Top 6 Soft Skills for the Workplace

Hi. Welcome again to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is primarily for business people;

it's business English. However, everybody has something to gain by listening and watching

this video, because what I'm going to talk about is very, very important whether you're

working already or you're going to be looking for a job in the future, because the world

is changing-okay?-and there are certain things that you need to understand in order to enter

the modern workplace-okay?-and the modern workplace cares more about soft skills these

days than they do or than it does about hard skills.

Now, first of all, let's start with hard skills. What are hard skills? These are the technical

skills or the technical qualifications that you must get in order to do a job. So, for

example, to be a doctor, you need to go to medical school and get your medical license.

To be a lawyer, you need to get your law degree. To be a carpenter or a plumber, you need to

know how to use the tools. You need to know how things work in order to work with them.

So, those are the hard skills that you go to school, you study, you get a certificate,

you get a diploma, you get a degree. However, the soft skills are things that you cannot

go to school for. Of course, you can learn them while at school, but there's no certificates

for communication. There's no certificate for leadership or critical thinking. These

are attributes or traits or characteristics-all three are synonyms-of things that you have

as a person. It's part of your personality. Now, this doesn't mean that you can't work

on these things, but it's something that you... A lot of people either have or don't have.

If you don't have them, figure out a way to get them. Okay?

Another way to say "soft skills" is "people skills". So, what I'm going to do in this

lesson, I'm going to give you the six most important soft skills that you need to work

on or make use of in order to get a job, in order to advance in your career, in order

to have a healthy relationship with your bosses and co-workers. And again, even in a social

situation, this will help you make new friends, make new contacts, etc. So, we're going to

do six, but I'm going to do three and three. The most important soft skill that you need

to make sure you work on or develop is communication. Now, of course, communication is a two-way

street. You have to speak and you have to listen. And if you read... If you ask a lot

of CEOs, a lot of human resources managers these days, the one or the biggest complaint

that they have about the new people entering the workforce is their lack of listening skills.

Now, listening is a very important skill. A lot of you don't realize this or you don't

think of listening as a skill. You listen, you hear, you do whatever. Right? So, the

most important thing to do is active listening. And active listening comes in three parts.

While someone is speaking to you, or while someone is giving a presentation, or you're

in the middle of negotiations, or you're in the middle of an interview, or you're in a

class, in any situation, you need to demonstrate active listening. Now, how do you do that?

You encourage and reassure. So, when a person is speaking to you and you go, "Go on. Go

on. Oh, okay. I get it. I agree", all of these things indicate to the speaker that they have

your attention and that they should continue on because you're understanding them. If somebody

doesn't understand you and you don't know, then you're speaking for nothing. So, for

example, if I start speaking really fast and you don't understand me, then there's no point

of me speaking at all. Right? Now, I can't see you, you can't give me these cues, and

I'll talk about cues in a second, but again, when you're in a face-to-face situation, keep

these things in mind. Encourage the speaker, reassure. Reassure basically means make them

feel like they're okay, like make them want to continue, as it were.

Also, confirm and/or reflect. So, to make sure that... For them to know that you understand

what they're saying, confirm to them. "Okay, yeah, I get it. I see." Right? When you say

"I see", it means "I understand", or "I get it" means "I understand", or "Do you mean

this? Okay. I get it." Right? So, ask questions or say things to make sure that they know

that you understand what's going on. And reflect. Maybe just repeat what they're saying so they

know that you caught it and absorbed it. That's another way to do it.

Clarify and paraphrase. Right? If you're not sure about something or you're not 100% sure,

clarify. Put the same thing that the speaker said into different words with the same meaning

to make sure that you're on the same page, that you understand each other.

Now, there are also many non-verbal cues. Cues are signals that you're giving the speaker.

These are very obvious because you're saying these things, the person can hear these cues.

Non-verbal cues means without words, obviously. Non-, no-verbal words. So, you can nod, shake...

Move your head up and down, nod. Hand or face gesture. Okay. Right? So, when I do like this,

I get it. Like, thumbs up, that's a hand gesture. Nodding is also a facial gesture, but surprised.

Right? I understood what you're saying, like what you said was interesting. Show them you're

interested, show them you're attentive, show them you're... Whatever the situation is.

Right?

Now, eye contact. Eye contact is very important. If you can't maintain eye contact with a person

speaking to you, they might get offended, they might think they've lost you, you're...

You know, you're daydreaming, you're thinking about something else. They might think you're

bored, they might think you don't like them. They can think all kinds of things. When you

keep eye contact, they know that you're paying attention to them and they can continue speaking.

Especially, if you're going to a job interview, if you don't maintain eye contact with the

interviewer, your chances of getting that job go down very quickly because it shows

a lack of confidence, it shows a lack of interest, etc.

