12 Steps to Finding Your Passion →
When you have a desire, you can grow it by adding passion, and when you do, you will find motivation. Passion will continue to influence your motivation towards your goal. Passion is the grease that turns desire into something of value.
Passion is an intense desire that can get you to do unique and challenging things. Passion is an emotion that begs to be acted upon. Without action, passion yields no fruitful results. Passion is the fuel in the fire of action. When you have a passion for something, you love it even when you hate it.
Passion can be, but it isn’t just about work. It points to your intense emotions and feelings for someone or something.
12 Steps to Find Your Passion
Do Things you love to do
Read about a variety of subjects
Listen to others before talking
Think about nature | Feel the Sun
Quit talking and start doing.
You can find a website about positive influences.
Get to know yourself better
Start a journal
Embrace a mindfulness practice
Find a coach
Surround yourself with others who share your passions
Find your true north – Your authentic self
Soft Skills Will Make or Break You: So Find Out What They Are
The polished apple gets picked, and management seems always to have the most polish or, better put, soft skills. You can hire someone with specific hard skills for the job needing to be done, but it isn’t easy to find people engaged with enough soft skills to fit into the organization.
We pick our friends, for the most part, based on their soft skills. But, of course, if something is broken in our house, we like the neighbor with the right hard skills and hope they have enough soft skills (caring, empathy, and concern) not to be offended. So, of course, a lack of soft skills is a bigger problem, but it should be mentioned in the job posting.
Hard skills vs. soft skills
The key differences between hard and soft skills are how they are gained and used in everyday life and the workplace. Hard skills are often achieved through education or specific training. They include competencies like how to use a particular machine, software, or another tool.
Soft skills are often seen as personality traits you may have spent your whole life developing. They are called upon when you manage your time, communicate with others, or talk about a problematic situation for the first time.
Soft Skills are People Skills.
Ability to work in a team
Ability to make decisions and solve problems
Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize
Ability to communicate verbally with people
Ability to obtain & process information
Ability to get along with others
Adaptability
Assertiveness
Attitude
Awareness
Body Language
Caring
Completing tasks on time
Communication
Communication Verbal
Communication Non-Verbal
Communication Visual
Communication Written
Critical Thinking
Collaboration
Cooperation
Competitiveness
Conflict Resolution
Creative Thinking
Courtesy
Dispute Resolution
Decision Making
Dependability
Dealing with Difficult People
Emotional Intelligence
Empathy
Etiquette
Ethics
Focused & Organize
Friendliness
Giving Feedback
Honesty
Helpfulness
Interpersonal Skills
Kindness
Listening
Leadership Skill
Loyalty
Likeability
Manners
Public Speaking
Punctuality
Perseverance
Persistence
Problem-solving
Positive Attitude
People Skills
Politeness
Resilience
Self Awareness
Self Confidence
Self-Motivation
Teamwork
Tolerance
Time Management
Trustworthy
Work Ethic
(And More)
I wrote a list of skills like this to address the statement and challenge in the title: Soft Skills Will Make or Break You - So Find Out What They Are.
It would be best to consider this: It is no coincidence that management and leaders today have the most soft organizational skills. But, as you ponder, think that this is why they tell you they value hard skills more in their job search skill requirements.
Soft Skills still Matter in 2023 →
They matter because they are relevant, transferable, and keep an individual highly employable. Employers want people who already have soft skills because your employer doesn't have to train you on them, and the truth is they won’t do that good of a job on it anyway.
Soft skills are, in many ways, more important than hard skills. These skills enable people to collaborate better on projects, brainstorm and negotiate, gather support, and encourage participation from others.
Some personality traits can simplify your ability to learn soft skills. For example, extroverted people will find it easier to learn communication and leadership skills.
Introverts often have many people skills that come naturally to them. For example, they may be good listeners, empathetic, and able to read other people being more open to listening, resulting in solid connections.
Social skills can be taught. It is never too soon to start showing kids how to get along with others. Social skills can help students set goals for themselves and build positive relationships with peers.
6 Skills for You to be better at listening and reading →
Active listening and giving feedback can be challenging. People perceive the best listeners to sit quietly and occasionally ask questions that tell them all they need to know. Sitting there silently nodding does not prove that a person is listening. Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks.
Listening Skills are the quiet soft skills “sauce” that can make or break a career. Have you ever had a client, customer, boss, or colleague have to repeat things to you several times or look at you as if they needed clarification on whether you were understanding them or even paying attention?
When you read, you are listening, but when you are reading, you sometimes are not thinking about what the words mean. Understanding what the words you read are intended to convey is listening also.
6 Skills
that will help you listen and understand
Paying attention
Withholding judgment
Reflecting on what was said
Clarifying what is being said
Summarizing what you thought was said
Sharing what was agreed on
Creativity is both a Soft Skill and a Hard Skill →
Creativity is a valuable workplace skill because it can be a helpful tool for developing new ideas, increasing efficiency, and devising solutions to complex problems. While you may have natural creativity skills in certain forms, it is a skill that can be learned and developed over time.
