Essential Soft Skills for Workplace Success

Abstract

Employers assess and judge their employees on their knowledge of both technical skills and soft skills. Until the recent past, technical skills were given top priority. However, that perception has changed over time. The knowledge of soft skills is now being considered as important as or more important than technical knowledge. Professional success depends upon a host of parameters such as experience, expertise, skill level, personality traits, work style, communication style, and work-life balance. Soft skills have also become a key parameter of professional success. This paper looks at the factors that have contributed to the acknowledgment of the significance of the soft skills at workplace and also presents the ways in which the knowledge of the soft skills could be enriched to go up the career ladder. It proposes a list of key soft skills such as self-awareness, emotional intelligence, team work, cross-cultural communication and personal accountability, which are expected to be the game changers. It is hoped that the employees’ knowledge about essential soft skills would enable them to become productive and mindful professionals at their workplaces. It is also implied that employees view soft skills as valuable assets rather than extraneous matters in their professional success. The insights presented in the paper, if deployed diligently, could augur well for career growth and enable the employees to remain relevant even if the job and technology scenario keep changing.