When it comes to the specific set of skills one may need to achieve success in their career, the first things that come to our mind are the capability to multi-task, efficiency, and technical proficiency or ability to handle specialized equipment. But as per studies based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it has been seen that to grab the most common occupations like nursing, health care, retail, and service, there will be an altogether different set of skills that will be in high demand. What do you think would be the most common denominator for such occupations? Do you think it would be social skills? Well, if you thought so, you’re right!
Even though you may not be employed in one such field, social skills are gradually getting extremely important. Employers who are hunting for people in the STEM fields are gradually showing a preference for all those applicants who have high levels of social skills and not only those blessed with enough technical skills. When it comes to business professionals, they too require communicating with other departments and predict the needs of the customers, interact with suppliers, and also secure funding. In short, if you’re an entrepreneur, your financial success will strongly depend on your social skills which you need to build a network of customers and investors.
Achieving financial success – The social skills which you require
Did you ever have an idea that there are six different sorts of social skills that can have an impact on your monetary success? Well, if you didn’t, here are some skills that you may know about and also try to inculcate.
- Empathy or perception: You should be able to read accurately and also relate to the perspectives of others and their emotional reactions.
- Persuasiveness: You should have the ability to convince customers but not manipulate them. After listening to your persuasion, the employees should be able to take certain actions for their benefit.
- Creating good impressions: No, you need not be brown-nosed or fake but you should know how to act in a way that pleases others, irrespective of what you think them to be. Whoever it may be, you should know how to create a good first impression.
- Confidence: Having enough confidence in yourself about persuading and convincing others can only be possible when you believe in yourself or your service or product. This will come across a way that will speak of assurance, particularly in positions of leadership.
- Expressiveness: You should be enthusiastic enough, you should show genuine concern, and should be able to inspire others. There’s no use showing unresponsiveness, anger, and indifference.
- Flexibility: Flexibility is the skill to change yourself from one role to another when your customers and co-employees need you to change. Your reactions should change and you should be able to quickly adapt a new tone to accommodate yourself to the new role that you’re playing.
How you can gain such profitable social skills
While some of us are naturally blessed with social skills, some others may not be lucky enough to have them. If you fall into the latter category, you can practice amidst comfortable settings where there’s no one to judge you. Take different kinds of social risks and try to step out of your comfort zone. If there are people whom you admire, try to follow their style and their skills so that you gradually get to know more about using your skills perfectly.
So, you can easily understand that apart from technical skills, social skills will very soon become some of the key considerations to be taken into account during hiring. Hence, take your time to develop such skills to grab a good job.
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