Learning creativity techniques as new ways to solve problems are considered hard skills because they are teachable and measurable in the same way as writing, reading, or math.
Creativity also means thinking outside the box, which requires you to believe in yourself enough to take a risk. This suggests that it is not a skill but a mindset and shows that creativity is a soft skill.
Soft skills relate to how you work. Soft skills include people skills, communication skills, listening skills, and time management.
So is creativity a soft skill? Creativity is a soft skill, but it can also be challenging.
Being a Good Listener is a Soft Skill →
“Be a good listener,” Dale Carnegie advised in his 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. “Ask questions the other person will enjoy answering.”
Rather than pushing your point of view when it is very different, the other person uses a curious approach to communication. An example would be meeting the other end of view with a question like: “I never thought of that point of view. What is it that leads you to that conclusion.”
Six things needed to be a good listener
#1 Your thoughts have not drifted, and you are in the here & now.
#2 Distractions don't get in the way of what the person is saying
#3 You're excited and curious to hear what is said
#4 You're sincere and open-minded about the questions and haven’t prejudged the anticipated answers
#5 Your hearing, sight, and other senses are working
#6 You ask the right questions.
“Hearing Aids Matter”
Manners and Etiquette are Important Soft Skills →
Good manners are soft skills and reflect respect, courtesy, and consideration for others. Proper manners communicate what kind of person we are to other people. Good manners are a soft skill that often gets overlooked when considering the soft skills a person needs.
“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter which fork you use.” Emily Post
Manners are said to be actions that characterize relationships with other people, such as social graces, communication, cooperation, honesty, respect, responsibility, friendliness, and optimism. Social graces and etiquette refer to manners.
Manners can hold a person back and be why they are not promoted, but this problem should be addressed in reviews.
Preparation is a Soft Skill but it may require intuition →
Soft skills require preparation, such as time management, interpersonal communications, team building, listening, and negotiation.
You must discern what is needed as you prepare, or you will find yourself “all dressed up with nowhere to go.” (Maybe even wearing the wrong coat for the terrain)
Intuitiveness, the ability to know or understand something because of feelings rather than facts or proof, is a soft skill, and it will happen when you research why you are preparing.
Holding the chalk right and having what your right with it readable counts ………………..
Speaking Skills are Soft Skills that Matter →
Good communication skills mean imparting information and making people feel at ease. If you can communicate effectively, you will be able to build good relationships with people, which is very important for running a business and in life itself.
Sometimes the most useful Speaking skill is knowing when not to speak.
Soft Skills are often more important than hard skills: See list of 35 Soft Skills
Employers look for soft skills when they interview, and their questions will reveal what they consider essential to the job. They will ask job-specific questions and ask about how you went about completing some of your assigned tasks. Please list your soft skills and review them before a job interview. Some of those skills will stand out more than others as being essential to the job you’re looking at. Listen for opportunities to show those skills in the questions you’re asked.
Some employers state that soft skills are just as critical as hard skills; many say they are 70 to 80% important, but it is hard to understand how they can not be more urgent.
Thirty-five soft skills examples that good employees may have many which could be considered “must-have skills.”
Communication
Listening
Teamwork
Problem-solving
Time management
Critical thinking
Posture
Decision-making
Work well with others
Stress management
Adaptability
Conflict resolution
Leadership
Creativity
Resourcefulness
Persuasion
Attention to detail
Curiosity
Openness to criticism
Self Motivation
Ability to work under pressure
Positive attitude
Integrity
Patient
Negotiation
Work Ethic
Adaptability
Empathy
Social skills
Punctual
loyal
happy
confident
Emotional intelligence
Resilience
Soft Skills can be the deciding factor and can impact everyone and everything →
Hard Skills are essential in finding and doing your job, but Soft Skills can make a critical difference even when you get a job.
Some say success is just a matter of showing up on time. If that is true, then soft skills made the difference because showing up on time is a soft skill. You can have all the hard skills in the world, but you're in trouble if you don’t show up or get along with people.
Your work ethic, attitude, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and a host of other personal attributes are the soft skills crucial for career success. With these soft skills, you can excel as a leader.
Why Posture is considered a Soft Skill →
A person’s posture is the position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting, and whether a person has good or bad posture can significantly impact how others perceive them and how they see themselves. Simply put, a person with good posture looks better than one that doesn’t have it.
Good posture can make you look younger, thinner, taller, more energetic, more relaxed, and even more confident. Sitting up straight may help your brain function better, as well as help you think more clearly because you feel calmer and more optimistic, according to studies by Erik Peper, Ph.D. at San Francisco State University.
Since studies have shown that a person’s body posture can affect confidence in their thoughts and how they think about themselves, it isn’t too much of a leap to say that it makes you look smarter. People have a variety of learned skills that are referred to as soft skills. Learning to listen is something people do even though they already were able to hear. We feel more comfortable with some people than others, and in many cases, we feel satisfied with developing the skill of communication and interaction. Everyone has some posture, but good posture can be learned and is undoubtedly an essential soft skill.
