Wondering where to start with soft skills?
If you’ve heard anything at all about soft skills, you know that they’re essential for having a good career these days.
Automation has changed the job landscape over the last few decades by eliminating most of the rote and manual tasks that used to keep the majority of workers busy. In the twenty-first century, if you want to have a rewarding professional career, you need to be able to think clearly, express yourself well, and collaborate with others. And that’s on top of whatever technical skills your job requires.
The research backs this up. In 2017, a study by global consultancy Deloitte showed that by 2030, two thirds of all jobs will require a high level of soft skills. So if you don’t develop your soft skills, you’ll be drastically limiting your job prospects. Not great for someone who has career goals.
The good news is that anyone can develop their soft skills. They just have to pay attention and put in the work.
But that still leaves us with the burning question: where should we start?
Kressca’s Soft-Skills Pyramid
In our article on how soft skills can boost your career, we presented a new paradigm for thinking about soft skills. We call it the Soft-Skills Pyramid because each layer creates a solid foundation for the next layer to rest on.
Of the hundreds of soft skills out there, we chose five areas to focus on:
These five areas are crucial for life in the workplace and are in high demand among employers. They’re also in short supply—especially in Latin America. All that together means that, by mastering these skills, you can stand out from the crowd, shine with employers and clients, and build the career you’ve always wanted.
The Soft-Skills Pyramid tells us that we should start by developing a growth mindset. We firmly believe that without a growth mindset, you’re going to have a much harder time nurturing your critical-thinking skills. Then, if you can’t think critically, you’ll struggle to raise your emotional intelligence. If your emotional intelligence is low, you’ll have quite a hard time communicating effectively with others. And without that, it’s impossible to contribute good teamwork.
We’re going to show you what we mean, starting at the top of the pyramid and working our way down.
The five stories that follow illustrate what can happen when you don’t lay the proper foundation for using soft skills in your career.
Teamwork: The Lone Collaborator
Lucy prides herself on being a team player. She always volunteers for group projects because she believes that teamwork is a key to success. But once she joins a team, she rarely communicates her ideas clearly and doesn’t listen to her teammates. At meetings, she’ll nod but generally keep her thoughts to herself, assuming everyone already gets her approach.
As her team’s next project deadline looms, chaos reigns. Different parts of the work clash, nothing aligns, and everyone is frustrated. Lucy blames the group, but they all know the real issue: they worked in isolation rather than truly collaborating.
What’s happening here?
Lucy values teamwork on an intellectual level, but doesn’t realize that communication is what makes teamwork effective. Without expressing her ideas or listening to others, she creates confusion and a fractured team effort.
What’s missing?
Several communication skills are needed to help Lucy thrive on a team:
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- Clear verbal and written communication
- Active listening
- Giving and receiving constructive feedback
Communication Skills: The Smooth Talker
Paul is well-known for his excellent communication skills. He can speak persuasively and charm clients with ease. His gift of gab carries him easily through the good times. But when things get rough, his message gets undermined by how clueless he is with emotions.
In a tense team meeting, Paul makes a logical suggestion without noticing that his colleague, Sara, is visibly upset. Paul’s words are well-spoken, but they come across as dismissive of her emotions. She leaves the meeting feeling unheard, and the tension only grows. Soon, conflicts escalate, and Paul can’t understand why his smooth words weren’t enough to solve the problem.
What’s happening here?
Paul is skilled at communicating, but he’s missing the abilities to observe others and manage his relationships with them. He fails to read emotional cues or empathize with his colleagues, which prevents his message from resonating on a deeper level.
What’s missing?
For Paul to communicate well with his colleagues, he needs to learn:
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- Emotional awareness
- Empathy
- Sensitivity to others’ feelings
Emotional Intelligence: A “Compassionate” Decision
Isabella has a reputation for being great with people. She’s kind and trustworthy, and always ready to support her colleagues. Her coworker, Charlie, is facing a challenge in his personal life that’s making it hard for him to keep up with his normal workload. So Isabella compassionately advocates for him with their team leader.
