3 essential soft skills for a mixed workplace
According to the World Economic Forum, these capabilities will become increasingly important in the coming years.
As more and more workers begin to return to work, it turns out that mixed forms are not just a past trend. This shift is because most of the long-term effects of the pandemic are largely unknown, and it is prudent to incorporate remote work into the business model. If we re-enter the lockdown in the future, this will enable employers to change quickly.
Moreover, it meets the needs of employees. Now that employees have tasted the taste of this choice, flexibility has repeatedly appeared and has become one of the most important things for employees. Finally, as people become more aware of the social and environmental impact of what we do, companies have a responsibility to reduce unnecessary travel.
However, we need to be realistic and recognize that moving to a new way of working means that employees need to develop new skills. If we are not face to face, certain things will be more difficult. This can be repairing complicated working relationships, creative brainstorming and "reading rooms", which is an important aspect of managing conflicts and preventing conflicts from escalating. This is not easy in a video conference. But if approached cautiously, it can still be achieved. We must find a way to improve our virtual communication methods.
So, what are the core competencies that employees need to cultivate in a mixed workplace? In the World Economic Forum's 2020 Future Employment Report, the survey authors specified more than ten key skills, which they called the "top skills" employees need to succeed in the workplace in the future. Among these skills, there are some soft skills. These less extroverted skills are very important for success in a mixed world.
EQ
Emotional quotient (EQ) is not necessarily something you are born with. This is a skill that can be developed through continuous effort. If you are not face to face with someone, emotional intelligence is a skill that can serve you well.
When we speak in a virtual way, we need to pay special attention to our tone of voice, explain the context, and develop awareness of how we express it. Texts and emails are sometimes misunderstood for a reason. This is because context and how we present things are usually as important as we say.
Developing our emotional intelligence is important to understanding our behavior and how it may affect others. If we learn to understand our emotions better, our risk of being hijacked by emotions will be reduced (a physiological response in which emotions transcend rationality), so we will speak or act in a counterproductive way. We can also better balance social awareness and relationship management. For example, we begin to understand how empathy enters difficult conversations (because we can put ourselves in the perspective of others), and we focus on clarity of communication and explanation.
To start building your emotional intelligence, pay attention to your self-awareness. Self-aware people understand their own emotions, so they can better understand and manage the emotional state of others.
Leadership and social influence
When you become a successful leader, you will surpass official positions. The journey of becoming a great leader is highly personal, during which you can develop your core strengths, manage your weaknesses, and learn to influence others in your own way. If you think of great leaders, or those you find inspiring, part of the reason you admire them may be because they seem to really want to create positive change.
You cannot learn leadership through textbooks or gaining a certain title or years of experience. Leadership and the ability to influence others are the result of understanding others. If we take the time to develop this, it will be much easier to influence others, because you will be able to tell their purpose and motivation.
Now is the time for employers to establish a leadership culture at all levels of the organization, from junior employees to CEOs. As a leader, you cannot do everything by yourself in the ever-changing business world. You need a team with a sense of ownership. They guide each other and help each other cross the finish line together and maintain each other's energy. If you have this kind of culture, people will also be rewarded for these behaviors, then everyone has the ability to influence change forever, and they will want to do it.
Take the initiative from within
In future work, as the pace of new technologies becomes faster and faster, the company may become irrelevant faster than in the past. We must realize that the old way of working and focusing on maintaining the status quo may no longer change the status quo. Companies need teams of people who can think creatively and actively innovate within their responsibilities.
"Internal entrepreneurship" within the company will become a required skill. Intrapreneurship is a system that practices entrepreneurial principles within the boundaries of a company. The intrapreneur is the person responsible for innovating new ideas, products and processes or any new inventions within the organization.
This skill can be practiced in any functional department because it focuses on constantly asking questions, testing processes, asking how we can do better, and thinking about new ways we can meet customer needs. In order for employees to be satisfied with this, their employers need to create an environment where anyone in the organization believes that if there is no clear requirement, they can contribute to the generation of feedback and ideas without negative impact.
If we work together to develop these skills, then it can become a positive feedback loop. We become better at problem-solving and active learning. We are better able to stop our emotional impulses, which hinder listening to others and solving problems. In addition, we are better able to work constructively as a team; a high-performance team will always outperform a star.
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