What are soft skills?

Soft skills are non-technical skills that promote productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in the
workplace. Some soft skills can also be part of your personality or work ethic. These skills are
often transferable across roles and industries and are necessary at every level of the workplace,
from entry-level roles to top-level executives. They are also known as "essential skills" for this
reason–they span all levels and roles, and anyone can develop and improve them. These highly
transferable skills can cover interpersonal, communication, self-management and creative skills

Soft skills examples

Many essential soft skills are valuable in the workplace, and these are 10 of the most impactful
soft skills you can have:
1. Communication skills
Communication is how you express your thoughts, ideas and feelings to others as well as
understand and receive information from those you interact with at work. Speaking and listening
skills cover steps like body language, the ability to use different examples and facts to support
your points or using questioning to evaluate different perspectives. There are four important
types of communication skills that you can use in your everyday work life:

 Speaking, or verbal communication: This involves speaking to anyone you encounter

in the workplace, including people at different levels of an organization. Effective verbal
communication includes interpersonal conversations, speaking over the phone, public
speaking and appropriately interacting with clients and customers, peers and supervisors.
 Nonverbal communication: This type includes being able to understand body language,
maintain proper eye contact, manage your tone of voice and vocabulary and use gestures
to show engagement.
 Written communication: There are many forms of written communication, including
business correspondence, emails, reports, contracts and memos.
 Audio-visual communication: These skills are important when using digital
visualization tools like slideshows and videos while giving presentations or working in
certain industries, such as those involving design.
 Active listening: This communication skill enables you to better focus on what a speaker
is saying, retain more information and confirm with follow-up questions that you
understand their ideas, instructions and/or needs and expectations.
 Digital communication: This can involve many different forms of communication but
includes using video conferencing tools, social media and instant messaging.

2. Teamwork
Teamwork skills allow you to work well with others and include the ability to relate,
communicate and collaborate in reaching goals. This could be through resolving conflicts,
supporting others, or contributing to a group, which are some of the steps in the Universal
Framework. In addition, this soft skill reflects your ability to:
  Support others with their tasks
 Train others on tasks and processes you excel in
 Participate in meetings, contributing to group decision-making
 Take responsibility for completing your part of a project correctly and on time
 Provide constructive feedback to your peers
 Understand and respect everyone's ideas and opinions
This skill is incredibly important for companies since it helps you complete tasks more
efficiently as a team, manage conflict, and build relationships to create an enjoyable working
environment.

Characteristics of effective teamwork

In addition to individual people's willingness to work as a team, good leadership and

management can also inspire good teamwork. There are several characteristics shared by groups
with good teamwork skills. These include:
Good communication between team members
Strong communication skills are important in many workplace scenarios, and they are directly
related to how well one can work in a team environment. Being able to communicate maturely
and respectfully can help build relationships between team members.
Clear and effective communication is also vital for team leaders to adequately convey to team
members what their roles and responsibilities include, while also communicating deadlines and
milestones effectively. A lack of clear communication can cause confusion and disjointed
teamwork, which prevents progress towards team objectives.
Mutual respect for others
A respectful environment fosters goodwill and cooperation between people working together as a team.
Some teams comprise people with different abilities and skill sets. A team that can understand and respect
their personal differences provides the best possible environment for people to thrive and use their unique
skills to benefit the team. Teams that accept others easily and treat one another respectfully and fairly
help encourage positive and open communication.

Co-operation and conflict resolution between team members

Conflicts and disagreements can still happen, even in the most supportive and collaborative
team. When they do happen, a successful team can diffuse the tensions by addressing the
problems head-on and finding a mutually agreeable solution. This might involve openly
discussing problems and finding diplomatic approaches, such as a voting system, to decide
between competing solutions.
Encouraging equal participation
A good team understands the skills that each team member brings and recognizes how best to
utilize these skills to work towards the team's ultimate goal. This works best when all team
members take responsibility for inclusion and work closely together. In the best-case scenario,
the team wants to encourage and support individuals to involve themselves in the ongoing work
and play to their strengths. Strong leadership is also important to inspire this in a team
Mutual support and positive attitudes
A team that supports each other, with team members wanting each other to succeed and do well,
is likely to be more successful than one in which team members are excessively competitive or
passive-aggressive. Good teamwork means that personal interactions between members are free
from micro-aggressions, discrimination and other unpleasant speech that might make colleagues
feel uncomfortable or upset. It's important for team members to handle disagreements calmly and
respectfully.

Problem-solving
Problem-solving involves thinking innovatively to find several solutions to an obstacle. With
problem-solving skills, you can identify an issue, research possible solutions, use logical trial
and error and establish ways to prevent the issue from happening again. Some elements defined
in the Universal Framework include:

 Creating different possible solutions

 Asking the right questions to find information
 Evaluating the effects of a possible solution
Like many other soft skills, experience and knowledge can improve your efficiency and
effectiveness. Companies will often have complex problems that arise, like deciding on the cost
of a service, how to structure a team, how to engage with more customers or the best way to
create a product. Individuals with problem-solving skills will be able to work creatively to think
of and evaluate a range of possible solutions.
Positive attitude
Staying positive means being optimistic and cheerful at work, no matter the task. People with a
positive attitude are more eager to work, demonstrate self-motivation and can interact well with
others. They also look for opportunities in challenging situations and can support others to
maintain a positive attitude. Businesses work hard to keep resilient and motivated employees, as
they can help to improve morale for an entire team or company and shape company culture and
values, too.
Creativity
Creativity complements problem-solving and is about coming up with ideas or innovations that
can then be honed through the problem-solving process. You can use creativity for many
different situations at work, including:

 In certain industries, like design, marketing and engineering

 When finding solutions or testing hypotheses
 To brainstorm with colleagues, supporting them to also innovate
Typically, creativity is used with a variety of other soft skills, including teamwork,
communication and problem-solving. It can also be used with hard skills as well, such as using
specific software in design or referring to technical knowledge like mechanics or health science.
All companies and roles within them need to come up with or explore new ideas, which makes it
so valuable to employers.

Adaptability
Adaptability is the ability to change your way of thinking and acting to accommodate a new
situation. You might use adaptability to change the way you communicate with clients than the
way you communicate with a team member. You may be adaptable when your organization
institutes a policy change, and you must adhere to new rules or procedures to be effective. You
can even be adaptable by learning new skills, like essential skills, or pursuing more education or
training or just keeping up-to-date on the trends in your industry. Employers value this skill
because it shows that you are dedicated to always improving.
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution involves being able to respectfully and effectively solve a problem between
two or more parties who have different solutions, and this skill includes aspects of teamwork and
leadership. This skill can include:

 Mediating between two or more parties to help them reach a compromise

 Help clarify confusion or differences in opinions and communication styles by
recognizing how people feel or where their perspectives might come from
 Researching each side's arguments
 Knowing when to ask senior team leaders for assistance with conflict resolution
 Promoting collaboration and respect during and after mediation
Conflict resolution helps employees better understand each other, develop mutual respect and
enlighten one another about their expectations and needs. Being able to effectively work through
conflicts can strengthen your team's relationships and productivity..

Assignment Title Responsibility group

 Definition of Soft skills Group 1
 Communication skills
 Define Teamwork, structure & advantage Group 2
 Problem solving
 Definition of Soft skills Group 3
 Positive attitude
 Creativity
 Definition of Soft skills Group 4
 Adaptability
 Conflict resolution