Top Soft Skills to Learn in 2021

About to finalise your 2021 new year’s resolution list but want to challenge yourself to learn one more skill? Want to increase your job prospects but have no idea what skills are most desirable? Why not combine both and upskill yourself in 2021’s most valuable skills? Here’s a list of the top soft skills you may want to learn in the upcoming year!

Public Speaking

Although we often chitchat in our everyday life, public speaking is an entirely different skill set. Especially in the business context, public speaking is incredibly valuable, as it can be utilised in essentially every business department.

There are many things to learn when it comes to public speaking. From engaging speech writing, to charisma and emotional management, public speaking is a highly valued yet difficult skill to master. Although it’s definitely not easy, investing in public speaking will certainly add to your job prospects and increase the options you have available for roles within a business.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient, refers to the ability for a person to manage their emotions, understand and communicate with others as well as overcome conflict in social situations. As cited from LinkedIn’s business reports, having high levels of emotional intelligence will help you build strong and long-lasting relationships in both a personal and business context.

Improving your emotional intelligence involves practising:

Social awareness: how you empathise and pick up on emotional cues in different social settings and dynamics.
Self awareness: recognising your own emotions as well as how they influence your decisions and consequently, your actions.
Self management: controlling any impulsive emotions or actions, and how you adapt to changes in your environment.

Leadership

More common than not, there will be a time when you will need to practise leadership. Whether this is at work or in your social circle, it won’t hurt to learn more about the soft skill and develop your abilities in leadership.

Everyone can be a leader, however not everyone can excel at the soft skill. Particularly in the business space, there is usually quite a large difference between a poor and an exceptional leader. To develop your skills in professional leadership, you will need to learn more about interpersonal communication, morale management, performance monitoring as well as border concepts in human resources.

Teamwork

One of the most essential soft skills in the workforce is the ability to work as part of a team. Chances are, you’ll be working with other people, both directly and indirectly, when working in a professional environment. Hence it is imperative that you know how to perform as part of a team.

In addition to having leadership skills (if required), working as part of a team also includes other soft skills such as:

Social communication: make sure you know how to community concisely with your team members, to avoid any unnecessary conflict and facilitate heath discussion.
Sense of responsibility: when it comes to working as part of a team, most team members will have different duties. Learning to take responsibility for your work as well as support others’ is essential to having good teamwork skills.
Organisation: When working as part of a team, you not only need to take into account your own personal timetable, but also the work and time of others. Knowing how to balance everything out is integral to effective teamwork.

Looking to learn a few soft skills in 2021? Why not invest in relevant training courses from reputable educational institutions. These days, university is not the only option available to you when it comes to upskilling for the workplace.

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