[show-team ids=’17538′ url=’active_new’ layout=’grid’ style=’img-square,img-white-border,text-left,img-left,normal-float,card-theme’ display=’photo,freehtml,location,name’]
Today, academic knowledge and technical skills are no longer sufficient to integrate and evolve into the labor market. Globalization, the acceleration of technological developments, the permanent emergence of innovative activities and models involve the mastery of new skills, essentially relational skills: Soft Skills. Decoding by Alexis Desouches.
How can we define Soft Skills?
These are personal qualities, oriented towards human interactions, corresponding more to a state of being rather than technical know-how. Complementary to traditional “Hard Skills”, Soft Skills operate at several levels: cognitive (concentration, resilience, perception and mastery of thoughts, emotions, stress management, self-confidence, curiosity, capacity for innovation and creativity), relational (leadership, team spirit, collaboration, caring, attentive listening, non-violent communication, collective emotional intelligence), operational (organization, time management, objectivity, public speaking, adaptability, persuasiveness and initiative), and transversal (ability to work in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams).
These are skills related to our personality, of which we are often unaware, and which, once identified, can be stimulated, cultivated and developed in remarkable proportions.
How is mastery of these competencies professionally useful?
“Soft Skills” are today key competencies in the labor market, and more specifically in the digital world, where companies expect their employees to be immediately operational and able to work as a team, efficiently and agilely. Soft Skills support integration, professional development and international mobility. Recent studies (*) confirm, moreover, that the primary criterion for company selection lies in the candidates’ interpersonal skills and personality, before their professional experience. This know-how also influences the level of remuneration for young graduates according to these studies.
How can we develop and enhance our Soft Skills?
This presupposes, first of all, that we are in a state of concentration, presence, attention and openness sufficient to connect with the mental and physical resources that sleep within each of us and that only require training, like a muscle. From this point of view, practices such as Mindfulness or Positive Visualization (which involves using one’s imagination to achieve one’s goals) are particularly effective in identifying and developing “Soft Skills”. Being enterprising, thinking differently, being curious, engaging in associative projects, defending causes close to our hearts, combining forces with others, and overcoming linguistic, cultural and geographical barriers are all opportunities to develop these skills. Concerning the valuation of Soft Skills, I recommend getting into the habit of highlighting extra-professional or parallel activities on a CV, linking them with the specific relational skills they allowed the candidate to cultivate or discover. The idea is to decompartmentalize approaches to complete and give credibility to the educational and professional path of the interested parties.
In my opinion, the next revolution, which is already underway, will not be industrial or technological, but cognitive and behavioral. This makes learning Soft Skills particularly relevant. It is urgent that these skills are systematically taught from an early age.
Alexis Desouches is a lawyer, mediator, and founder of the consulting firm KAMILEX, specializing in the development of innovative companies and their human capital, and the teaching of Mindfulness and Soft Skills.
Studies cited:
http://www.cereq.fr/publications/Net.Doc/L-effet-des-soft-skills-sur-la-remuneration-des-diplomes
Interview by BusinessOFéminin: http://bit.ly/29yiuSJ
