Soft Skills for a Soft Life

By Ekundayo Odele

Alpha and Beta were in the same class in university. Alpha graduated with a second-class degree and Beta graduated with a first class. 10 years later, they ran into each other and whilst Alpha’s career is accelerating rapidly and he is living the ‘soft’ life, Beta has been unable to gain employment in any of the top employing organisations.

The difference? Life skills. Underdeveloped life skills will hold you back from reaching your potential. Brilliance is furthered by mastering life skills.

Quote: “Soft skills get little respect but they will make or break your career”……Peggy Klaus, author

Whilst technical skills are important for you to be able to deliver on your job effectively, life or soft skills will differentiate you and significantly improve your chances of living a high-quality life.

The good news is that these skills can be learned and developed, with a guarantee of improvement and success upon consistent practice. Essentially, you will succeed if you take ownership of building your capacity.

What are life skills? Life skills are skills that are necessary to have for you to engage in successful professional and personal relationships. Life skills allow you have good interpersonal relationships, adapt through change, solve problems and be an active participant in your own life, making good decisions that benefit you and others.

Having these skills mean you communicate and work well with others in personal and professional settings. Each year, thought leaders and top global organisations tell us which of these life skills are relevant for the future. Whereas there have been pluses and minuses over the last 5 years, the following have been consistent and are essential to your self-development.

1. Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence enables you interpret your emotions and that of others; which in turn leads to you responding or making decisions that minimise stress for others and yourself. Emotional intelligence is evident when you think about your actions and their possible impact on others before you speak or act.
2. Communication skills: We often think of communication as verbal; but communication most powerfully occurs with the non-verbal. A person with excellent communication skills manages their words, body language and para-verbal communication – tone, volume, and inflection. Communication is always a combination of these three elements and being able to manage what we say, how we emote and say it, leads to successful relationships.
3. Adaptability: The world has changed significantly in the last decade and more so in the last three years. For example, today’s leaders must learn to manage remote and diverse teams. On the other hand, employees now need to work efficiently from offsite locations, remaining focused and ensuring productivity. Adaptability, which is cut in the same cloth as flexibility and creativity, allows you to adjust your mindset, seek solutions, and learn new skills to continue to thrive through change.
4. Critical reasoning: Critical reasoning is a disciplined process of gathering, interpreting, conceptualising, and acting on data to solve problems and/or make sound decisions. Critical reasoning enables you to understand the link between ideas, engage in constructive personal or group debate, systematically approach problems and review outcomes.

How to develop life skills

• Self-assess: Ask family and friends and use available online resources to determine which skills you need to develop or improve.
• Get training
• Consistently practice
• Review your growth and keep practicing

The take-aways:

1. Life skills are essential to succeeding in personal and professional relationships
2. Many skills fall within the life skills bucket, you must self-assess to determine where you fall short
3. Life skills are learnable throughout one’s lifetime

Disclaimer: This article encourages all youths to work hard and put in their best effort.