What Are Social Skills At Work?
Social skills are inherent in any person. Social relationships are present in both our personal and work lives. When hiring, companies value very positively that candidates comply with specific social skills at work since, for example, if the relationship between office colleagues is good, better results will be obtained.
Knowing that this is important for companies, we tell you some aspects to take into account that can help you get a job or promote yourself in your current company:
- How do you relate?
- How do you communicate and express yourself?
- You have to watch your body language.
- Listen to others.
- You must show that you have confidence in yourself.
- Be influential and persuasive in relationships with others.
All these qualities influence the creation of a good work environment, which is essential for excellent performance and productivity.
Importance Of Social Skills At Work
When talking about skills, it is essential to differentiate between the so-called soft skills, which are those personal characteristics that facilitate interaction with others, and consist of a combination of social skills, and hard skills, which determine work experience, academic data, and technical skills for a specific activity. It is the closest thing to a resume with the necessary data to know whether we are qualified for the position offered.
In a job interview, it is common for academic aspects, preparation, and experience to be highlighted, but it must be remembered that social skills have great weight. The ability to work in a team, leadership, motivation and collaboration are essential when accessing a job.
Although, in principle, you may not have this set of skills, you should know that with work and perseverance, you can get them. Improving social skills will give us a competitive advantage, so we must train them frequently.
How To Develop Social Skills At Work?
Social skills are the pillars of our communication and, therefore, are essential when interacting in the work environment. Luckily, there are activities to work on job skills that help us develop and enhance them, getting closer to our goals through enriching communication with other colleagues.
We share six tips to enhance your social skills:
- Develop your communication skills: knowing how to interact with others correctly always adds points in your favor. This point ranges from impeccable expression and spelling to the moment of giving a public speech or offering ideas in a meeting with strangers. This situation can be complicated, so it is essential to know some tricks: try to vocalize as much as possible, avoid nerves and be confident. Only then will you succeed if you are still determined, practice at home and record yourself to analyze the result later.
- Control your body language: As we have already published in previous articles, the researcher and psychologist determined that 93% of the impact of our messages depends on non-verbal elements. To control this aspect, we must pay close attention to the personal image we offer.
- Take the initiative: show responsibility and enthusiasm for your job. Show off your skills and set goals, propose new challenges and face them. Participate in conversations and work debates presenting your ideas and opinions with sound arguments. Trust yourself since a self-confident person with a positive attitude in the face of adversity generates a lot of confidence in organizations.
- Be flexible and adapt: companies usually avoid having their employees maintain fixed functions but instead be flexible and can assume various tasks. Dare to get out of your comfort zone!
- Have empathy: being able to listen and advise and knowing how to put yourself in a colleague’s shoes can help create a good work environment.
- Learn to work as a team: A company is the result of the sum of several groups of people who cooperate and work for the same goal. For this reason, collaboration and teamwork are essential to solve problems more quickly.
Start valuing your skills and show them in your work. Make a difference.
Also Read: The Importance Of Digitization For Companies