7 Soft Skills You Need to Make a Career (+ 3 Additional Skills)

I am a former NBCUniversal pageand I will always remember how thorough the application and interview process for the program was.

Most importantly, it taught me a valuable lesson: soft skills can be just as – if not more – desirable than hard skills.

In my experience, the development of soft skills is seen as a sign of metamorphosis. While hard skills are essential, they are also usually mandatory for a job. On the other hand, soft skills require more intrinsic motivation and long-term change.

I owe a large part of my professional growth to the development and adaptation of my soft skills. So read on to find out my best tips and practices.

Table of contents

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are the combination of social skills, communication skills, emotional intelligence and personality traits that make it easy to get along with other people and work harmoniously.

Soft skills can be taught, but they are less basic and more technical skills. Hard skills are specific characteristics that can be clearly defined, measured and taught in order to be successful in the job.

Hard skills allow me to learn advanced techniques and methods that deliver measurable results. They can even be linked directly to the bottom line.

But when it comes to soft skills—things like small talk, empathy, and flexibility—they’re not an exact science. However, they are just as effective.

I need hard skills to get a job, but soft skills to advance in my career. That’s why I’ve put together a list of the soft skills that are most important to building a successful career – and how to acquire them. But first, I’ll explain why soft skills are important.

Why are soft skills important?

1. You demonstrate willingness for a promotion.

Soft skills show the willingness to go beyond yourself. My bosses have always told me that when considering direct reports for promotions, they look for people who already exhibit characteristics of a more senior position.

As a Lead Coordinator at Nickelodeon, I am not always afforded the same opportunities as Manager, Senior Manager, Director and beyond, which may limit my ability to develop new hard skills. However, I can practice soft skills that show I’m ready to take on more work and be a leader.

2. They demonstrate situational awareness and flexibility.

In contrast to hard skills, soft skills require situational awareness to know when to use which skill. For example, as a freelance blog writer, I know that my hard skills include:

• Technical Writing – Understanding how to use proper spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.
• Using digital tools – Google Docs for writing and Grammarly for editing.
• Research – operating search engines, fact checking and obtaining statistics and images.

I know I always need to use these skills to write an effective blog post for HubSpot. However, when writing different blog posts, I use different soft skills depending on the topic, style, length and parameters.

3. They compensate for automation.

What do we humans have to offer compared to generative AI? Our passion, creativity, enthusiasm and personalization. This is why soft skills are so important in the workplace. They humanize our work.

I spoke to Roger LamSenior Product Marketing Manager at LinkedIn who agreed.

“While generative AI and other hard skills are on everyone’s lips these days, it is becoming increasingly important to develop soft skills in parallel. As manual, repetitive tasks are automated by technology, employees have more time to collaborate with real people on more strategic and relational work,” says Lam.

Skills like work ethic and growth mindset are part of being human. My passion for my work and my desire to continue to grow, learn and achieve results are ways to differentiate myself in AI.

4. They are good judges of character.

Many soft skills are inherently related to the type of person I am. While hard skills indicate talent, experience and expertise, certain soft skills are a tell-tale sign that I will be a good person for the team.

For example, soft skills like emotional intelligence, collaboration and active listening aren’t just “nice to have” – ​​they prove that I’m here for more than just a job. I will be empathetic to my colleagues, open to collaborating with and learning from them, and respecting what they say.

I have most successfully acquired soft skills by observing the colleagues and managers around me and understanding what their presence, opportunities, goals and successes owe to soft skills.

Then I can challenge myself to practice similar soft skills to progress.

If you’re wondering which seven soft skills can advance your career, read on.

1. Emotional Intelligence

I will always remember one of the questions I was asked in my recent interview with the NBCUniversal Page Program: Name a time when you showed kindness to someone in the workplace.

I had never been asked this situational question before, and it surprised me. However, I quickly recovered and remembered a time when I helped a fellow intern who was struggling with her course load do some of the work.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage one’s own emotions and recognize those of others. It consists of five key elements:

• Social skills.
• Self-consciousness.
• Self-regulation.
• Empathy.
• Motivation.

While I try to emulate these skills in my personal life, they are also of great value in the workplace and can be boiled down to a few skills:

• Can I recognize and regulate my emotions and reactions at work?
• Can I build relationships and positive relationships with other people?
• Can I empathize with others?

Even though it may not be the most important soft skill, Emotional intelligence is actually considered twice just as predictive of performance as IQ.

The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2023 Emotional intelligence is also one of them Leadership skill number one Because companies place great value on qualities that are associated with emotional intelligence.

To make the message clear, here is a quote from Britt AndreattaCEO of Brain Aware Training.

“Emotional intelligence determines all possible indicators. There is some research that shows that when a company has high emotional intelligence, it increases its financial performance,” says Andreatta.

2. Attitude of the team player

Growing up, I was always the student who would try to lead a group project and offer to delegate the work to the entire group.

I always thought this was proof that I was a strong leader and a hard worker, but it only diminished my ability to work as part of a team.

As I have progressed professionally, I have come to realize that if I want to use my time efficiently and effectively, it is impossible to work headlong alone.