Posture. If you're standing like this and somebody's speaking to you, "Oh, you know,

I'm probably not very interested, but if I'm standing straight, I'm facing you, I'm showing

you that I actually do care what you're saying." Posture, how you're standing, how you're sitting,

very important. If you're in a chair and you're, like, you know, leaning over like this, not

the best impression. So, again, lots of different things. Now, when you're speaking, make sure

that you're aware of your tone. Like, are you speaking like you're angry, or are you

speaking very casually, or are you speaking very friendly, right? How you speak, very

important.

Pace. So, if you really want to tell somebody what you think of them, slow it down, make

sure that they understand each word, and that way they can follow you. Now, the most important

thing about active listening is do not interrupt. Now, I saved this to put specifically and

in red because this is the most important aspect of active listening. If you continuously

cut into the person's speech and they just can't get their ideas out, then you're not

actually listening. You want to hear your own voice, not the speaker's voice, and then

that speaker will just lose interest and stop speaking, basically. So, communication, most

important.

Next, critical thinking. Now, critical thinking is probably the hardest thing to develop because,

in my opinion, this takes, like, a lifetime to develop. Now, what does that mean? Especially

in terms of business, in terms of, like, a person who wants to hire you for a job, they

want to know that you have critical thinking. They want to know that you can analyze the

information you have or analyze the situation, and then make an informed decision based on

that analysis. They want you to not just jump into a conclusion or a decision without knowing

everything and without thinking what else might be there that wasn't included. What

could happen later? What might this... How might this person react? That's all part of

critical thinking. And some of the main features of critical thinking is creativity. Okay?

So, a lot of you who think that art classes are a waste of time, they're really not. Art

is what gives you creativity. Creativity is what leads to critical thinking.

Flexibility. Don't think that there's only one way to do it. There's always another way,

and another way, and another way. Be flexible. Be open to other ideas. Be willing to try

new things. Okay? Very important. Curiosity. If you think that everything that you know

is enough, it's not. You should always want to learn more. Learning more gives you creativity

and flexibility and lets you make better analyses. Okay?

And out-of-the-box thinking, this is the most important aspect of critical thinking. Out-of-the-box

thinking means don't think only what's in front of you. Always try to add new information,

new situations, new possibilities, and then integrate all of these things into your decision-making

process.

Now, again, I'm just giving you examples. There's a lot of more things I can say about

critical thinking, a lot more I can say about active listening, but these are the keys,

the key features you need to think about.

Leadership. These days, people want leaders. Now, it doesn't mean that you're going to

become a manager. Okay? Even if you're not applying for a management position, leadership

skills are very important. Why? Because there's always going to be conflict. Okay? Conflict

means like arguments, or fights, or disagreements between co-workers, between senior staff and

junior staff, etc. So, conflict management requires leadership. Conflict resolution,

so solving a problem, okay, between people especially. So, if you can show leadership,

if you get into an argument with a co-worker, if you have leadership skills, then you will

be able to find a way to fix that problem, to settle that argument without, you know,

losing productivity at the workplace.

You need to know how to delegate. This is a very, very important verb that everybody

needs to know, because this might come up in interviews, in job interviews. To delegate,

so for example, you have to do 10 tasks, they have to be finished by the end of the week.

You only have time, if you did everything, you only have time to do six of them. So,

you have to give other people small tasks to help you complete all the big 10 tasks.

So, to delegate means to pass on work to other people, and a lot of people, you know, they're

afraid to do it, or they're shy about it, or they just... "Oh, Bill, can you do this

for me?" "No." "Oh, okay. Sorry." If I'm a leader, I will convince Bill to do the thing

I ask him to do.

Decision-making. You have to be firm, you have to be confident, you have to be quick.

That's part of leadership. You have to inspire your team members, you have to inspire the

people under you, or motivate people around you, beneath you, above you, etc. So, these

are the three main ones, let's look at three more.

Okay, so now we got three more, but before I get into them, I remembered one more thing,

and this is very specific to the Indian viewers out there, those of you from India. I was

mentioning before about the facial expressions and body gestures, etc. Be very careful when

you come to maybe like North American or Western countries, because I remember when I went

to India, I had a bit of a hard time at the beginning of my travels there, because Indians,

when they say... When they want to say yes, they shake their head like this, or like...

Like this, which to a Canadian, this means no, but to Indians it means yes. So, very...

Many times there was a little bit of a misunderstanding and confusion, because I would ask something,

and the person would say yes, and I would think, "Well, why not?" And they say, "Yes,

okay, and yes." And I was very, very confused. So, keep that in mind. All of these things

make a big difference in how you communicate with people.

