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Sociological studies have proven for decades that not only professional skills are important for employers, but also additional knowledge and skills that cannot be obtained at the university: creativity, responsibility, courtesy and many others. They are called soft skills. T&P, with the help of experts, explain what these skills are, how they are acquired and how to understand which ones you need.
It is noteworthy that there is no universal definition of the term soft skills. According to the Oxford Dictionary, soft skills are personal qualities that enable you to interact effectively and harmoniously with others. But even this capacious description is rather vague.
When determining what soft skills are, it is worth starting from the context and field of activity. For example, it is generally good when a specialist has project management skills, but they are not required for an engineer. The ability to conduct cultural events may be useful for a chemist, but it is much more important for HR professionals and event managers. Soft skills are acquired skills that you have acquired through additional education and personal experience and use to further develop in your professional field. That is why they are so valued when hiring.
Among the significant soft skills are communication skills, critical thinking, problem solving skills, creativity, teamwork, the art of negotiation, self-organization, time management, conflict resolution skills, respect for the culture of other nations, general knowledge, responsibility, etiquette and good manners, courtesy, self-esteem, sociability, honesty, empathy, work ethic, project management, business management. And these are just a few of them. Although the easiest way to divide the "soft skills" into three groups: personal qualities, interpersonal skills and additional knowledge. The importance of each of the categories also depends on the context and purpose.
Tatiana Salakhieva-Talal
psychologist, gestalt therapist, trainer
“There are two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are all skills that are directly related to the craft and the activity that a person is engaged in. For example, if you are a programmer, then for you hard skills are everything related to programming. For a screenwriter, hard skills are his scripting skills. For a person who works in a factory, hard skills are operational and technical activities.
Soft skills are not associated with a craft, but with communications and skills necessary for successful work in your field, in a team, in a team - with other people. The widest block of soft skills is communication skills. General communication skills that everyone needs are the ability to conduct a conversation, argue their position, build counter-arguments, ask the right questions, give feedback, and so on. But there are also more narrowly focused communication skills - for example, communication in sales, management, the ability to negotiate. There is also a large block of other soft skills of various orientations: skills in time management, personal finance management, working with information, goal setting, and so on.
If we are talking about self-development, then it is important to understand what kind of soft skills a person needs in order to be successful in their profession. Everything is much easier if a person works within a company (especially in a medium or large corporation), because there are models of competencies for each position and profession. Then a person of any specialty can look at his competence model, and there will be five to seven blocks of skills that he needs for successful development in this profession. Then he can master and develop them - within the framework of corporate training and development programs or independently
If we talk about the methods of development, then, by far, the best ways to do this are training. You can read many books, articles, listen to lectures, but in this way you will receive only knowledge. If you have enough resilience and are ready to apply this knowledge immediately, then your skill will be formed. And only after some time the skill will be formed. But this is a difficult path, and for these purposes there are individual coaching sessions or special skill trainings, which are built according to the classic Kolb cycle.
Let me explain. Children can be taught simply: you give knowledge, allow them to try, repeat, reinforce. In adults, everything is complicated by the fact that they already have their own automatisms, developed for life. If you just give knowledge and allow to try, then the new automatism will not be built in, it will cause resistance. Therefore, the Kolb cycle is a universal model by which an adult can be taught skills. It consists in the fact that first the people in the group try and show the skill as they can. When it comes to negotiation training, participants play out specially designed negotiation cases. This can be recorded on camera, and they end up with an experience in which they demonstrate what they already know how. After that comes the next stage - analysis and analysis of what happened. By recording, the participants analyze the process which is already automatically built for them, they find errors and try to fix them. They develop recommendations on how to do this, the trainer gives an algorithm how to do it correctly, and then all this is tried again, but using a new algorithm, and the basis for the formation of the skill is created.
It is important to remember that if within the next 72 hours after the trainings, the updated algorithms do not begin to be built into the work activity, then the skill will not be built. In order for the skill to build in, it takes about 21 days of daily practice. The optimal format is the development of skills in special trainings with post-training support in individual coaching sessions."
Alena Vladimirskaya
head of PRUFFI agency, recruiting specialist
“Soft skills are not work skills, but life skills. There are several things that are always needed: this is the ability to listen, speak and negotiate. In Russia, there is no ability to negotiate at all, our people do not know how to do this, this is our main problem. Although many are convinced that the Russians' main problem is their inability to manage time. But this is not the case. We just learned this. In comparison, for example, with the Italians, we are doing very well with that. We're just faster, and others get scared of it. For us, just the main problem is communication skills, the ability to hear, listen and negotiate. This is not due to the fact that we are bad, but to the fact that the economy was developing rapidly in Russia and business in general has changed. In twenty years we have gone from an economy in which there is no need to negotiate, because it is planned, to a modern economy, where negotiations move business. But we, of course, never learned this.
