This is a question that could serve as a trigger for the start of a great and productive debate between Human Resources professionals and team managers. However, most likely they would not be able to choose between one or the other. What's the point of having an excellent professional at a technical level if their interpersonal and intra-personal skills are not developed? These are two areas of complementary skills that can be learned and developed throughout a career. Read on to understand more about soft and hard skills.
What are soft skills?
Soft skill is a term used to define behavioral skills. They are often cognitive skills that are difficult to assess, they are skills related to personal aptitudes to interact with other people. Therefore, soft skills are attributes that can be worked on and developed. However, they are not technical knowledge, that is, they are not hard skills.
What are hard skills?
While soft skills are related to behavioral skills, hard skills are a person's technical skills. These are skills learned, for example, through courses, training, workshops, etc. These are skills that are included in curricula, for example. Hard skills are learned over a lifetime and are easier to assess.
How important is it to develop soft skills?
As we saw above, soft skills are socio-behavioral skills that can be developed and worked on throughout the career. Although the hiring of a new employee is often due to technical competence, the permanence in the company is often more due to socio-behavioral capacity.
The job market is increasingly looking for highly qualified professionals who know how to relate to other people at different times. A good professional performance does not depend only on technical knowledge, but also on the way this person deals with adverse situations.
5 examples of soft skills:
Integrity and ethics;
Continuous learning;
Adaptability;
Self motivation;
Emotional intelligence.
It can be said that, tendentiously, emotional intelligence is the most sought after soft skill in the labor market. Emotions directly influence our daily lives. From the moment we manage to identify emotions in ourselves, it becomes easier to read the attitudes of others. Knowing how to identify them and deal with them is the great differential in the professional scope. Managing emotions properly also helps us overcome limiting beliefs and allows us to enjoy our full potential. Emotions are powerful, they affect decision-making and, for example, the way we treat others. Knowing how to deal with negative emotions is part of emotional intelligence.
This is a very valuable soft skill for any industry or position. A good leader is one who can stimulate the best in his employees, persuade them to work towards a common goal. Emotional intelligence helps you to have positive leadership, to know how to stimulate the best in your team.
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