Portal: Nat 24 Link: http://bit.ly/38xwppw 21st Jan 2020
Your ability to climb the rungs of the career ladder hinges on more than just your qualifications. Though soft skills are the added talent that managers look for in candidates before hiring them. Although difficult to measure or define, they dictate your attitude and conduct that will shape your workplace well-being. Soft skills include any skill that can be classified as a personality trait or habit. Adaptability, ability to work in a team, creativity, leadership, conflict resolution and many more are all a part of soft skills. Interpersonal skills and effective communication are the more specific ones that many employers look for in candidates.
The ability to communicate involves knowing how to speak with others in different situations or settings. For instance, when working with a team on a project, you may find an idea or process ineffective and may need to communicate the same with your team. Finding a way to tactfully disagree with others on the job without creating conflict is an important skill that employers value.
Another example is that of adaptability. How easily do you adapt to changes? Changes in processes, environment, tools or clients you work with can happen quickly at work. Employees who are capable of adapting to new situations and ways of working are valuable in many jobs and industries.
Since your workplace is where you spend the maximum amount of your time, it’s important that you feel comfortable, secure, and happy. To increase well-being at your workplace, there are tonnes of skills you can build. Though well-being is a subjective term, it usually emerges from your thoughts, experiences, and actions on which you have control. Whether it’s maintaining a work-life balance or finding your purpose, the skills you practice not only create a healthy work environment but also help you increase your performance to a significant level.
5 Skills that will help maintain your well-being at work
Given below are some skills that one can practice for well-being at the workplace:
Active learning with a growth mindset
Just as an equanimous mindset helps us function smoothly in the world, a growth mind-set helps us perceive work tensions as challenges to overcome rather obstacles. The idea of personal growth at work helps us focus on finding solutions to problems rather than getting demotivated by them. The will to grow instils a positive attitude through constant motivation of keeping an eye on the end game.
Active learning at the workplace is vital to promote the overall development of an employee’s growth. Learning and developing skills that will enable you to navigate your ship through difficult waters is imperative to achieve growth.
Creating a supportive environment
To thrive at your workplace, it is important to create a supportive, cohesive and encouraging work environment. For a team to deliver the best outcomes, every employee must develop great interpersonal skills with their teammates.
A healthy environment is created by changing the culture of the company. Employee focus should be at the core of the organization by creating an environment that encourages showing gratitude to your team mates, eradicating negativity, exercising flexible work hours, team building exercises and open workspaces. A positive environment encourages commitment to excellence, open and honest communication, respect, compassion and empowerment. It also increases self-motivation, innovation and creative thinking which enable the organization to expand business, optimize quality and increase profitability.
According to a TLNT[A1] , 80 percent of workers agree that having the opportunity to learn new skills at work makes them more interested and engaged in their job. At the end of the day, supporting and uplifting others can spurt your personal growth.
Creative and critical thinking
To just do what you’re told at work is not always the right approach. As an employee, it is a must to interrogate instructions and processes. Life is all about maintaining a healthy balance. Instead of taking the logical route, evaluate the information available. As much as a logical quotient is important, allowing your critical thinking ability and letting your creative juices flow can help you improve processes, innovate in your field and spot pain points.
Using critical thinking while problem solving is an effective way to learn and progress. When your manager presents you with a particular problem and you immediately start looking for solutions. Ideally, you should take a step back and analyse the situation by researching and reviewing information. Interviewing the parties involved and coming up with more than one solution for the stated problem before coming to a conclusion is the way forward. This involves problem solving with critical thinking skills.
Celebrate and Share your Successes
A common reason most employees leave their jobs is that they do not feel appreciated. Whether it’s your first day at work, or you’ve been around for a while, you’re not expected to be perfect. Instead, look at yourself as ‘work-in-progress’.
Thus, even if you achieve a small milestone, learn to celebrate it. A “pat” of appreciation from yourself will push you to do better and motivate you.Since a simple reward is fulfilling, rewarding and motivating, celebrating and sharing your success with teammates will only electrify your performance and encourage further growth.
Importance of Soft Skills
Soft skills are a broad term for an amalgamation of social skills, communication skills, people skills and personality traits. In today’s workplace, it’s all about ‘survival of the fittest’. Working on each of these skills will help you interact better with your colleagues and maintain an overall happier vibe at your workplace.
If you thought a job is all about ‘all work and no play’, you’re mistaken. Although business at work is important, getting a good hold on your soft skills will help you get through complex tasks with ease.
Soft skills are incredibly essential to organisations across industries. In today’s constantly changing world, organizations need people who can adapt to new situations, apply their thinking and skills to evolve and develop new skills when the environment around them is constantly changing. If you are looking to establish workplace well-being, it is important to develop and practice good soft skills that will influence the way you work, your interpersonal relationships, and your overall success. No matter where you’re at in your career, you need soft skills to complete your everyday tasks effectively. They’re also extremely vital for promotions and career growth.