But with that in mind, their Indian attitude was superb. Very positive people, very friendly

people, and that's what attitude is all about. It's about basically how do you feel about

life, how do you feel about work, how do you feel about your co-workers, how do you feel

about your job in general, right? This is what attitude is. It's very important to have

a positive attitude. If you come to work every day like, "Oh, I hate being here. Oh, this

is so hard. My life sucks." Nobody will want to work with you. You have to be happy and

energetic and want to be there every day, and you want to meet your co-workers, you

want to get the job done, etc. You have to be very confident in yourself. Stand up straight,

walk straight, talk straight, do what needs to be done. Very, very important, always have,

always keep your sense of humour. Be able to laugh at yourself, be able to laugh at

situations, don't get angry. Laugh about it. If somebody says a joke, laugh. If somebody

says something rude, well, I mean, don't necessarily laugh. Some things you shouldn't laugh about,

but keep your sense of humour, don't get angry, don't get upset. Life goes on, tomorrow's

a new day. That's part of attitude. Always be courteous, means be polite. If somebody

needs to use the cop here before you, let them. You can wait a second, it's not going

to change your life. Everybody has to help everybody else. Again, be friendly, be energetic,

be patient. Nothing will happen if you get something done ten minutes later. The world

will not blow up. Wait, slowly. Everything will be done, everything will be okay. At

the end of the week, you go home and enjoy your weekend. Nothing will... The world will

not explode if you don't finish this task in the next five minutes. Be honest. Always

be honest. When you start lying to people, when you start cheating, they don't want to

work with you, you may lose your job. Okay? Very important.

Next, teamwork. It's very rare that you will have a job that doesn't involve other people.

I mean, some people obviously are sitting in front of their computer, working alone

all day, and that's fine, but if you're working in a company, in an office, you're working

with a team. Make sure you know how to get along with your teammates, with your co-workers.

Always be open to feedback. If somebody wants to tell you you're doing something wrong or

you could do something better, listen. Don't just automatically get angry and attack. If

somebody gives you constructive feedback... "Constructive" means that it's meant to help

you. Listen, absorb the information, apply what you want, disregard what you don't want.

But don't get angry at people who are trying to help you.

Be self-aware. Okay? If you're doing something that irritates your co-workers, stop doing

it. Okay? If you're doing... If you're dressed in a certain way, if you're... Like, maybe

your hygiene is a certain way, all of these things, just make sure you're aware of who

and what you are and how it affects other people. And have empathy. Always think of

other people's feelings. You don't have to... Like, if somebody's crying, you don't necessarily

have to go fix everything for this person. Just say, "Sorry, are you okay?" and stuff

like that. Like, to show a little bit of caring, it will go a long way to create a friendly

team environment. Always be ready to collaborate, always be ready to help somebody work together

with somebody on a shared goal. And be social. Don't be sitting in your little corner all

day by yourself, not wanting to talk to everybody. Be friendly, be social. If people go out for

a drink or a meal after work, join them. You don't have to go every day. Once in a while

so they like you. Okay? Show them who you are as a person.

Lastly, work ethic. Now, a lot of you might know the word "ethics", basically how to basically

be good and not bad. Okay? This is not what "work ethic" means. "Work ethic" is basically

how well or not well you work. Some people just like to work, they work very hard. Some

people are lazy. Okay? So, don't be lazy. Think about your work ethic because that's

what people are looking for, that's what managers and hiring directors are looking for in employees,

in prospective employees. So, a good work ethic is somebody who is competitive. It's

not a bad thing to be competitive. Being too competitive can be bad, but competitive means

you care, it means you want more, so that's a good thing. Be driven. You want the advancement,

you want the promotion, you want to expand your career horizon, as they say. Be persistent.

If you try something and it doesn't work, try again. Doesn't work again, try again.

Don't give up easily on anything that you want to do.

Have a thick skin. Sometimes you will fail. Some people, when they fail, they... You know,

they go into, like, a little shell and they're too afraid to try anything else. Having a

thick skin. If somebody says something negative about you, don't let it bother you. If you

try to do something and you fail, don't let it bother you. Be persistent. Keep trying,

keep trying. And again, basically thick skin is when you're talking about, like, comments.

It doesn't have to be only comments. It doesn't... It's not only if somebody says something bad,

if somebody does something bad. Just understand that, you know, don't take life personally,

basically, is what this means. It's not... Nobody's trying to hurt you, the universe

is not out to get you. And be results-oriented. A person who is results-oriented is a person

who does something because they have a goal in mind and they want to reach that goal.

They want to get a certain result, and they'll do the work necessary to get that result.

Okay?

So, there you have it. Six soft skills, the most important soft skills, and the attributes

or traits, or at least some of them for each one. A lot of vocab here, a lot of good information.

Keep this stuff in mind, especially when you're going to apply for a job or apply for an advancement

or promotion, etc.

Now, if you have any questions about any of this, you can go to www.engvid.com and ask

me in the comments section. There's also a quiz to help you practice some of this new

vocabulary. And that's it. If you like the video, give me a thumbs up, give me a like

on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel, and come back for more helpful business

English lessons. See you soon. Bye.