So you’re thinking about making a career move. Maybe you want to take the next step up the ladder or pivot into something entirely different, but you’re worried you don’t have the skills to do it.

When most of us look at job descriptions, we only consider hard skills. Do we know how to use certain programs? Do we know the technical aspects of social media marketing? Do we have the right degree? If we don’t tick all the boxes, we tend to throw these possibilities out the window. Sure, hard skills are important, but what about your soft skills?  Are you a good communicator? Are you great at multi-tasking and managing people? Do you have exceptional problem-solving skills? Soft skills might be less obvious on paper, but they’re just as important to succeed and progress in your career. Chances are you’ve already got a ton of soft skills in your toolkit and you just don’t know it yet. During our latest webinar, with special guest Helena Turpin, CEO and Co-Founder of GoFIGR, we took a closer look at how to uncover the skills you have, how they can help you navigate your career path and how to find opportunities to improve or add to your current repertoire. 

So, what are soft skills? 

Helena defines soft skills as, “attributes and personality traits that help employees effectively interact with others and really succeed in the workplace”. These are things like your communication skills (with both clients and colleagues), leadership skills and negotiation skills. 

How can you identify your soft skills? 

In theory, identifying the skills you’ve got to put on your resume might seem pretty straightforward, but it can be surprisingly hard. If you’re struggling to figure out what your soft skills are, there are a few things you can do to uncover your strengths. 

• Think about what other people come to you for help with. Maybe it was a big project you were involved in or something you just do daily. What are those skills you find easy that you can help others with? 
• Read your past performance reviews. Can you notice any recurring patterns or themes? If you don’t have past performance reviews, think about the feedback you’ve received in the past. What strengths do people usually mention? 
• Think about the times when you’ve enjoyed or felt satisfied by the work you were doing. What skills were you using in those situations? 
• Take a test. There are plenty of online options, like the Clifton Strengths Finder, that can help give you an insight into the strengths you have. 

Not only is it important to identify the skills you’ve already got, it’s also important to know what skills you’re missing so you can fill in the gaps, particularly if you’re gunning for a certain role. There are a few ways you can do this. 

• Online research - look at job boards and descriptions of the role you’re after. Look at what skills are in demand for that position and figure out if there’s any you’re currently missing. 
• Speak to someone who’s already in the role - be upfront and let them know why you’d like to catch up for a coffee or why you’re messaging them on LinkedIn. Chat with them and get an idea of the skills they’re using frequently in their job, maybe even any courses they did to bridge their own skills gap. 

Talk to recruiters - like the wonderful team here at Talenza! Talking to people who have hired for a similar role can give you a great insight into what skills you’ll need to succeed. 

How do you develop your soft skills? 

So you’ve figured out what’s missing and you’re ready to start filling in these gaps and taking your soft skills to the next level. How do you do that? 

On-The-Job Experience

As Helena highlighted during our webinar, “Researchers [have] found that 70% of our learning comes from job-related experiences or on-the-job experience. It's about hands-on tasks [and] actually solving real-life problems”. To get that real-world experience, there are a few things you can do: 

• Raise your hand for any interesting internal projects happening at your company that you feel could challenge you and help extend your skills. 
• Try taking on some new responsibilities - maybe there’s someone on leave who you could cover for and get the chance to learn something new/ 
• Say yes to leading the next presentation or meeting - this is a great one for improving leadership skills. It doesn’t have to be some huge event, it could just be something happening over a lunch break, but offering to present on an area of your expertise is great for improving those presentation and speaking skills. 
• Shadow a client or leadership meeting - maybe you’re not ready to take the reigns with meetings just yet, but that doesn’t mean you can sit in on a few and start to understand the skills needed to take the lead. 

Informal Learning 

The next 20% of your learning journey comes from informal learning or learning from others. These are usually quite easy and cost-free ways to help improve your soft skills and include things like: 

• Getting a mentor (or actually becoming one) - we always think about going to others to learn new skills (which we highly recommend) but don’t underestimate your ability to teach others. Especially if leadership skills are something you want to improve, taking someone under your wing is a great place to start (and your mentee will no doubt really appreciate the opportunity to learn). 
• Join a professional community or meetup group - finding people in your local area or online to connect with and learn from is a great way to not only expand your skills but also your network. We’ve got a few suggestions for you to check out:

— Australian Computer Society

— Australian Information Industry Association

— Digital Technology Collective

— Information Technology Professionals Association

— Mentor Walks

• Write a blog (or read one) - you don’t even have to hit publish if you don’t want to. It’s more about making the effort to complete the research for whatever topic you’re writing about. This can be a great way to help teach yourself something new. Don’t feel comfortable writing just yet? Start by reading a few blogs to build your knowledge and get an understanding of how writing one works. 
• Learn something new with a colleague or friend - if trying something new alone makes you feel uncomfortable, why not find someone to do it with? Whether it’s just one other person or a group, find something you all want to learn and commit to working on it together. Maybe you take a class or course together or simply meet up once or twice a week over lunch and do some self-initiated learning. 

Formal Learning

The final 10% of your quest to obtain some new soft skills is formal learning. 

• Check out what’s available online - formal learning doesn’t have to mean handing over money, in fact, there are tons of free courses online from the likes of Google, LinkedIn  and Microsoft. 
• See what training opportunities are offered by your company - you might be surprised by what learning and development options your company has, and you’ll never know if you don’t ask. Even if there aren’t courses already available, they may have a personal budget they can allocate for you to then go and find something to suit your needs. 
• Attend a seminar - you might be able to spend some of that budget on going to a seminar. These can be a great way to learn first-hand from an expert in the field. 
• Formal qualifications - somewhere else you might be able to spend your budget is formal qualifications. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and complete a full degree. You could get a certificate in a particular qualification or take a more in-depth online course. 
• Set up Google alerts - this one might not be something you’ve thought about before but it can be extremely useful. By setting up an alert on keywords that relate to what skills you want to improve, you’ll get a daily updated list straight to your inbox of articles or upcoming webinars related to that topic. 

Make sure to carve out time - we’re all busy and unless we sit down and purposefully make time to do some learning, it’s easy to say there’s too much going on and we don’t have a second to spare. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, allocate some non-negotiable time to spend on improving you. 

Get your manager on board

If you’re soft skill journey involves getting some help from your company, you’ll likely need to start by having a conversation with your manager. We’ve got a few tips for helping get them on board. 

• Arrange a time to talk - don’t just bombard them with requests in the hallway. Allocate a set meeting time and give them a heads-up on what you want to talk about. As Helena highlighted, “There's nothing scarier as a manager than having someone just say can I have a chat with you?” 
• Be prepared - before your meeting, get clear on what skills you want to develop, how this will help you and the company and your thoughts on how to improve. If your manager can see you’ve put some groundwork into your learning and development, they’re more likely to take your request seriously. 
• If all goes well, make a plan together on the next steps and the deadlines you’ll adhere to for completing any courses or further education. 
• Keep them updated - whether you agree to certain check-in points or just make a conscious effort yourself to let them know how things are progressing, this is a great way to demonstrate the new skills you’ve learnt and continually show them their trust and commitment to your education was the right choice. 

Ready to explore? 

The key takeaway here is don’t underestimate the importance and power of your soft skills. No matter where you are in your career journey, it’s vital to never stop learning something new and maintaining and building your professional connections. 

Want to learn even more about building your soft skills? Click here to watch our full webinar with Helena.