Opinion: 5 soft skills to thrive at work

Soft skills are vital today. From people skills and social communication to personality traits, attitudes, career attributes and emotional intelligence, soft skills play a significant role in achieving success.

Soft skills are also crucial in meeting the growing expectations of a people-first work culture or a customer-centric experience. Work-readiness skills, such as an individual’s professionalism, work ethic, communications, ability to get along with others and basic problem-solving, are incorporated into many of our daily routines.

Employers have grappled for years with coaching employees on the necessary soft skills. That raises the question as to which soft skills are important if you want to succeed in business.

Here are five essential soft skills that anyone can master and thrive with in the future.

1. Building rapport and trust. Customers are more likely to engage with and trust someone they feel comfortable with. The absence of creating sufficient rapport or trust with others can risk losing business, or it can cause the loss of good employees. One company had a customer walk into their store complaining about a recent purchase. The employees hadn’t been adequately trained in empathy or active listening to handle the complaint effectively. So, the customer left feeling unheard and frustrated, with their complaint still unresolved. They shared their negative experience with friends and family, causing a potential ripple effect of loss in business. Unfortunately, the negative impact was not just limited to losing customers. A few employees were frustrated with not having sufficient training and finally left.
2. Establishing credibility and receptivity. Today, customers spend limited time with salespeople, relying more on online research and internal collaboration. To capture their attention, you must quickly establish credibility and receptivity to remain in consideration throughout the purchase cycle. I coach a salesperson who inspires positive action and wins over new customers. However, this was not always the case. Initially, he assumed that prospective customers would gladly see him because he sold for a well-known company. When his oversight cost him numerous failures, he realized his mistake and worked on possessing the necessary soft skills.
3. Completing the customer experience successfully. Pay close attention to your sales process and customer experience, as people are more inclined to purchase and remain loyal if they like the organization and people they deal with. The tipping point of customer satisfaction and loyalty lies in a seamless purchase experience. Customers want consistency, and they seek efficient communication without having to ask for updates regularly. They want accurate deadlines, not trumped-up promises to get their business – and they want to purchase from someone easy to do business with. Ultimately, they don’t want any friction in their experience. The best companies eliminate unnecessary steps that bog down their clients’ experience with hassle or complexity – and upskill people in the soft skills of making friendly and courteous interactions.
4. Overcoming communication barriers with challenging individuals. Most of the time, communication barriers arise from our shortcomings rather than the customers’. It happens when we fail to adapt promptly to their communication style preferences. You can often feel the resulting tension in the dialogue. Thus, it’s crucial to detect discomfort before the customer disengages or loses interest in your message completely. You can avoid this by adjusting to the individual’s preferences for interaction and pace.
5. Listening with comprehension. Listening is the most frequently overlooked soft skill. The adage that listening shows someone that we care is true. If more people in customer service or sales roles were taught the art of listening effectively and with empathy, their organization would enjoy more sales, fewer complaints, increased referrals and longer customer loyalty. If more managers would learn to listen, they would enjoy happier employees and less turnover.

By honing and applying these soft skills, you can navigate the customer journey, create engaging interactions with others and increase your chances of success in today’s competitive marketplace of products and ideas.

Mark Holmes is a consultant, professional speaker and author of “Selling to ELON! Understand, Communicate and Sell to Unique Personality Types,” and he’s president of Springfield-based Consultant Board Inc. and SalesRevenueCoach.com. He can be reached at mark@salesrevenuecoach.com.