It was a remarkable change in the job industry, when work from home or remote job took over the place of the traditional work culture and practices. It was unexpected at that moment though it is now a common practice for the entire work world. Many industry experts have already decided to continue this pattern of work even after the pandemic restrictions has been ruled out.

Soft skills as it sounds; it is not that soft and bit hard to acquire those skills. Soft skills are hard to be taught too.  It comes all the way from your experiences and practices. May be that’s why it is better to be called as “emotional intelligence”.

Either remote or at office work; while hiring an employee, soft skills play an important role. When it comes to hiring, soft skills are also just as important as the technical knowledge of an employee. In the current scenario; many of the employees have started their job as a remote worker or in a hybrid pattern. And this transition proved that many of the ‘not that mandatory’ soft skills have become must haves.

Soft skills are personal attributes such as leadership quality, communication skills, time management skills etc.  Working remotely requires a lot communication, self-management and collaboration. In the present work culture hard skills are useless without right soft skills.

The need for soft skills is very important, especially in a remote work environment. A remote work environment is entirely result driven, which can be achieved only by demonstrating your hard skills. Still, it is the soft skills that facilitates the effective teamwork and aids in lasting productivity. So, it is time to prioritize soft skills development just as you would your hard skills. 

Here are the top essential soft skills that you could practice to support your remote team.

Communication

Positive rapport is essential for a team’s success; which cannot be built through screens but possible through effective communication.

Remote work requires excellent communication skill. When working remotely most of the communications are made through emails, text messages, chat messages. Employers place a high value on people who have excellent interpersonal and communication skills. An employee with good communication skills will always be successful in:

• Building relationships
• Sharing their thoughts and ideas
• Problem solving; and
• Progress reporting

It will be an added benefit if the employee is familiar with a variety of communication tools including instant messaging apps and video conferencing apps, which are being widely used in the current remote work culture.

Self-Motivation

Without the soft skill of self-motivation, an employee won’t be able to make consistent contributions to a virtual team. To succeed in this environment, remote workers have to be able to walk into each day knowing what they need to get done.

There will always be distractions when working from home. Remote workers should maintain focus by blocking out visual and audible distractions. Then they must be able to follow through on tasks without the prompting of a manager who’s looking over their shoulder. In nut shell, remote workers should be good at blocking distractions and be self-motivated to reach the goals.

Adaptability and Flexibility

Things change quickly in our increasingly connected and technologically advanced workplaces. Employers need workers who react positively to change and approach unforeseen events as challenges that invoke growth.          

Flexibility in remote work place can be shown in different ways like:

• Intellectual flexibility: be able to demonstrate that you can integrate new information and draw conclusions from it.
• Receptiveness – towards change; being able to respond with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to achieve targets.
• Creativity – actively seeking out new ways of doing things and having confidence to improvise or experiment.
• Modification of behavior – be able to adjust your style of working or method of approach to meet the needs of a situation or emergency.

Collaboration and Influence

It could be easier to collaborate while working in an office atmosphere when employees sitting next to next.  But in the current work culture; working remotely never means that the employee is all alone, instead, an employee is connected to all his teammates via network-oriented tools. As the technology advanced, there are so many options they could avail to use shared spaces; for messages, documents and folders.  Make use of all these shared systems to cultivate the skill of collaboration.

To show your teammates that you are an active participant, make yourself available for collaboration. Keep in mind; while in remote job get synchronized with your team mates through group chats and shared documents, and always avoid informal communication as it may affect the entire team work.

Same like in collaboration, the ability to influence others while working a broad team is a well-polished skill. Making a team member to work in an assigned task smoothly requires considerable fineness over phone and in writing.

Set your Tone

Take some time to analyze how your tone impacts your mood; and curating this skill is very important now. This skill makes you indispensable through the journey of your work life.

In this virtual world, it is hard to interpret how you are speaking. Sometimes you can be taken wrong for an inappropriate tone. Always keep your energy level high while working, but never forget to keep a control over it while delivering comments.

Discipline and Time Management

Must have skill for someone in a remote job. While working from home, you can be easily distracted towards many other things and may find difficulties in sticking to your work. While working in an office environment; you have a time schedule for everything including your breaks. But these schedules may get affected for a remote worker due to many reasons.

While on remote jobs, it is very important to find a routine. Schedule your routine and stick to it carefully for a successful remote job. Always make a list of to-do things for each day, prioritize and finish them. You could also schedule your breaks like as in an office. At the end of the day, review the list and find out where you lacked if you did. This will make you feel accomplished.

In today’s extremely competitive remote job market, many of the candidates are well and equally qualified with technical skills. But those with these exceptional emotional intelligences, commonly called soft skills are hard to be found. Disciplined and self-motivated people with strong communication skills and the power to influence others make excellent leaders.

Even though there are many nice-to have skills apart from those mentioned above, practicing these must have skills can take your career to another level. Analyze yourself for these must have skills, keep learning and develop into a strong yet flexible professional for taking the next challenge.

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