As a developer, I bet you have spent considerable time increasing your technical knowledge and software development skills. How about soft skills? Various courses, individual projects, jobs, and unique experiences have got you where you are now. Fun fact, at the dawn of my career in IT, I took on the challenge of learning Frontend development as a basis for understanding programming better. The highlight of the experience consisted of my 3 AM crying sessions. Besides the conclusion that I’d better stick to leadership, I gained a sense of admiration and respect for developers. I spent my leadership journey giving developers a helping hand and guidance out of admiration and my passion for people.

During this journey, I observed developers who aced the technical department yet found or thought of themselves as needing to be more appreciated. I’ll share a glimpse into my 1×1 discussions from over the years, “I am the best developer in the entire team. But, somehow, X is more appreciated than me. It’s not fair. I’m a senior, after all, and he’s a mid, I don’t get it.”

What if I told you that there is a set of skills that will take you to the next level, no matter how brilliant you are in the technical department?

In an increasingly competitive IT market, soft skills are becoming the delimiter between two equally skilled technical professionals. Soft skills are the “thing” that will get you that job you desire, a promotion, the best evaluation scores, or even save you from lost professional opportunities.

Introduction to Soft Skills

Hard skills: frameworks, languages, testing. Knowing Excel…a hard skill. Moving on to our subject of interest: The Mighty Soft Skill. You certainly have already heard of soft skills, but maybe you can’t put a finger on what soft skills truly are. If you are interested in learning what this wild animal is and how to gain or boost your soft skills to propel your career, then this is the article for you.

Simply put, soft skills, aka people skills, are the abilities that showcase one’s work ethic and interaction with others. They are attributes you have as a person, independent of your job title. Soft skills are gained through life experience, while hard skills are usually achieved through learning and practice. Soft skills will help you demonstrate your hard skills.

As per Wikipedia, although not the most reliable source of information, “Soft skills, also known as power skills, common skills, essential skills, or core skills, are psychosocial skills generally applicable to all professions. These include critical thinking, problem-solving, public speaking, professional writing, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professional attitude, work ethic, career management, and intercultural fluency. This contrasts with hard skills, which are specific to individual professions.” You can start to understand why soft skills play a massive part in your performance and that technical development is just one chapter of what defines you as a professional.

Before even discussing our professional lives, we need to go back to the basics and pay attention to our core as human beings. I strongly believe that the main pillars of overall success in life are the already cliche “communication” and the often-overlooked self-development. Understanding yourself as a person, defining your psychological profile, strengths and weaknesses, wishes and goals, as well as learning how to communicate efficiently will ensure your evolution. It is worth clearly defining your values to understand your work persona better.

I don’t believe that soft skills are not learnable. Of course, it is more difficult to learn them in your later years than to have them as part of your education, but trust that these skills can be fine-tuned.

Examples

Work ethic – a personal set of values, feelings, and beliefs that determine how we approach work. They guide professional behaviour, including integrity, responsibility, quality, and discipline. Taking initiative, being accountable, and being dependable are all ways to exhibit your work ethic. It can also be viewed as “professionalism”.

Critical thinking and Problem-solving – Looking carefully at information or problems and thinking in an organized way, making choices based on evidence and good analytical reasoning. Keep in mind that arguments can oftentimes be influenced by cognitive biases.

Professional Attitude – What is the “right” professional attitude, or what does it mean when a person says “they have an attitude problem”? They don’t have a responsible work approach or a positive can-do outlook. There can be a lack of motivation, conflicts with teammates, and passive-aggressive behaviour.

Teamwork and Collaboration – Teamwork is the collaborative effort to achieve a common goal. Collaboration is a partnership with the scope of producing something together. As we work within teams, we need to learn how to help each other, ask for help when needed, and ask ourselves how we can help others. Together, as a team, we are a powerful force.

Organization and Time Management – This one is pretty straightforward: managing your time effectively, making use of lists, calendars, and planners to enable yourself to get higher quality work done in the least amount of time.

Emotional Intelligence – The ability to understand both your own emotions and the emotions of others. The main pillars of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation, and social skills. Social skills are the tools that enable people to communicate, interact harmoniously and develop healthy relationships.

Conflict resolution – Conflict is a normal part of a team, as it is in life, but if we can reduce the chances of constant conflict, we’ll choose to mitigate the risk. And let’s not forget that conflict resolution starts with two mature individuals who can cooperate to resolve it. This is another aspect that can be resolved by seeing past the differences, choosing to communicate, and being open to the other’s perspective. Asking oneself: How can we focus on finding a solution to the problem and not our differences?

 

Communication, the Queen of Soft Skills

The definition of communication at a simple Google Search: the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. Pretty basic, no? However, HOW we communicate and how we interact plays a huge role, and that is why communication can get tricky. Active listening, offering and receiving feedback, being clear and concise in delivery, and emotions of all the involved parties, including yourself. Empathy, respect, and proper use of language also play their part.