Sometimes in soft skills such a story as creativity is highlighted. In this sense, everything is very good in Russia. There is even such an anecdote: “If you want to come up with an idea, put on a Russian. If you want to develop your business, take a Russian, but supply a Japanese. "We have no problems with creativity, but with the ability to negotiate - it's dull. The problem is that there is nowhere to learn this. There are a huge number of different trainings where they supposedly teach this, but in reality it is impossible to learn this with us for one simple reason: the concepts of these trainers and teachers do not suit our new business.
The ability to negotiate is immediately apparent in the interview. When a person comes for an interview, he actually needs to sell himself. If you go to interviews and there are no stressful situations - you are not humiliated or intimidated - then you need to get offers. It is not necessary to accept it, but you need a positive outcome of your meetings, and this is your ability to negotiate."
Artem Ginevsky
Director of the Investment Technologies Laboratory.
“In general, so-called soft skills have always been popular. But at some point they got their name and definition; teaching soft skills became popular after the first works of Carnegie. We see a logical and logical process: along with the development of certain areas and professions, there is a demand for professionals with skills corresponding to these areas. So, the professions of the creative class that are popular today require imagination, innovative thinking, the ability to work in time trouble with creative people. And for managerial professions, for example, you need the ability to work in a team, competently build communication with colleagues, and be a leader. Now these soft skills are the most popular and in demand.
The demand for soft skills creates a supply in the market for additional education: various schools, courses, coaches and consultants appear. Public educational institutions have much less flexibility than small private centers, so it is more difficult for universities to adapt to the new needs of students. Students understand their gaps in education already at their places of work - specialists go to various organizations of additional education to fill them.
Source: theoryandpractice
It is noteworthy that there is no universal definition of the term soft skills. According to the Oxford Dictionary, soft skills are personal qualities that enable you to interact effectively and harmoniously with others. But even this capacious description is rather vague.
When determining what soft skills are, it is worth starting from the context and field of activity. For example, it is generally good when a specialist has project management skills, but they are not required for an engineer. The ability to conduct cultural events may be useful for a chemist, but it is much more important for HR professionals and event managers. Soft skills are acquired skills that you have acquired through additional education and personal experience and use to further develop in your professional field. That is why they are so valued when hiring.
Among the significant soft skills are communication skills, critical thinking, problem solving skills, creativity, teamwork, the art of negotiation, self-organization, time management, conflict resolution skills, respect for the culture of other nations, general knowledge, responsibility, etiquette and good manners, courtesy, self-esteem, sociability, honesty, empathy, work ethic, project management, business management. And these are just a few of them. Although the easiest way to divide the "soft skills" into three groups: personal qualities, interpersonal skills and additional knowledge. The importance of each of the categories also depends on the context and purpose.
Tatiana Salakhieva-Talal
psychologist, gestalt therapist, trainer
“There are two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are all skills that are directly related to the craft and the activity that a person is engaged in. For example, if you are a programmer, then for you hard skills are everything related to programming. For a screenwriter, hard skills are his scripting skills. For a person who works in a factory, hard skills are operational and technical activities.
Soft skills are not associated with a craft, but with communications and skills necessary for successful work in your field, in a team, in a team - with other people. The widest block of soft skills is communication skills. General communication skills that everyone needs are the ability to conduct a conversation, argue their position, build counter-arguments, ask the right questions, give feedback, and so on. But there are also more narrowly focused communication skills - for example, communication in sales, management, the ability to negotiate. There is also a large block of other soft skills of various orientations: skills in time management, personal finance management, working with information, goal setting, and so on.
If we are talking about the formation of skills, then we need to understand that there is a classic scheme “knowledge - skill - skill”. Knowledge is everything that every person can learn from books, lectures, seminars, master classes. This is some kind of information, a set of conceptual models and algorithms. Skill is a transitional moment, when we try to apply the knowledge we have gained in practice, and it turns out with varying degrees of success. For example, a young child is taught how to tie his shoelaces. If you simply explain to him in words, it does not mean that he will cope with a practical task successfully. When a child is allowed to try tying his own shoelaces, he develops a skill. Sometimes the child succeeds in doing it, and sometimes it does not. One way or another, when tying the shoelaces, the child consciously understands how this is done and repeats the algorithm. Skill is embedding skill in automated behavioral modules and patterns. An adult does not need to think about how the shoelaces are tied every time, he does it automatically.
If we are talking about self-development, then it is important to understand what kind of soft skills a person needs in order to be successful in their profession. Everything is much easier if a person works within a company (especially in a medium or large corporation), because there are models of competencies for each position and profession. Then a person of any specialty can look at his competence model, and there will be five to seven blocks of skills that he needs for successful development in this profession. Then he can master and develop them - within the framework of corporate training and development programs or independently
If we talk about the methods of development, then, by far, the best ways to do this are training. You can read many books, articles, listen to lectures, but in this way you will receive only knowledge. If you have enough resilience and are ready to apply this knowledge immediately, then your skill will be formed. And only after some time the skill will be formed. But this is a difficult path, and for these purposes there are individual coaching sessions or special skill trainings, which are built according to the classic Kolb cycle.
