Irrespective of if you’re are a fresh graduate trying to figure out how to get a leg up in your career, or you’re a mid-career professional looking to secure your next promotion, you may be wondering what are the most important skills required to help you get where you want to go. While it’s, of course, important to build your industry-specific hard skills, what’s just as vital to your success are your soft skills.
Soft skills are basically how you function in the workplace and interact with others. And while they’re not easily transferable or measured, they are critical skills that we all need to have. Additionally, in our more globalized, rapid-changing work environment, there is now a premium on the kinds of soft skills that allow you to keep pace with the future of work. So, if you’re looking to speed up your career, here are the 9 soft skills that you need to succeed.
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9 Top Skills to set you apart
Below are 8 Skills to Set You Apart in the Remote Work Environment;
Learnability
We’ll begin with learnability because it is arguably the most valuable 21st-century skill you will need to succeed mostly if you’re going to be working remotely. Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” That’s because, in an environment where new skills fade as fast as others emerge, success is less dependent on what you already know and more dependent on adapting your skills by growing and expanding your knowledge base, so you can use new information and skills to respond to the ever rapidly changing global market problems.
Resilience
Setbacks and failures are a part of our everyday work life either as a traditional or remote workers, but how you choose to deal with those situations is what is critical to your success. Resilience refers to the ability to bounce back in the face of obstacles and failures. Someone who is resilient doesn’t focus on the ups and downs. Instead, they stay focused on their long-term goals, and you never lose confidence in their ability to prevail. By helping them face challenges and difficulties, resilience also equips them with the necessary tools to handle stress in a more positive manner.
Agility
As the work landscape shifts, learning to be agile is a critical skill, as we’ve implied earlier yesterday’s solutions do not solve tomorrow’s problems. At the heart of being agile is the ability to shift gears when the context calls for it and responding accordingly to the needs of your workplace, clients or industry trends. As a remote worker, this is very vital as working remotely comes with its own special kind of challenges.
Creativity
Creativity is a vital skill we all need because, in our fast-changing world of business, employers value employees who can envision beyond the present and imagine future possibilities for their company. Creative workers are the ones who tend to ask why. They ask questions, always curious, and in so doing, they develop new ideas and solutions. As a remote worker, been creative would come in clutch for you as you’d be able to creatively tackle issues that arise during the process of carrying out your duties without unnecessarily escalating them, thereby reducing the general workload of your supervisors.
Problem-solving
How frequently do you go beyond your immediate job role as assigned and instead, use more knowledge, facts, and data to see gaps and solve problems? Being a great problem solver is essential in any industry and position because employers value people who can work through challenges on their own or as an effective member of a team by defining the issues, brainstorming alternatives, sharing thoughts, and then making sound decisions. So as a remote worker, you’d be faced with multiple issues that’d arise while carrying out your duties and you’re expected to tackle these issues creatively this makes problem-solving a very vital skill to possess for remote work.
Verbal communication
Some positions as a remote worker would require you to be in constant communication with clients and to successfully function in that job role you’d need to be highly proficient in communicating verbally. Also, there’s a good chance that at some point while discharging your duties you’ll have to use strong verbal communication skills so you can sell others your ideas, products, or services. Whether you’re needing to sell yourself when you are being considered for a promotion, presenting as part of a team project, speaking to a client via telephone or speaking on stage, you need to be able to communicate well and convey strong, persuasive ideas.
Written communication
We are fortunate to be living in the era of tweets and sound bites, but great written communication skills matter when it comes to your career. Whether you are sending professional emails, writing a report, communicating with a client, trying to deliver a concise business plan, or anything in between, you must be able to communicate quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
Empathy
The ability to empathize with others, or see things from their perspective by understanding their emotions and reactions is very important as a remote worker because it is a fundamental part of how we interact with one another. Communicating genuinely and authentically with others is vital because even in instances when you disagree with clients on the functionality of a product or even a service, having empathy enables you to demonstrate to them that they are seen and heard.
Technology
Technology is changing at a blistering pace, so even beyond the technical skills you need to master for your job, keeping up with technological advancements is essential because of the tools that help you manage your career, differentiate yourself in the market, brand yourself, and build the critical relationships that you need to be successful.
Regardless of your chosen career path, either as a traditional or remote worker building your soft skills is critical so you can set yourself apart from others in a competitive landscape.
