The concept of usual workplace has changed. It often comprises people working from multiple locations in different cities, states, time zones, and even countries. Some employees may be working full-time in a regular office atmosphere, while some working from their home or even on contract positions in a flexi time manner. In the modern workplace scenario, co-workers can spend years with each other without physically meeting, only communicating electronically.

As economies evolve, the demand for relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes changes over time to meet new requirements. As per the experts, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork are equally important for a sustainable career in the modern industry. Professionals across all industries and experience levels must continually sharpen their skills and develop new ones to keep up with changes in the workplace.

There comes the role of skills. Of course, technical skills are important in today’s workforce; so as is soft skills, may be a bit important than technical skills. Interpersonal skills or soft skills are, how you connect to others. They reveal your attitude, ability to manage your time effectively, and how you make decisions. They also reveal your outlook on the world, how you communicate to your team, and how you show your emotions.

Career driven professionals should consider to advance their knowledge and develop the following skills to lead effectively, understand emerging technologies, and excel in a truly global workplace.

Communication

Strong communication skills are essential for success in the workplace, across all industries. When looking for new talent, especially in client-facing roles, consider what type of communication will be required. Brilliant ideas are not very useful unless, you don’t know how to effectively communicate them. The ability to speak clearly and concisely is key, one becomes more confident with this. Effective communication skills allow the speaker to deliver solutions, insights, and updates confidently.

Successful professionals regularly connect with co-workers about everything from ongoing projects to new opportunities and external threats. They must possess the ability to communicate through face-to-face conversations, large group meetings, email, instant messaging, phone calls, project management software, and spontaneous discussions. They must also find the right balance between communicating too little and over-communicating.

After all, effective communication is a two-way street. As a leader, you need to be able to share a long-term vision and the steps to get there. But you also need to listen to your team members to understand their perspective, ideas, and challenges.

Active Listening

Another important factor to be successful in modern workspace is ‘active listening’. Active listening is an essential communication skill; paying close attention to what the speaker is saying, asking follow up questions, and repeating for clarification are all active listening skills that make someone a great communicator.

Best communicators are even better at listening. While listening to a speaker, they absorb the information, try to understand it at the deepest level, then express it in a way that makes sense to others rather than themselves.

Following the simple rule of truly listening to others can have an enormous impact on your team and how they view you. People want to be heard, they want to know you care about what they’re saying and that you understand them. Active listening is non-judgmental and listening without the intent to reply. To do that you have to truly listen without simply waiting for your turn to speak.

Adaptability

Employees of all levels should be more adaptable than ever before in today’s workforce. Adaptability is highly sought-after skill by the employers. Employers are looking for those who have willingness and ability to hinge on to the workplace circumstances.

Adaptability makes people better employees and leaders, more productive, and more likely to remain with the company long-term. Adaptable employees will move up in their organizations and have more career options than those who struggle to adapt to change.

Workplace and work culture has changed a lot in last couple of years. Make sure to be adaptable with the changes and be prepared to show how well you can go with the flow.

Empathy

Empathetic people are understanding, self-aware, and collaborative. An empathetic person will make you feel at ease, patiently let you speak, and prioritize fully understanding your concerns. These are essential traits to look for, especially in customer support roles.

Employees and leaders who exhibit empathy relate better to co-workers and customers. Having empathy means an employee understands the depth and complexity of other’s issue; let it being their customers or co-workers. It allows the employee to put themselves in the latter’s shoes to better support them.

Collaboration

Strong collaboration and cooperation skills enable employees to work well with colleagues, managers, and customers. In service-oriented workplaces, collaboration is particularly important. It shows the employee’s willingness to support the customer, to clearly acknowledge issues, and to openly communicate the next steps.

When working in a team you must learn to think about others, and the project or team as a whole, more than you think about yourself. Show enthusiasm for accepting colleagues' ideas and maximizing your team's overall efficiency by utilizing each person's individual strengths.

Growth Mindset

You need to be able to grow and adapt to changes within your industry or may to the entire job market to ensure longevity in your career. Professionals with a growth mindset are motivated to reach higher levels of achievement by continuously learning new skills in order to move with a changing market.

Self-driven

Employers always prefer self-driven candidates to fill their positions, as they initiate and carry on with their tasks with out expecting any external help or rewards. Being driven is something that cannot be taught and has to come naturally from the employee. A driven attitude shows up in personality and behaviour, as well as in tangible results.

Creativity

Modern workspace with modern problems needs modern solutions. This usually means looking at a problem in a way no one else has before. Allow your imagination to consider non-traditional and outside-the-box solutions. Creativity is the foundation of innovation.

With the growing focus on automation and digitization, soft skills are more important than ever. Technical skills change as technology changes more rapidly. If you, the employee, have mastered the right soft skills, you will evolve right along with the changes. In this fluctuating work culture, professionals can be certain of one thing: continually developing professional skills is a critical requirement for career advancement and long-term success.

HRavailable keeps you updated on the latest news in the job market.

Get notified about the latest job openings through HRavailable and never miss a chance to get noticed by the recruiters.