Communication with leadership

Here is a share of my leadership position perspective: Communicating your needs to your leader, most likely during your 1x1s, can aid your leader, and I do mean LEADER, to understand you better. If the leader understands you better, they will have the means to help you in your time of need. For example, helping you in your professional evolution or assigning you less work when you have personal matters on your plate. So, when they ask for your feedback, how are you doing and if you need anything, open up, share your needs, and address anything that bothers you. They might not always be able to solve the issue, but you will gain an ally.

Building relationships with those around you will certainly get you closer to your goals. It’s not about “using” others for your interests, as some could interpret it; it’s about working together towards a common goal while helping each other reach our individual goals.

Communication with the client

Not once have I heard my superiors or peers say, “Yes, he’s good, but when it comes to communicating with the client…” You might think that this is not your job, “that’s what I have a project manager for. Just let me do my thing, you know I deliver. “The project manager will not always be able to act as the interface between you and the client. You might need to discuss your status, point of view, or ideas on your own, and it would be a shame to not be able to express your expertise and make an impression. “But doesn’t my work speak for itself?” It does speak for itself, but it takes time that a client might not be able or willing to spend. You might have a brilliant solution, but if you can’t put it into words, the idea might be lost. You’ll also need to report from time to time, so it helps to know how to concisely convey the message without getting lost in the technicalities. Make yourself seen within the team, the client should know who you are and what you are capable of, and yes, it requires self-promotion on top of your work and the word of your manager.

Some ideas to improve your Soft Skills:

•       Learn how to manage conflicts
•       Learn how to concisely convey a message
•       Experiment with public speaking
•       Asking for feedback and see what you can do to improve
•       Writing your thoughts and re-reading after a while
•       Learn about the different types of communication and observe how you apply them. Does your non-verbal communication match your verbal communication?
•       Consider your audience while speaking
•       Practice active listening
•       Practice goal setting
•       Try planning and prioritizing tools

 

Areas where Soft Skills will help

Landing the job and Team fit: Looking from an interviewer’s perspective, a skilled resource acquisition team will first assess your soft skills. That’s why the intro meeting will be a “get to know each other” talk. They will not only present you with the role and the company, but they will also check your soft skills while at it. I have had the opportunity to be involved in recruitment numerous times, either to form a team or to find an addition to a team. And let me tell you, I met lots of candidates with plenty of technical knowledge. My strategy was to look beyond the hard skills and focus on the soft skills of a potential employee, keeping in mind team cohesion at all times. Not once did I have to choose from a brilliant technical profile with poor soft skills and a mediocre technical person with great personal skills. Needless to say, I chose the second candidate. Why? Technical skills are somewhat easily gained, but work ethic, team fit, and, yes, “overall vibes” are harder to develop. I knew that if the new team members fit into the team, they would collaborate and help me maintain our team values. The qualities I mainly seek are a good communicator, a team worker, resilience, a positive + growth mindset, reliability, and adaptability. Knowing how to match each team member’s strengths, weaknesses and temperament to complement each other is crucial in creating team synergy, which will eventually lead to higher performance, job satisfaction, and retention.

Performance evaluation: During the yearly evaluation sessions, the employee is evaluated based on both technical and soft skills because performance consists of both. Therefore, your communication, cooperation, and assertiveness will be evaluated by your manager and also by your peers.

More often than not, the problems within a team surface post-evaluation when teammates finally say what was on their chest over the span of the year. “Let management handle it.” A more mature and helpful approach would be to communicate the issues as soon as they arise. Communicating our needs, opinions, and ideas openly before they snowball into a bigger problem and frustration. Having the courage to address problems in a friendly manner will often reveal the other’s perspective, and you might figure that it wasn’t that bad after all. You’ll avoid making assumptions, you will set healthy boundaries and if the cooperation is on both sides, you’ll find a solution.

 “How come my colleague has a 10/10 evaluation, and I have 6/7? I am more experienced than them” Sometimes, it just might be that the other person was easier to work with. It might sound harsh, but we are human before anything else, and we wish for easy interactions. If you wish to start creating better interactions, a great starting point is your input. You could check the evaluation criteria and ask your manager where you could improve. Be open to constructive criticism, and kindly teach your peers what communication style works best for you.

Promotion and Career Path: Having positive evaluation scores can not only lead to a compensation increase but also a promotion when the opportunity arises. In this case, depending on the role, certain soft skills will play a part. Most opportunities will require being dependable, a good communicator, assertive, and a problem-solver. If you’d like a leadership role, these qualities are a must, if you decide you don’t want to go that route, these qualities will make your life easier, nonetheless.

As you reach the Senior level, your career path might lead you to become a Technical Lead, which, like all leadership roles, involves a lot of communication. Maybe you get a freelance opportunity, and that often implies that you have to be the developer AND the project manager, as you constantly need to communicate with the client and understand their needs and vision. Constantly developing your soft skills will ensure that you are prepared for any opportunity that comes your way.

Conclusion

Now, working in software development can turn into soft(A)ware development. Having a continuous improvement mindset that focuses on yourself as an individual is as important as investing in technical skills. Technology is ever-changing, but soft skills are forever.