Q&A for How to Improve Soft Skills

Focus on your own strengths. Strength finders are really helpful for developing your interpersonal skills. By taking the Clifton Strengths, Enneagram, or Myers-Briggs, you can then realize what your patterns are, lead with your strengths, and mitigate your weaknesses.

I call them interpersonal skills instead of soft skills, because that has a better connotation I think. But, interpersonal skills are actually what more and more employers are looking for. You can always teach a hard skill, but we need people who have skills like empathy, communication, active listening, teamwork, and collaboration. They're skills in emotional intelligence that help you be an effective team player on a team or in an organization.

Your hidden soft skill is something that you are confident in doing. Take time to look inside yourself and realize what you have been doing easily and without any difficulty - the skills that seem to just come to you are your hidden soft skills.

You just need to choose what to say or not. In your work place nobody intends to know what kind of person you are. Rather, they want to know whether you are able to finish the task or not. So instead of giving honest excuses, apologize for not making the task complete and try to explain them when and how it can be finished.

Try to aim your voice at the back of the room. This is often referred to as "projecting" and can greatly improve your volume. Make sure you're well hydrated; dehydration can make your throat raspy and decrease volume. Also, practice speaking before presentations to warm up your voice.

They most likely can't. Since soft skills are primarily about how you interact with other people, gadgets cannot take the place of another person.

Challenge yourself to do one thing each day, even if it is small. For example, maybe today you will smile at a stranger or say hello to someone new. The more you do this, the less shy you will become over time.

Gradually expose yourself to things you are afraid of. For example, if you're afraid of public speaking, start by speaking in front of small groups, and gradually work your way up to larger ones. The more you expose yourself to whatever you're afraid of, the less frightened you will be.