The wide range of skills that fall under ‘soft skills is also often known as ‘transferable skills. They include interpersonal skills, sometimes called ‘people skills’ or ‘social skills,’ and posture belongs in this group.
Positive Thinking is a Soft Skill →
Soft skills involve interacting with colleagues, solving problems, and managing work. In contrast, emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and be aware of your emotions and those of others.
The term “Positive Thinking,” when you first consider it, seems to be an attitude rather than a skill. A skill is an ability to do something well, suggesting expertise is part of it.
Positive Thinking is usually listed as a Soft Skill or People Skill needed to work effectively with others and succeed in the workplace.
An employer would be wise to look for Positive Thinkers in the interview process and value that skill as very important because those people tend to concentrate on solving issues rather than creating or worrying about them. When they face stress, they are more likely to deal with it positively and effectively.
Positive Thinking comes naturally for some, but skills can be learned and polished. This positive process can start by learning to analyze your thoughts and then taking deliberate action to make those thoughts effective.
Concentrating and trying to make things better, working effectively with others: Employers will value that skill, and having a positive attitude will help you reach your career goals. Because people are only sometimes taught to be positive, you may have the edge over the competition by exhibiting this quality.
Is an Informational Interview part of the steps in simple sales approach? →
Don’t ask your customer if she would like to buy a box of chocolates; ask her if she likes dark or light chocolate. Don’t ask if the customer wants to buy a car; ask them what color they like. Find out what the person likes and show them how to get what they like.
Consider this question: what is more important to you, a lower food cost at your restaurant or a unique menu item? The next step is to talk about what the client wants or likes when the answer is found.
If you want to be a good friend, you need to find out what your potential friend is interested in and then become interested in the same thing by asking questions to learn more.
Do these thoughts have anything to do with looking for a job or finding out about an industry or career path? Of course, they do. You have to ask questions and understand what will require of you if you take the next step and seek job opportunities.
This isn’t new news, but the label “Informational Interview” seems a little unique, even if it isn’t. The approach has always worked and is just the basics of job hunting and many sales approaches.
Those that try to sell someone something, even their skills, have always found success easier if they spend some research and fact-finding time.
An informational interview for a job seeker occurs when a meeting is set up to learn about a potential job of interest. It isn’t an interview, and the job seeker asks questions to learn rather than make an immediate sale. The goal is information.
The same thing happens when a salesperson spends time learning what a client wants and needs. Unfortunately, the process isn’t new. It is just something that many salespeople, as well as job seekers, miss.
What are Soft Skills and Why are they Important? →
Soft skills are often thought of as productive personality traits that empower individuals to influence one’s relationships in social, emotional, and even spiritual ways. Soft skills is an umbrella term for three vital functional elements: people skills, social skills, and personal career attributes. These skills are best understood as different aspects of a person’s effectiveness and influence.
“People Skills” are patterns of behavior and interactions. It is an umbrella term for skills under three related abilities: personal effectiveness, interaction, and intercession skills.
Social skills are interaction skills, including social graces, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, time management, teamwork, and leadership traits.
“Soft Skills” is another umbrella term for three vital functional elements: people skills, social skills, and personal effectiveness.
Intercession skills are like interaction skills, but they specifically apply to situations where the people involved have interests or perspectives at odds with each other. Resolving these differences requires empathy, patience, and the ability to negotiate a solution that all parties can accept.
By working on personal effectiveness, employees get a better understanding of their talents. They learn to use these optimally. They also see which skills they lack and need to develop to achieve their goals.
Soft skills are essential because they are not restricted to a specific field and can be used in every aspect of people’s lives. Soft skills make people flexible in a world that keeps changing.
In today’s world, soft skills are a significant differentiator for employability and success in life. Still, a 2019 Society for Human Resource Management survey found that three-quarters of employers have difficulty finding graduates with the soft skills their companies need.
Work Ethics is an important Soft Skill →
Some work for food, shelter, or safety, which is their primary focus & they can stay focused on tasks for as long as necessary to get them done.
Focus is equally as important as persistence when it comes to working ethics. Focusing will allow you to finish tasks more efficiently while avoiding distractions. Work Ethics is an important “Soft Skill.”
A person with a strong work ethic may be referred to as tenacious, which for the most part, is a positive aspect of work ethic and could also be considered a soft skill. If someone calls you determined, you're probably the kind of person who never gives up and never stops trying: someone who does whatever is required to accomplish a goal.
Or on the other hand, you may be stubborn.
7 top Work Ethic Skills →
Work ethics is a skill and an attitude of determination and dedication toward one’s job. Those with a strong work ethic highly value their professional success. They exhibit moral principles that make them outstanding employees in any position. If you have a strong work ethic, you believe in the importance of your job and typically feel that hard work is essential to maintaining a strong character.
Employees with a substantial work ethic exhibit particular values and behaviors. These characteristics make them stand out as highly coveted team members and praise-worthy employees.
Work Ethic Skills
1. Reliability
2. Dedication
3. Discipline
4. Productivity
5. Cooperation
6. Integrity
7. Responsibility
