what are the soft skills ?

  • Soft Skills are the non-technical skills, abilities, traits that workers need to function in a specific employment environment.
  • In General, Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes, and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others. Technical knowledge of any subject is considered a hard skill. Soft skills are also called corporate skills.
  • Soft skills are related to insights, emotions, feelings, gut-instinct, and (some would say) inner knowing. Because of this, they are not taught passively as in the way of "hard skills". Hence soft skills are associated with EQ (Emotional Quotient) and EI (Emotional Intelligence) rather than with IQ.
  • Soft skills are identified to be the most critical skills in the current global job market especially in a fast moved era of technology.

They include four sets of workplace competencies:

  1. Personal Qualities and Work Ethics
  2. Problem- Solving and Decision making skills
  3. Oral Communication Skills
  4. Impersonal and EQ skills

Soft skills are very important as they help:

  • To handle interpersonal relations
  • To take appropriate decisions
  • To communicate effectively
  • To have a good impression and impact to gain professional development.

Types of Soft Skills

There are seven categories of soft skills which are,
  1. Communicative skills.
  2. Thinking skills and Problem-solving skills.
  3. Team workforce
  4. Life-long learning and Information Management
  5. Entrepreneur skill
  6. Ethics, moral and professionalism
  7. Leadership skills
Communicative Skills: Ability to deliver idea clearly, effectively, and with confidence either orally or in writing

Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to identify and analyze problems in difficult situations and make justifiable evaluations.

Team Work: Ability to understand and play the role of a leader and follower alternatively.

Life-Long Learning & Information Management Skill: Ability to find and manage relevant information from various sources.

Entrepreneurship skill: Ability to identify job opportunities

Ethics, Moral & Professional: Ability to understand the economic crisis, environment, and social-cultural aspects professionally.

Leadership skill: Knowledge of the basic theories of leadership