Top 6 Soft Skills for the Workplace

Hi, welcome again to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is primarily for business people. It's business English. However, everybody has something to gain by listening and watching this video because what I'm going to talk about is very, very important whether you're working already or you're going to be looking for a job in the future because the world is changing, okay, and there are certain things that you need to understand in order to enter the modern workplace, okay, and the modern workplace cares more about soft skills these days than they do or than it does about hard skills. Now, first of all, let's start with hard skills. What are hard skills? These are the technical skills or the technical qualifications that you must get in order to do a job. So, for example, to be a doctor, you need to go to medical school and get your medical license. To be a lawyer, you need to get your law degree. To be a carpenter or a plumber, you need to know how to use the tools. You need to know how things work in order to work with them. So, those are the hard skills that you go to school, you study, you get a certificate, you get a diploma, you get a degree. However, the soft skills are things that you cannot go to school for. Of course, you can learn them while at school, but there's no certificates for communication. There's no certificate for leadership or critical thinking. These are attributes or traits or characteristics, all three are synonyms, of things that you have as a person. It's part of your personality. Now, this doesn't mean that you can't work on these things, but it's something that you, a lot of people either have or don't have. If you don't have them, figure out a way to get them, okay? Another way to say soft skills is people skills. So, what I'm going to do in this lesson, I'm going to give you the six most important soft skills that you need to work on or make use of in order to get a job, in order to advance in your career, in order to have a healthy relationship with your bosses and coworkers. And again, even in a social situation, this will help you make new friends, make new contacts, etc. So, we're going to do six, but I'm going to do three and three. The most important soft skill that you need to make sure you work on or develop is communication. Now, of course, communication is a two-way street. You have to speak and you have to listen. And if you ask a lot of CEOs, a lot of human resources managers these days, the one or the biggest complaint that they have about the new people entering the workforce is their lack of listening skills. Now, listening is a very important skill. A lot of you don't realize this or you don't think of listening as a skill. You listen, you hear, you do whatever, right? So, the most important thing to do is active listening. And active listening comes in three parts. While someone is speaking to you, or while someone is giving a presentation, or you're in the middle of negotiations, or you're in the middle of an interview, or you're in a class, in any situation, you need to demonstrate active listening. Now, how do you do that? You encourage and reassure. So, when a person is speaking to you and you go, go on, go on. Oh, okay. I get it. I agree. All of these things indicate to the speaker that they have your attention and that they should continue on because you're understanding them. If somebody doesn't understand you and you don't know, then you're speaking for nothing. So, for example, if I start speaking really fast and you don't understand me, then there's no point of me speaking at all, right? Now, I can't see you. You can't give me these cues, and I'll talk about cues in a second. But again, when you're in a face-to-face situation, keep these things in mind. Encourage the speaker, reassure. Reassure basically means make them feel like they're okay, like make them want to continue, as it were. Also, confirm and or reflect. So, to make sure that for them to know that you understand what they're saying, confirm to them. Okay, I get it. I see, right? When you say I see, it means I understand or I get it means I understand or do you mean this? Okay, I get it, right? So, ask questions or say things to make sure that they know that you understand what's going on and reflect. Maybe just repeat what they're saying so they know that you caught it and absorbed it. That's another way to do it. Clarify and paraphrase, right? If you're not sure about something or you're not 100% sure, clarify. Put the same thing that the speaker said into different words with the same meaning to make sure that you're on the same page, that you understand each other. Now, there are also many non-verbal cues. Cues are signals that you're giving the speaker. These are very obvious because you're saying these things, the person can hear these cues. Non-verbal cues means without words, obviously. Non, no verbal words. So, you can nod, shake, move your head up and down, nod. Hand or face gesture, okay, right? So, when I do like this, I get it. Like thumbs up, that's a hand gesture. Nodding is also a facial gesture, but surprised, right? I understood what you're saying, like what you said was interesting. Show them you're interested, show them you're attentive, show them you're whatever the situation is, right? Eye contact. Eye contact is very important. If you can't maintain eye contact with a person speaking to you, they might get offended, they might think they've lost you, you know, you're daydreaming, you're thinking about something else, they might think you're bored, they might think you don't like them, they can think all kinds of things. When you keep eye contact, they know that you're paying attention to them and they can continue speaking. Especially, if you're going to a job interview, if you don't maintain eye contact with the interviewer, your chances of getting that job go down very quickly because it shows a lack of confidence, it shows a lack of interest, etc. Posture. If you're standing like this and somebody's