7 habits to train soft skills applied to the work environment

Habits and routines that will help you develop soft skills in your day-to-day work.

Soft skills are a quality of professional profiles that are increasingly taken into account.

However, it is still relatively common for people who have been working in the same professional field for years to be unaware of this concept, thus suffering a competitive disadvantage both as candidates for better job prospects and as team leaders.

In this article we will explore this concept of "soft skills" and we will see some of the most important habits to enhance them..

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are the set of personal aptitudes that have a significant impact in the work context even though they cannot be reduced to technical knowledge or to the motor execution of certain specific movements related to the work to be performed, and which are very useful in a wide variety of professional roles.

In other words, they are personal personal skills that, despite not being reflected in the curriculum, are as important or even more important than formal education and technical learning that a person has received in order to be able to perform the job. that a person has received in order to aspire to certain jobs.

Soft skills are therefore predispositions and abilities of an eminently psychological nature, i.e., linked to the management of emotions, thoughts and personal relationships, and do not depend on the memorization of certain theoretical content or on the strength or motor coordination available to a person. For this reason, it is often said that the scope of application of these "soft skills" goes far beyond the workplace, since they are useful both in the professional context and in private life, and if a person is able to apply them in one, he or she can also do so in the other.

In turn, due to their dynamic, flexible nature and not dependent on memorizable content, it is very complicated for companies to develop tools for the systematic evaluation of soft skills; that is why the most commonly used method to study their presence or absence in candidates for a job or promotion, for example, is personalized assessment by professionals with experience in HR and/or in the department of the organization concerned..

Of course, for this kind of assessment process to be effective, it is necessary to first have a notion of what soft skills are and which ones are most relevant in a given context, as unfortunately, otherwise the temptation to take into account only "objective" and easily quantifiable criteria will be the default option.

Habits to enhance soft skills applied to the workplace

Although soft skills do not arise from formal education (for example, from university classes), this does not mean that they cannot be learned and internalized. The only thing that happens is that in this case the learning process will be more adapted to the person's lifestyle and way of being, as it will not be reduced to class notes and exercises to be done with a computer.

Given that soft skills in real work and social interaction contexts associated with everyday life, the way to train them will also be more adapted to the individual's lifestyle and way of being.The way to train them is also based on going through certain situations that have to do with the day-to-day problems that we must learn to solve: in this case, theory and practice merge and we must learn to master them at the same time. This can be fostered through company initiatives such as soft skills training programs, courses and workshops, etc. But it is not the only way: you can also do your part, as an individual, to fill your day-to-day life with situations that "force" you to learn and reinforce soft skills.

Therefore, we will now focus on this second way and we will briefly review habits that can help you enhance soft skills.

1. Adopt a role of arbitration in discussions

Many people find it difficult not to lose their temper in arguments, something that has negative repercussions both at work and in private life. To avoid this, it is important to approach conflicts from the perspective of a character or "actor" whose task is to recognize the reason for the discomfort on both sides and to look for common ground from a relatively distant perspective that allows us to see the whole picture. In this way, the objective will not be to "win" or see how "our side" defeats the other, but to overcoming a crisis that affects a group of people..

2. Write every day

It seems unbelievable, but many communication problems can be corrected by learning to write well. The habit of writing sentences and paragraphs of relative complexity helps us to better structure the ideas and propositions in our minds, so that we are not only much better at writing emails and documents (which is already indispensable in many jobs) but also at speaking in an understandable and convincing way. speak in an understandable and convincing way.

3. Delegate and give instructions on a regular basis

You don't have to assume that the more tasks and responsibilities you carry on your shoulders the better you will get at your job. Many times, we lose the ability to give much added value to our professional profile by the simple fact of not being able to delegate and train others by explaining to them the theory and practice of what they should do.

To get better at it, in your day-to-day work, delegate tasks and make sure that the other person will have all the necessary information to do those jobs in almost the same way you would do them. This will force you not to assume that everyone knows what you know, something basic for leading and organizing teams..

4. Divide all your goals into sub-goals

This seemingly simple principle is fundamental to good performance, and can be applied to virtually every responsibility you encounter in your day-to-day work. Not only will it help you to be clear at all times about what you need to do, but it will also help you to prioritize tasks, it will also help you prioritize taskswhich is necessary to have a problem-solving perspective (you will avoid falling into the usual dynamics of focusing only on abstract ideas and disconnected from what is really needed).

5. Ask questions beyond your target role

Gaining the ability to adapt requires looking beyond "the objective goals linked to our job: it is important to understand the why of what is happening in the organization. To do this, tap the potential of your curiosity: ask questions of those who know. This way you will be better able to anticipate the needs of your team, company or department.

6. Prepare your workspace

Something as simple as preparing our desk by eliminating possible distractions will make better use of the time we have to work and, on the other hand, we will have more resources and energy to learn about what is going on around us. more resources and energy to learn about what is going on around us..

7. Make sure you are in constant communication with your team.

It is becoming increasingly common for teamwork to be mixed with individual work, thanks to new chat platforms, video calls, etc. Therefore, it is essential that you make it a habit to always turn on these communication channels and check them periodically. This type of routines will open you up to work beyond your individuality.

Want to learn more about soft skills?

If you are interested in learning more about soft skills and their implications in the world of work, either to enhance them in you or to incorporate them in your work leading teams, the Escuela Europea de Coaching Executive Coaching Certification Program is for you, the Escuela Europea de Coaching Executive Coaching Certification Program is for you. is for you. This training program is 229 hours long and is especially aimed at managers, middle managers, psychologists, Human Resources professionals and coaches. In addition, it can be taken both online and in person in Madrid and Barcelona. To learn more, please contact us.