The Next Mile

For managers, there is no better way to be effective than to strengthen their core skills and seize new challenges.

- Muniinder K Anand

Soft skills are a rather loosely used term, with the definitions available limiting it to people’s ability to communicate with each other and work well together. The one that comes closest to capturing its true essence is on Wikipedia, which defines it as a cluster of productive personality traits that characterises one’s relationships in a milieu. These include social graces, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, time management, teamwork, and leadership traits.

Another definition, based on review literature, explains it as an umbrella term for skills under three key functional categories: people skills, social skills, and personal career attributes.* In the days gone by, technical skills were the primary criteria for securing jobs and rightly so; this is also mostly the case today. However, more often than not the key differentiator for career progress turns out to be soft skills that are really about how you interact with the ecosystem, both internal and external.

So, what are the soft skills that make a good manager? It is difficult to generalise and identify just a few because the skills required may not be the same in all organisations and scenarios. However, there are some commonalities that serve managers well across sectors, organisations, and team sizes. There are five skills which, according to Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL), that are important to master for managers across all levels in organisations

Self-awareness

First and foremost, a manager ought to be selfaware to understand his or her own areas of strength and weak points and be conscious of each when it comes into play at the workplace. This is easier said than done; it takes a lot of conscious thought and effort to be able to gain that perspective. Self-awareness is one of the most critical skills for long-term effectiveness as a manager.

Communication