speaking to you, well, you know, I'm probably not very interested, but if I'm standing straight, I'm facing you, I'm showing you that I actually do care what you're saying. Posture, how you're standing, how you're sitting, very important. If you're in a chair and you're like, you know, like leaning over like this, not the best impression. So, again, lots of different things. Now, when you're speaking, make sure that you're aware of your tone, like are you speaking like you're angry or are you speaking very casually or are you speaking very friendly, right? How you speak, very important. Pace. So, if you really want to tell somebody what do you think of them, slow it down, make sure that they understand each word and that way they can follow you. Now, the most important thing about active listening is do not interrupt. Now, I saved this to put specifically and in red because this is the most important aspect of active listening. If you continuously cut into the person's speech and they just can't get their ideas out, then you're not actually listening. You want to hear your own voice, not the speaker's voice, and then that speaker will just lose interest and stop speaking, basically. So, communication, most important. Next, critical thinking. Now, critical thinking is probably the hardest thing to develop because, in my opinion, this takes like a lifetime to develop. Now, what does that mean? Especially in terms of business, in terms of like a person who wants to hire you for a job, they want to know that you have critical thinking. They want to know that you can analyze the information you have or analyze a situation and then make an informed decision based on that analysis. They want you to not just jump into a conclusion or a decision without knowing everything and without thinking what else might be there that wasn't included. What could happen later? What might this... How might this person react? That's all part of critical thinking. And some of the main features of critical thinking is creativity, okay? So, a lot of you who think that art classes are a waste of time, they're really not. Art is what gives you creativity. Creativity is what leads to critical thinking. Flexibility. Don't think that there's only one way to do it. There's always another way and another way and another way. Be flexible. Be open to other ideas. Be willing to try new things, okay? Very important. Curiosity. If you think that everything that you know is enough, it's not. You should always want to learn more. Learning more gives you creativity and flexibility and leads to make better analyses, okay? And out-of-the-box thinking. This is the most important aspect of critical thinking. Out-of-the-box thinking means don't think only what's in front of you. Always try to add new information, new situations, new possibilities, and then integrate all of these things into your decision-making process. Now again, I'm just giving you examples. There's a lot of more things I can say about critical thinking, a lot more I can say about active listening, but these are the keys, the key features you need to think about. Leadership. These days, people want leaders. Now, it doesn't mean that you're going to become a manager, okay? Even if you're not applying for a management position, leadership skills are very important. Why? Because there's always going to be conflict, okay? Conflict means like arguments or fights or disagreements between co-workers, between senior staff and junior staff, etc. So, conflict management requires leadership. Conflict resolution, so solving a problem, okay, between people especially. So, if you can show leadership, if you get into an argument with a co-worker, if you have leadership skills, then you will be able to find a way to fix that problem, to settle that argument without, you know, losing productivity at the workplace. You need to know how to delegate. This is a very, very important verb that everybody needs to know because this might come up in interviews, in job interviews. To delegate, so for example, you have to do 10 tasks. They have to be finished by the end of the week. You only have time. If you did everything, you only have time to do six of them. So, you have to give other people small tasks to help you complete all the big 10 tasks. So, to delegate means to pass on work to other people, and a lot of people, you know, they're afraid to do it or they're shy about it or they just... Oh, Bill, can you do this for me? No. Oh, okay, sorry. If I'm a leader, I will convince Bill to do the thing I ask him to do. Decision-making. You have to be firm. You have to be confident. You have to be quick. That's part of leadership. You have to inspire your team members. You have to inspire the people under you or motivate people around you, beneath you, above you, etc. So, these are the three main ones. Let's look at three more. Okay, so now we got three more, but before I get into them, I remembered one more thing, and this is very specific to the Indian viewers out there. Those of you from India, I was mentioning before about the facial expressions and body gestures, etc. Be very careful when you come to maybe like North American or Western countries because I remember when I went to India, I had a bit of a hard time at the beginning of my travels there because Indians, when they say... When they want to say yes, they shake their head like this or like this, which to a Canadian, this means no, but to Indians, it means yes. So, very many times, there was a little bit of a misunderstanding and confusion because I would ask something and the person would say yes, and I would think, well, why not? And they say, yes, okay, and yes. And I was very, very confused. So, keep that in mind. All of these things make a big difference in how you communicate with people. But with that in mind, their Indian attitude was superb, very positive people, very friendly people, and that's what attitude is all about. It's about basically how do you feel about life? How do you feel about work? How do you feel about your