At one point in time not so long ago good grades along with a relevant degree from a reputed university was all a fresh graduate required to land a decent job. Times have changed and the tides have shifted significantly. The focus has moved on to more abstract qualifications, great attitude and a strong work ethic-coupled with an innovative mindset, beyond the educational background and practical trade skills that were the only things much sought after earlier.
Work Ethics
These days prestigious schooling comes after work ethics and professional managers pay more premium for personal as well as cultural alignment, over and above technical skill sets. A well placed talent search attaches more value to creativity, flexibility, value based decision making, and the drive, to perform really high quality work. It is interesting to note that coming years would witness a shift in competencies required out of employees particularly in leadership, mentorship and management roles.
Critical Soft Skills
Again one must appreciate the fact that hard skills required for an organization’s success happen to be ever-changing, whereas the most critical soft skills tend to remain constant. Today’s employees require a conducive environment to thrive for meeting the demands of the work place and in order to do so they connect with each other in ways that are markedly different from earlier workers.
Ideal Work Atmosphere
The ideal work atmosphere may comprise of cross generational personnel with different work approaches, communication styles bringing in the much needed diversity in work climate, this will help coalesce critical work skills, individual way of solving vexing problem, different communication styles, and proclivity to work in a virtual environment all in a strong high impact team.
Grain of Truth
There may be a grain of truth in the fact that certain traits and attributes are inborn and it would be difficult to transfer them if they are not naturally present in the first place. Well it not impossible though as training and development form an integral part of the strategy to equip the workforce with much needed soft skills in addition to their technical and trade skills.
Immense Benefits
One should not overlook hard skills altogether and devise a well-rounded strategy to combine it effortlessly with soft skills preferably outside of the employees job description, as this is bound to bring in immense benefits to the organization perse. This is going to build a great team as players with different skill sets complement each other, employees thus feel valued and empowered to pursue their efforts towards realizing their career development goals.
Conclusion
The best opportunities arise at work itself where they feel safe to fail thus overcoming initial inhibitions and resistance, for example, when it comes to public speaking. Employees must be encouraged to share instances of small victories and shortcomings that come out of these exercises. Another way is to lead by example and show them how to do it initially so that employees can emulate it and become successful.