Unfortunately, she isn’t thinking clearly about how redistributing Charlie’s work might affect the rest of the team. Her suggestion pushes too much work onto everyone else, leading them to feel overburdened and resentful. What started as compassion quickly turns into a source of team-wide frustration and inefficiency.
What’s happening here?
Isabella’s empathy leads her to make decisions based on emotion, without considering the broader impact. Without applying critical thinking, she misses the opportunity to balance fairness with practicality.
What’s missing?
Isabella could have avoided this problem through:
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- Strategic thinking
- Objective analysis
- Consideration of consequences
- Balancing emotional and logical responses
Critical Thinking: The Skeptic’s Trap
Alex has always been a sharp thinker, analyzing every problem with precision and insight. His ability to solve complex issues and make decisions has earned him a reputation as a great strategist. But he has a deeper problem: he believes that his talent is innate, not learned. When he’s offered a new project that would stretch his abilities, Alex dismisses it as impossible. “I wouldn’t be good at this,” he tells his manager.
Instead of seeing the opportunity as a challenge to grow, he avoids it altogether for fear of failure. As time goes on, he chooses over and over to stay in his comfort zone, missing opportunities for career development and feeling increasingly stagnant.
What’s happening here?
Alex excels at thinking critically, but lacks a growth mindset. He believes that his abilities are what they are, and that belief prevents him from taking on new challenges and growing professionally.
What’s missing?
For Alex to keep expanding his impressive skills, he needs to work on his:
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- Willingness to learn from failure
- Openness to new experiences
- Belief that skills can grow through effort
Growth Mindset: The Overconfident Learner
Cammy embraces the growth mindset wholeheartedly. She believes that with enough effort, she can master any skill. At the same time, she doesn’t have a good idea of her current abilities. She jumps into every new opportunity without reflecting on how well equipped she is to handle it. When a challenging new assignment comes her way, she accepts it confidently, only to find herself overwhelmed later on.
Cammy ignores the early signs that show she’s struggling, and instead keeps pushing forward blindly. In the end, her work falls short, and her colleagues are left to pick up the pieces.
What’s happening here?
Cammy embraces the idea of constant growth but lacks the self-awareness to recognize her current limitations. Without understanding where she needs to improve, her growth mindset leads her into situations that she isn’t prepared for.
What’s missing?
If Cammy is going to take good advantage of chances to grow professionally, she’ll need to master:
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- Honest self-assessment
- Recognition of strengths and weaknesses
- Reflection before action
The Moral of the Stories
Even though teamwork is the ultimate goal of all of these soft skills, trying to start there is about as good a plan as building a house from the roof down. Technically you could do it, but there’s a much better way.
First Things First
Self-awareness is the foundation for developing any soft skill. It’s what enables you to understand your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and how your behaviors affect others. Without self-awareness, it’s really hard to see where you need to improve, so you end up overly confident in some areas and too inhibited in others. That’s not a great situation for someone who wants to fulfill their potential and push their career forward.
Whether you’re striving to be more strategic, more empathetic, a better communicator, or more collaborative, understanding your own thoughts, emotions, and behavior is the first step in making meaningful improvements.
The best place to start growing your own self-awareness is simply to practice observing your thoughts and emotions. Not after the fact, but in the moment, as they’re happening.
This idea makes a lot of people uncomfortable because they worry they might not like what they see. But hey, if it’s already there, what does it really hurt to face it head on? At least then you’ve got options for what to do with what you find.
The truth is, if you want to grow, you’ve got to get to know yourself better.
Conclusion
By approaching your soft-skills training strategically and using a logical progression, you can learn more, faster, with less frustration. This is what Kressca is all about. We’re hard at work creating resources to help guide you through the Soft-Skills Pyramid one step at a time, so keep an eye out for our upcoming articles, tools, and courses!
