success, the focus is dispersed, and good judgment cannot be made. In this analogy, climbing methods are hard skills that are must-haves for you to climb, while abseiling methods are soft skills that are not necessary for climbing but must have to finish the whole process in the most “optimum” way.
You need to do a sum and if you don’t know-how, you can learn the rules and have the necessary technical knowledge, but there are no written rules on how to deal with difficult situations. There are examples and suggestions, of course, but it is a little more difficult to delete a behavior-reaction match to that behavior X times before from our brain map and re-encode it correctly. That’s why the things we call soft skills are not that soft and require a lot of effort.
Thank you for reading and feel free to contact me.
Cheers!🤘🏻