co-workers? How do you feel about your job in general, right? This is what attitude is. It's very important to have a positive attitude. If you come to work every day like, oh, I hate being here. Oh, this is so hard. My life sucks. Nobody will want to work with you. You have to be happy and energetic and want to be there every day and you want to meet your co-workers, you want to get the job done, etc. You have to be very confident in yourself. Stand up straight, walk straight, talk straight, do what needs to be done. Very, very important. Always have, always keep your sense of humor. Be able to laugh at yourself, be able to laugh at situations. Don't get angry. Laugh about it. If somebody says a joke, laugh. If somebody says something rude, well, I mean, don't necessarily laugh. Some things you shouldn't laugh about, but keep your sense of humor. Don't get angry. Don't get upset. Life goes on. Tomorrow is a new day. That's part of attitude. Always be courteous. Be polite. If somebody needs to use the copier before you, let them. You can wait a second. It's not going to change your life. Everybody has to help everybody else. Again, be friendly, be energetic, be patient. Nothing will happen if you get something done 10 minutes later. The world will not blow up. Wait slowly. Everything will be done. Everything will be okay. At the end of the week, you go home and enjoy your weekend. The world will not explode if you don't finish this task in the next five minutes. Be honest. Always be honest. When you start lying to people, when you start cheating, they don't want to work with you, you may lose your job. Okay? Very important. Next, teamwork. It's very rare that you will have a job that doesn't involve other people. I mean, some people obviously are sitting in front of their computer working alone all day and that's fine. But if you're working in a company, in an office, you're working with a team. Make sure you know how to get along with your teammates, with your co-workers. Always be open to feedback. If somebody wants to tell you you're doing something wrong or you could do something better, listen. Don't just automatically get angry and attack. If somebody gives you constructive feedback, constructive means that it's meant to help you, listen, absorb the information, apply what you want, disregard what you don't want. But don't get angry at people who are trying to help you. Be self-aware. Okay? If you're doing something that irritates your co-workers, stop doing it. Okay? If you're doing, if you're dressed in a certain way, if you're, like, maybe your hygiene is a certain way, all of these things, just make sure you're aware of who and what you are and how it affects other people. And have empathy. Always think of other people's feelings. You don't have to, like, if somebody is crying, you don't necessarily have to go fix everything for this person. Just say, sorry, are you okay? And stuff like that. Like, to show a little bit of caring, it will go a long way to create a friendly team environment. Always be ready to collaborate. Always be ready to help somebody, work together with somebody on a shared goal. And be social. Don't be sitting in your little corner all day by yourself, not wanting to talk to everybody. Be friendly, be social. If people go out for a drink or a meal after work, join them. You don't have to go every day. Once in a while, so they like you. Okay? Show them who you are as a person. Lastly, work ethic. Now, a lot of you might know the word ethics, basically how to basically be good and not bad. Okay? This is not what work ethic means. Work ethic is basically how well or not well you work. Some people just like to work. They work very hard. Some people are lazy. Okay? So, don't be lazy. Think about your work ethic, because that's what people are looking for. That's what managers and hiring directors are looking for in employees, in prospective employees. So, a good work ethic is somebody who is competitive. It's not a bad thing to be competitive. Being too competitive can be bad, but competitive means you care. It means you want more. So, that's a good thing. Be driven. You want the advancement. You want the promotion. You want to expand your career horizon, as they say. Be persistent. If you try something and it doesn't work, try again. Doesn't work again, try again. Don't give up easily on anything that you want to do. Have a thick skin. Sometimes you will fail. Some people, when they fail, they, you know, they go into like a little shell, and they're too afraid to try anything else. Having a thick skin. If somebody says something negative about you, don't let it bother you. If you try to do something and you fail, don't let it bother you. Be persistent. Keep trying. Keep trying. And again, basically thick skin is when you're talking about like comments. It doesn't have to be only comments. It doesn't, it's not only if somebody says something bad. If somebody does something bad. Just understand that, you know, don't take life personally, basically, is what this means. It's not, nobody's trying to hurt you. The universe is not out to get you. And be results-oriented. A person who is results-oriented is a person who does something because they have a goal in mind, and they want to reach that goal. They want to get a certain result, and they'll do the work necessary to get that result. Okay? So, there you have it. Six soft skills, the most important soft skills, and the attributes or traits, or at least some of them, for each one. A lot of vocab here. A lot of good information. Keep this stuff in mind, especially when you're going to apply for a job, or apply for an advancement or promotion, etc. Now, if you have any questions about any of this, you can go to www.engvid.com and ask me in the comment section. There's also a quiz to help you practice some of this new vocabulary. And that's it. If you like the video, give me a thumbs up, give me a like on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel, and come back for more helpful business English lessons. See you soon. Bye.