Article by Ranit Chowdhury (Prepared Angela Kosta)
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THE AGE OF SOFT SKILLS
“Your ability to navigate the world of soft skills is what transforms potential into reality.”
Soft skills refer to the personal qualities and social abilities that define an individual’s capacity for productive communication with others. Technical skills can help us to get a job but the grip of soft skills ultimately leads us to climb the ladder of success. Due to increasing competition in the job market, the knowledge of soft skills has become mandatory.
Even if having good knowledge of a subject matter is not enough, the command of soft skills is of utmost value. Due to technical advancement and recession in the modern workplace many people are losing their jobs. If a person has good insight of soft skills it may help them from termination also to succeed in startup too.
Moreover today’s lifestyle is very complex, we all go through personal and professional turmoil, our grasp in soft skills will teach us how to deal with these issues so that it won’t hamper our professional and personal life too.
Our education system mainly focuses on hard skills as a result there is a gap in soft skills. Soft skills cannot be spoon fed, they need to be developed by rigorous training from time to time which needs to be started from school level only. So that when a candidate faces the real world don’t get jumbled up.
Some of the important soft skills are:
1. Professionalism
2. Problem Solving
3. Abilities
4. Flexibility
5. Teamwork
6. Communication skills.
During an interview we get very less time to express our potential , within a few seconds we need to show our hard and soft skills so that the company gets the confidence to hire us and later our knowledge of soft skills only help us to stick to the job and march forward.
Today’s Gen Z is tech savvy, their communication style is concise, informal mainly in text format. Due to the increasing number of concrete walls today’s Gen Z are basically confined at home only, as a result somewhere it also causes hindrance in their communication skills.
The Covid pandemic has brought the whole world into virtual platforms which are still followed by many countries. Now it becomes quite difficult to present ourselves or to convince someone virtually. In this situation the knowledge of soft skills plays an important role.
It is also important to state that soft skills have existed for years in various forms.
The Book of proverbs in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible (10th to the 4th century BC) enlightens us on the concept of importance of soft skills. Our holy books always uplift us with wisdom. The wise sayings of our holy books can be juxtaposed in the modern era of what we refer to as soft skills.
Here are the few examples:
Proverb 29.20 Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for Him.
(This proverb reflects the idea that one must speak with precision and clarity so that others can comprehend it well.)
Proverb 18.3 He who answers before listening-that is his folly and his shame.
(This refers to listening skills, one needs to listen with full attention otherwise the conversation become vague)
Proverb 24.10 if you falter at times of trouble, how small is your strength.
(This gives us a mirror of how important leadership qualities are, especially in the time of crisis).
In addition to the Holy Bible, The Ancient Egyptians wrote-
Be skilled in speech so that you will succeed. The tongue of a man is his sword and effective.
Speech is stronger than all fighting.
Employers are beginning to understand the crucial relevance of soft skills. As a result the job opportunities as soft skill trainers is also increasing.
“In the end it’s not just about what you know, but how you connect and interact with others that defines your success.”
Biography
Mr.Ranit Chowdhury is an Indian native. By profession, he is an Assistant Manager Training and Development, working in Assam down town University, Guwahati, Assam. He is empowered with almost 10 years’ experience in the field of soft skills training. In his spare time he loves to read books and write articles.
Prepared Angela Kosta Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator...