Let me explain. Children can be taught simply: you give knowledge, allow them to try, repeat, reinforce. In adults, everything is complicated by the fact that they already have their own automatisms, developed for life. If you just give knowledge and allow to try, then the new automatism will not be built in, it will cause resistance. Therefore, the Kolb cycle is a universal model by which an adult can be taught skills. It consists in the fact that first the people in the group try and show the skill as they can. When it comes to negotiation training, participants play out specially designed negotiation cases. This can be recorded on camera, and they end up with an experience in which they demonstrate what they already know how. After that comes the next stage - analysis and analysis of what happened. By recording, the participants analyze the process which is already automatically built for them, they find errors and try to fix them. They develop recommendations on how to do this, the trainer gives an algorithm how to do it correctly, and then all this is tried again, but using a new algorithm, and the basis for the formation of the skill is created.
It is important to remember that if within the next 72 hours after the trainings, the updated algorithms do not begin to be built into the work activity, then the skill will not be built. In order for the skill to build in, it takes about 21 days of daily practice. The optimal format is the development of skills in special trainings with post-training support in individual coaching sessions."
Alena Vladimirskaya
head of PRUFFI agency, recruiting specialist
“Soft skills are not work skills, but life skills. There are several things that are always needed: this is the ability to listen, speak and negotiate. In Russia, there is no ability to negotiate at all, our people do not know how to do this, this is our main problem. Although many are convinced that the Russians' main problem is their inability to manage time. But this is not the case. We just learned this. In comparison, for example, with the Italians, we are doing very well with that. We're just faster, and others get scared of it. For us, just the main problem is communication skills, the ability to hear, listen and negotiate. This is not due to the fact that we are bad, but to the fact that the economy was developing rapidly in Russia and business in general has changed. In twenty years we have gone from an economy in which there is no need to negotiate, because it is planned, to a modern economy, where negotiations move business. But we, of course, never learned this.
Sometimes in soft skills such a story as creativity is highlighted. In this sense, everything is very good in Russia. There is even such an anecdote: “If you want to come up with an idea, put on a Russian. If you want to develop your business, take a Russian, but supply a Japanese. "We have no problems with creativity, but with the ability to negotiate - it's dull. The problem is that there is nowhere to learn this. There are a huge number of different trainings where they supposedly teach this, but in reality it is impossible to learn this with us for one simple reason: the concepts of these trainers and teachers do not suit our new business.
It is very important for an HR director to notice three things during an interview: consistency, time management, and the ability to negotiate. Did the candidate arrive for the interview on time? How long did he complete the test task? Did he send the test task on time? Did he send what you asked for? It often happens that you ask to analyze one thing, and the candidate analyzes what he wants.
The ability to negotiate is immediately apparent in the interview. When a person comes for an interview, he actually needs to sell himself. If you go to interviews and there are no stressful situations - you are not humiliated or intimidated - then you need to get offers. It is not necessary to accept it, but you need a positive outcome of your meetings, and this is your ability to negotiate."
Artem Ginevsky
Director of the Investment Technologies Laboratory.
“In general, so-called soft skills have always been popular. But at some point they got their name and definition; teaching soft skills became popular after the first works of Carnegie. We see a logical and logical process: along with the development of certain areas and professions, there is a demand for professionals with skills corresponding to these areas. So, the professions of the creative class that are popular today require imagination, innovative thinking, the ability to work in time trouble with creative people. And for managerial professions, for example, you need the ability to work in a team, competently build communication with colleagues, and be a leader. Now these soft skills are the most popular and in demand.
The demand for soft skills creates a supply in the market for additional education: various schools, courses, coaches and consultants appear. Public educational institutions have much less flexibility than small private centers, so it is more difficult for universities to adapt to the new needs of students. Students understand their gaps in education already at their places of work - specialists go to various organizations of additional education to fill them.
In the financial arena, soft skills are also very important. I would single out the following: structured consciousness, analytical thinking, speed of reaction, the ability to see the whole picture, self-organization. The investor is driven by two basic feelings: fear (to lose their savings) and greed (the desire to make more money). The ability to control both of these feelings is also a kind of soft skill that a person needs to work in the financial markets. We in the company talk about soft skills with our listeners already as a “superstructure” after they understand and understand the theoretical part. In order to develop the necessary soft skills, we advise you to constantly learn new things, read professional literature and literature on personal growth. You should learn various behavioral things in practice,
Source: theoryandpractice
