Nowadays, hard skills play an important role as they set you apart from everyone else. These abilities enable you to succeed on job-specific tasks and responsibilities. Hard skills, the technical knowledge, can be learned through courses, degrees, training, workshops and throughout your job.

Deprived from these abilities, one won’t be able to find its way to success. However, non-technical skills are also vital to carry out the job efficiently.

It is undeniable that the greatest employees offer a wide range of specialized qualifications associated with the functions performed in the company. However, it is equally true that companies search for a 360˚ solution, a synergy between hard and soft skills.

In fact, soft skills have been undervalued for too long. Nowadays, this misconception is changing. There’s a new mindset where soft skills are top priority when recruiters are searching for new talents.

Soft skills: what are they?

Soft skills, also known as emotional intelligence, refer to the ability to communicate and interact with others. From a job perspective, these personal and interpersonal characteristics have an effect on how we communicate, adapt and interact within a company culture.

Here are four key soft skills that make a difference in the workplace:

• Communication – So much more than chatting! Both written and verbal communication abilities are of utmost value as they influence the “mood” for how your teammates perceive you. Communication is also an essential pathway to enhance other soft skills, such as active listening.

• Critical thinking – Critical thinking is the conduct of analyzing challenges in order to find approaches to solve them. The best employees are able to consider and evaluate a critical situation and make a rational and balanced decision. Addressing problems in a proper way is a vital skill. A positive problem-solving process turns challenges into opportunities.

• Teamwork – A company acts as one. There is no room for “a one man show”. Employees should be capable to cooperate with their colleagues efficiently to fulfill a common goal. An organization must have strong core values and well-defined aspirations in order to be successful in the long run.

• Work ethic – Ethics may seem an old-fashioned word but is an extremely valuable soft skill. A good work ethic is an expression of your work and character. Highly valuable people are determined, productive and intrinsically motivated to perform well. To be ethical at the workplace also means that you respect and support your colleagues.

As we’ve said before, although hard skills are considerably easier to understand and learn, soft skills can be shaped and developed. There’s no whole package when it comes to soft skills. For instance, on the one hand, some people are a perfect example of a team player, but on the other hand they might also struggle with trust issues.

Reports suggest that the most valuable skills will be those that IT programs and machines cannot reproduce. Meaning… soft skills.

You cannot belittle the value of hard skills. These are exceptionally important for positions with specific technical requirements. But, for example, the ideal software and web developer has a strong knowledge of the top programming languages and the essential soft skills to successfully fulfil any kind of individual or collective task.