6 Soft Skills to Take Your Business Career to the Next Level
Whether you are interested in working as a business professional in a lucrative position for some of the best companies in the world or want to start a successful company of your own, technical and career-specific skills are always going to be needed. However, when it comes to making an impact with your career, getting noticed by the right people, and working your way up the career ladder, your polished soft skills are absolutely essential.
Soft skills are skills that may not be specific to the job that you do but play a huge part in your success. They include decision-making skills, communication skills, work ethic, organization skills, and other personal attributes that will be both desirable and essential for succeeding in the cut-throat business world of today. Good soft skills can not only help to make you more effective at your job but will also help you build better relationships with employers and clients and become more employable. These are some of the most highly sought-after soft skills for business professionals today.
Relationship Management
Working in business – whether as an employee or running your own company – means that you will need to be skilled at managing your relationships with a range of different people. In business, building your professional network and nurturing relationships with other professionals is often key to finding new opportunities and learning new things that can help you get further in your career. Good relationship management is a skill that will serve you well no matter where you work since it involves successfully managing your interactions with others to achieve a positive outcome by being aware of the feelings and emotions of yourself and the other person. People who are skilled at managing relationships tend to have empathy for others that they use well and are likeable, approachable, and trustworthy – all attributes that are essential for a successful career in business leadership.
Communication Skills
Getting an online DBA from Aston University is not only a great way to boost your resume and improve your career-specific skills, but as you study at this level, you can also improve your ability to communicate well with others. Good communication skills are highly sought-after today, especially in a world of work that is moving rapidly towards more remote working and virtual offices where for managers and business leaders, being able to communicate clearly with their teams has never been so important. Research has shown time and time again that poor communication skills is one of the biggest barriers to success when it comes to both our personal and professional lives. Communication isn’t just about being able to get your own point across clearly and in a way that is easy to understand – it also involves actively listening to others and knowing the right questions to ask so that you can make sure you understand what you’re being told correctly.
Negotiation
While the ability to negotiate might not be a skill that everybody enjoys building, it is often one of the most important and also one of the most in-demand soft skills for business professionals today. A good negotiator is somebody who can have conversations with others with the main goal of reaching an agreement that everybody is happy with. This is not always easy to do when you are trying to agree with somebody who has different ideas, interests, or goals to your own. In business, it’s crucial to be able to negotiate effectively with others since not everybody is going to see eye to eye and being able to negotiate a compromise that everybody can work with will help to avoid bottlenecks and keep the business or project moving forwards to success.
Teamwork
Even if your main career goal is to become a business leader, any good leader knows that first and foremost they need to be a part of their own team. Business today is all about working as a team – even self-employed, freelance contractors who aren’t part of an employed office team are likely going to find themselves in situations where they’ll need to work as part of a team with others to get the best results for their clients. Being able to work well whether you’re working alone or with others is crucial today. Workplaces are becoming more and more team-oriented and employers are actively looking for professionals who can demonstrate that they are a good team player.
Delegation
The ability to select tasks to delegate and the people to delegate them to will become an increasingly important skill for you to develop as you move up the ranks in the business world and take on career positions with more responsibility. Because of this, employers who are actively seeking talented professionals that can grow with the business tend to look out for individuals who are good delegators. And if you want to start your own business in the future, delegation is going to be an essential skill. When you’re in charge of your own business, it’s often impossible to do everything by yourself and at some point, you will need to determine which tasks to delegate and who to delegate them to – decisions that could make or break your business.
Decision Making
When it comes to success in any business role, confidence when making decisions is an important trait to have. If you are indecisive or often second-guess yourself before coming to a final conclusion, then you’re only going to hold yourself back professionally. Brushing up on your decision-making skills is crucial if you want to start a career running your own business in the future or want to work your way up to a management or executive position, where making decisions are going to be a regular part of the role. You’ll need to be confident making decisions that can sometimes be difficult and able to weigh up the pros and cons of decisions that might not always lead to the best outcome for everybody.
While understanding business is key to get into an advanced business career, these soft skills will help to take you to the top.
