1990: The workplace “soft skills” were more about being dutiful. 

1. Deliver excellent Customer Service
2. Adapt to your workplace
3. Please your manager
4. Learn and know the skills of your job

2023: The workplace “soft skills” will align more with individual and organisational growth.

1. Complex Problem Solving
2. Critical Thinking
3. Emotional Intelligence
4. Creativity
5. People Management
6. Coordinating with others
7. Judgement and Decision Making
8. Service Orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive Flexibility

Since you are planning to become the #NextBigYou. You must plan all the strategies to prepare for the next big decision. You feel confident enough that you can do a great job. Well! It’s not a surprise. It’s easy to think that you need to get the job done since you have all the technical skills. 

But hey! Your competition has the same skillset, experience, and expertise. How will you show yourself different from them? As you already know, the playing field changed after the pandemic. It was a challenging year that forced everyone, including organisations, to think differently. 

Undeniably, the recruiting process for seekers and providers has taken a different route where technical skills are acknowledged but to stand, one will need: soft skills. 

So, without further ado, let’s dive deeper and learn more about the top 3 soft skills you can’t ignore to boost your career growth in 2023. 

Soft Skill #1: Complex Problem Solving

We are in a rapidly evolving work environment. Technology, processes, automation and integrations aren’t what they used to be a decade back. So, problem-solving skills would come to the rescue if one needs to be future-ready. 

Being a problem solver, you will find it easy to be cognitively equipped to handle anything your job throws at you. You can easily observe, judge, and act quickly when and how difficulties arise. You will start looking ahead of the curve and help employers solve problems.  

But besides being helpful in uncertainty, this skill can help you:

• Organise your time intelligently. You will be laser-focused on what’s important for your organisation, resulting in better decision-making or impact.
• Prioritise and execute strategies and meet multiple demands under pressure-laden situations. 
• Think outside the box. This will help you with better outcomes than you anticipate. 
• Will respond to accelerated deadlines and changing project parameters without impacting the outcome’s quality. 
• Address risk and use trends, patterns, and events to prepare for future problems. 

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.~Abraham Maslow.

Soft Skill #2: Creative Thinking

It means finding different outcomes from the same data set, resources, surveys, and available insights. Creative thinkers can closely read, follow, and understand arguments. Ideally, creative thinking allows you to remove any sorts of boundaries already there. 

You continue to search for alternative ways to complete tasks. If you are a creative thinker, you will have the following qualities as a part of your character trait. 

• Brainstorming is your companion. You take time to analyse factors, scenarios, and stories. You can collaborate with others’ ideas and bring something to the table.

• Curiosity comes naturally into the play, and you start looking for patterns. You start seeing more than what meets the normal eye.

• Since you are brainstorming and are curious, questions will become your saviour. You will start looking for answers to the questions no one asked before. 

A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions.~ Brian Tracy

Soft Skill #3: Emotional Intelligence

EQ or Emotional intelligence is the essence of any individual today. And if you consider workplaces, EQ allows you to build better relationships and avoid most friction. In other words, understanding what makes anyone tick will allow you to improve your chances of growing as a professional or a team player. 

But not everyone is born with a high EQ. However, you can develop this strength by understanding core skills or qualities. Here’s a breakdown from our end: You must work on your self-awareness and self-management qualities which will become a part of your personal competence. Further, you must be aware of social equations and relationship management to be socially competent. 

Together, they will allow you to keep your emotions or behaviour in check while allowing you to focus on others’ moods, motives, and communication. In fact, this can help you fast-track your leadership potential. According to research, here’s how having high EQ will help you at work.

• Embracing change would be a lot easier.
• You will have the self-realisation of your strengths and weaknesses. 
• A lot of things will interest you.
• You will express empathy and won’t shy away from showing gratitude.
• You try to find common ground even if someone is difficult.
• You would know how to make boundaries. 
• You see a way to fix your negative thoughts.

Besides that, you will find compelling evidence that having EQ will help you:

• Earn more since high EQ earns more money. It could go as high as $29,000 more. 
• Managers can grow their profit margins.
• Employees are less likely to leave jobs with higher EQ managers.
• More than 70% of hiring managers rank EQ higher than IQ for job seekers.

“What really matters for success, character, happiness and lifelong achievements is a definite set of emotional skills – your EQ — not just purely cognitive abilities measured by conventional IQ tests.” — Daniel Goleman. 

Besides these, you will find many skills that can help you prepare. Thus, helping you boost your career growth. But most of you must be wondering how to build soft skills? This part of the article will help you get started.

Building soft skills: Tips to get started

If you want to develop soft skills, remember that nothing happens overnight. You have to learn and grow while developing these skills. 

1. Begin with finding your top skill. That way, you will know your strengths and weaknesses and use the same to develop other skills necessary for you. Ideally, you must focus on one or two skills and work on them to leverage their benefits to their full potential.

• You must self-reflect on how you learn and operate in your current work environment. This will help you leverage the soft skills and develop them effectively. 

• Look for mentors or courses to gain more insight into learning soft skills. The same will help you step outside your comfort zone. The more you try new things, the more you will have an idea of developing and honing these skills.
• Always get feedback. That way, you will improve your strengths and weaknesses, directly impacting your skills. 

What next? 

Soft skills are an important asset of today’s workforce. If you want to excel in your career and go up the corporate ladder, it’s high time you start developing the skills you don’t have and honing them. 

This article will help you be future-ready and allow you to boost your career in 2023. With less than three months left in 2022, let’s begin the preparation by working on developing soft skills that can help you do your job faster and effectively.  

So, what are you waiting for? Become the Next Big You with the right technical and soft skills. Let’s end 2022 by preparing for what’s in store for you in 2023. 

Are you ready? Let us know in the comments or browse your website for career development by sharing your experiences below.