I have long had the expectation to write about the so-called "soft skills" and their influence on our personal aggrandizement. The dynamic of life so pressing that we face requires us to worry about this matter in order to achieve a better integration in our work, family and friends environment.
Soft skills are those attributes that allow you to act effectively. A combination of skills converge to have a good relationship; that is, knowing how to listen, dialogue, communicate, lead, stimulate, delegate, analyze, judge, negotiate and reach agreements. They encompass a set of transversal skills and include critical thinking, ethics and the ability to adapt to change. However, let's avoid confusing them with “hard skills”. The latter refer to the formal and technical requirements necessary to effectively operate a predetermined activity.
It is important to state that, depending on the professional tasks that each one fulfills, the importance of having these practices will be defined. For example, those who work in dealing with the public or demand for broad interaction with entities, departments, suppliers and the like. Although its existence will facilitate a better interpersonal analogy whatever the setting, hierarchy or level of responsibility.
" The effective combination of hard skills and soft skills, we will be able to solve certain critical social situations or the ability to solve problems and achieve success in managerial management in the workplace, even social and family. Recognizing the importance of soft skills, we can refer to 'life skills'. They cannot stop being integrated ”, affirms Edgar Eslava Arnao, doctor in organizational psychology.
Usually, the professional is doomed to their improvement and updating in matters of their specialty and neglects the implications of soft skills in their task. The same happens between spouses, friends or related. Discontented confrontation or the absence of emotional self-control mechanisms are assumed as usual.
From my point of view, we have come to accept intolerance, lack of empathy, lack of teamwork, mistreatment of others, affective limitations and inability to overcome frustration, without considering its serious damage to social coexistence. Let us bear in mind that the "feverish" reaction, so common in our environment, unambiguously shows a deterioration in empathy, understanding and the birth of authoritarian behaviors that are harmful to social understanding.
There are countless competent men and women who “lose their temper” in an argument, never slip up, exhibit self-righteous attitudes in the face of criticism, use prejudiced arguments to reject corporate policies, reveal little condescension about the inner world of others, and they exhibit defensive gestures. It is still believed that lacking soft skills will not affect individual prosperity. What a frequent mistake.
Giving a subject these skills, I reiterate, without differentiating their status in the organization chart of the company, will enable their occupation to contribute to a better work atmosphere and more efficient productivity. In addition, optimal treatment with the internal and external audience of the company.
However, I find in executives -of public and private entities- a reluctance to address these details. I recommend avoiding omitting the influence of your behavior on your subordinates. Bosses with high levels of tolerance, empathy and self-esteem will know how to face challenges, problems and vicissitudes with assertiveness. They will be able to strengthen their leadership, their persuasiveness and the involvement of their collaborators in the projects under their charge.
I observe its lack in higher education students who aspire to enter commercial aviation, hospitality or as management assistants. Activities that demand a visible and permanent disposition of interaction, sociability, affability and handling of emotions. Daily reality gives me elements to assert that there is a profound inconsistency in the soft skills of future professionals.
We must consider how the job selection processes include these components that a few decades ago were unrelated to the design of the profile required by companies. Therefore, enormous frustrations are produced in the applicant when noting his inconsistency between his degree of training in hard skills and his weaknesses in soft skills.
A few days ago, when reflecting with my students about the extremely high climate of general confrontation in our society, I commented on the set of factors that influence our lives more tense, exhausting and stuffed with new human conflicts. This reality should encourage us to develop soft skills and, in this way, display the tools that inspire a healthy collective coexistence.
