Developing Soft-Skills
Hello lovely souls, how’s everything going on your end? Here’s hoping you all are having a wonderful week. Before we start, grab your cup of chai. Make this blogpost your chai time break, haha.
Last week, we had some really heart to heart conversations in our chai and chill week. Do check it out, so you are all caught up! In other news, we are working on building a forum for our lovely audience. Two Souls One Chai is a Personal Development Social Platform, therefore, we want to open up more areas for a two way communication and build this community further, Inshallah. In the meantime, you all can sign up on the forum page to be the first ones to get to know when we are officially live!
This week’s theme is Understanding Employability. Together, let’s try to find out what employers are really looking for. More specifically, for Chai Time Wednesdays today we will be covering the soft skills required to become more employable.
While your qualifications and experience gives you the necessary groundwork, your soft skills work as pillars that allow you to hold on to that dream job. Interestingly, the training and development sector of many organisations invest a lot of time and money training staff, not in job specific areas but in general and basic skills.
When it comes to soft skills, we have covered communication skills and emotional intelligence quite in depth. Do check those articles out to get a more wholesome perspective. In this article, we will be focusing more on the ability to work in a team - an essential asset one can have to stand out.
Functioning effectively in a team
It may sound simple, but team-work is hard work. You will meet people who you will instantly get along with, and some well, will get on your nerves, haha.
Two things come in handy. One, to learn to respond mindfully to others instead of reacting instantly. Two, understand where others are coming from. That would allow you to come from a place of compassion.
Are you able to negotiate and influence?
Give everyone the safe space to share their perspective. Sometimes it’s easy to find the common ground, other times it's hard to find the best course of action. A lot of times you will have to be willing to agree to disagree and come to a compromise.
However, if you genuinely feel your route is the better one, then try to explain in a firm and respectful way. Always keep others in mind. Make them understand how this benefits them? Making your vision about others instead of yourself, will make you more influential and persuasive.
Be the mediator
If a problematic situation arises, how do you deal with it and diffuse the tension? Most employers would want to know how you cope with such difficult circumstances. Because technical things can be learnt on the job, however, people management is much harder to teach.
Effective decision making
Are you able to find the best course of action? In such situations, you would have to be a bit more logical and unbiased. You would have to look at the big picture, and how your decision will affect your team as a whole, and not just certain individuals.
When it comes to making the right decision, be to the point, firm and as unambiguous as possible, to avoid any loopholes or miscommunication.
That’s it for today's lovely friends! Hope this was insightful and of some help. To learn more on this theme, do check out Thori Chai Thori Baatein on our Youtube channel this Friday where we will talk about how you can nail your job interview. Tune in to the Two Souls One Chai Podcast this coming Sunday where we will help you figure out how you can find the right job for yourself.
Till then, take care!
With love,
Rabail and Umair Khan
