Soft Skills in Business

By Danielle Birchard 

When I am interviewing someone, I am generally testing them for their knowledge and a certain set of skills, specifically a hard set of skills. Things that will relate to their future job. Their skill with numbers, programs, and software that they have used before, their writing ability, computer literacy, experience in data analysis; these are all tasks that we are looking for when hiring someone into a position. But another thing that I look for are soft skills. Sometimes soft skills can be overlooked business, but they are very important when within a company can't helping it run smoother.

Just a few examples of soft skills would include teamwork, communication, critical thinking, organization, creativity, and decision making. Skills like this take time to develop. You can learn about these skills in the classroom, but until you experience conflict in a variety of settings, it is hard to grow these skills. When I'm interviewing someone, I always observe their communication habits, how they describe past differences with coworkers and bosses, how they dealt with difficult situations or environments, how they answer questions that they didn't expect. Not all these skills can be gauged during an interview. Because people often enjoy talking about themselves, when asked insightful questions, interviewees will sometimes go into more depth than expected regarding their thoughts on certain subject matter, as well as their opinions on experiences they have been through. They will give hints at the types of leaders and problem solvers that they will be. Do they talk about collaboration, working with management, prioritizing, negotiation, or motivation? 

Sometimes these skills are overlooked when it comes to hiring. Recruiters simply want to get someone to fill the job, someone that has a certain skill set and can perform a certain job. But if that person doesn't have the required soft skills for a position, they arrive to the job and cause tension between team members uh not adequately communicate their thoughts and ideas, and potentially hurt the team rather than assisted. 

There is always a place for hard skills, we live in a world where certain types of hard skills are highly valued. But soft skills always need to be evaluated and improved upon. The next time you are interviewing or being interviewed, think ahead about how you will portray yourself using your soft skills.