Soft Skills: Essential Tools for Navigating Tough Realities
Productivity
Organizations are facing a challenging reality, perhaps like never before
The array of simultaneous pressures spans from a rapidly changing landscape to immense disruptions in the workplace, coupled with regulatory pressures, increasingly demanding consumers, socially aware employees, geopolitical complexities, and numerous other factors.
Unlike historical trends, organizations today don’t merely seek leaders with solid technical knowledge in their specific field or proven experience in their market. Instead, the focus shifts towards other realms of expertise, and the so-called soft skills gain ground: they determine how we connect with others, behave in our daily lives, and with what strength we manage our emotions.
The list is extensive and intricate, but some of the most recognized (and undoubtedly useful) soft skills are communication, fostering collaboration and teamwork, embracing error as part of the learning process, creativity in navigating unexpected situations, and the ability to negotiate with clients or within their own team.
All these factors make a difference in an era characterized by remote work, where leaders must build trust, engage in active listening, and foster employee commitment, often meeting them in person very rarely or sometimes not at all.
An empathetic leader, capable of instilling trust through honesty and vulnerability, adaptable to understand each individual’s particular needs, and possessing emotional intelligence to address unforeseen challenges when things get tough, can motivate, persuade, foster resilience, and ultimately build a strong team even from a distance.
Today, individuals are more inclined to work in organizations that share principles and values allowing them to align their personal goals harmoniously with their professional obligations.
While these soft skills have an innate component, they can all be developed, enhanced, and strengthened. Future leaders must not underestimate them in their training plans. Quite the opposite, they should prioritize them. Achieving this also involves seeking tools that facilitate the enhancement and transmission of these skills in the daily work routine.
Workdeck stands out as a crucial ally in achieving this: from tools simplifying communication to specific metrics alerting potential issues with team members (such as repeated absences or significant drops in productivity, to name just a couple of examples).
Today’s times speak for themselves: the professional world needs leaders who prioritize soft skills in their working methods.