By opening myself up to support and collaboration with my amazing teammates, I ease some of the burden on myself and my workload and give myself the freedom to embrace diverse opportunities.

According to the Monster Future of Work: Outlook 2021 surveyEmployers chose teamwork and collaboration as the second most important skills in applicants. This makes sense because collaborating with other people is essential, whether you’re an individual employee like me or a human resources manager.

Openness to other perspectives in brainstorming meetings and breaking down action items in projects demonstrates the ability to work cross-functionally to improve the company.

Operations teams are the heart of a company and ensure that all teams complete their tasks smoothly. Tools like HubSpot’s Operations Hub enable these teams to work better together even as companies grow.

A unified toolset helps them connect apps, clean and curate customer data, and automate business processes on a central CRM platform to improve team collaboration.

3. Growth mindset

I’ve been a writer all my life.

My primary form of writing growing up was fantasy fiction. In high school I started writing more academic papers, but continued to write short stories and song lyrics on the side. I started writing poetry in college.

However, when I interned at HubSpot Blog in 2018, it was the first time I signed up to write about real-life topics professionally. With a growth mindset, I took on this challenge head on rather than worrying that I didn’t have the skills and experience to handle the new task.

Accordingly Carol Dweck from Stanford UniversityPeople with a growth mindset believe they have the potential to continually develop their talents and skills through persistence, practice, and learning.

In contrast, people with a fixed mindset believe that they have a fixed set of talents and skills that cannot be developed or adjusted.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always handle failure well. However, confronting obstacles, challenges and, yes, failure is an important and unavoidable part of life in any career.

How I handle these situations—either by becoming discouraged and giving up or by viewing them as learning opportunities—may dictate to my employer whether I can handle higher-level tasks.

I practice these soft skills by finding situations in my personal and professional life where I can reframe my response to a setback as optimistic and forward-thinking. Watch Dweck’s TED talk to learn more about the growth mindset.

HubSpot’s sales hub enables teams to implement a growth mindset. It enables sales teams to be more productive by equipping them with simple tools that deliver quick results and provide important context to improve customer relationships.

This allows teams to realize their potential and learn new skills and processes to improve their work.

4. Openness to feedback

Speaking of failure, I don’t tolerate failure well: I also have difficulty accepting constructive criticism. It’s not that I don’t think I did something wrong; I just feel guilty about not doing a perfect job and fixate on the negative feedback.

This was one of the soft skills I had to work hardest on, as I know that being open to developmental feedback is crucial to success in a job – especially a new one. It shows my desire to become the best team member I can be and that is an ongoing process.

Reacting defensively or depressed is counterproductive. I always remind myself that it’s a good sign when a manager gives me constructive feedback. This means they see my potential and want to help me get there.

I want to anticipate feedback by asking for it regularly and directly, rather than waiting for it to come to me. This shows that I’m passionate about addressing my shortcomings and improving my performance, and it makes it easier to digest negative feedback when I’m mentally prepared for it.

5. Adaptability

Like many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned my world upside down. At the time, I was participating in the NBCUniversal Page Program and working in the office five to six days a week. Since we didn’t receive work laptops as sites, we had no option to work remotely.

Suddenly March 2020 happened. All sides had to work from home for the foreseeable future. It was a shock to suddenly lose face-to-face interaction between people in a program that was all about learning and networking.

However, we adapted to this change by setting up virtual informational interviews where we would normally have had coffee chats.

Change is inevitable, and the pandemic is a great example of a massive change that affects us all and was uncontrollable. We had no choice but to accept the change and adapt the way we work to move the companies forward.

LinkedIn listed adaptability as the “current best skill.” 2024 Most In-Demand Skills Report. Lam spoke with this soft skill:

“Adaptability is often considered a top soft skill, but it can also impact how quickly someone adapts to technological advances and uses new tools to do more effective and efficient work,” says Lam.

I find this very insightful as it shows how soft skills can directly impact hard skills. I practice adaptability on a smaller scale by raising my hand when new opportunities arise.

However, I also demonstrate adaptability on a larger scale as I weather industry-wide changes like the introduction of streaming services and generative AI.

6. Active listening

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received is to avoid multitasking during meetings. It’s easy to overdo it when the to-do list is endless and I’m booked up for back-to-back meetings.

Meetings where I don’t need to speak or take notes can be an easy place to work with the camera off and microphone muted.

Unfortunately, this is the least efficient use of my time. I waste my time sitting in the meeting if I’m not paying attention, and the work I get done is usually much slower than if I did it without distractions. The worst part is that it tells team members that I don’t practice active listening.

Active listening is a form of communication that aims to achieve mutual understanding between two or more parties. When I actively listen to someone, I don’t just passively hear what the speaker is saying. Instead, I pay full attention and respond directly to what they say.

A 2024 Gitnux report on listening shows that active listeners retain 75% more information than passive listeners. The report also shares that active listening can improve team productivity by up to 25%, sales performance by up to 30%, problem-solving efficiency by up to 40%, and team collaboration by up to 50%.

Here are some ways I practice active listening in meetings:

• During in-person meetings, use eye contact with the meeting moderators or, during virtual meetings, keep your eyes on the meeting screen.
• Minimize all other windows in virtual meetings.
• Offer clarifying questions or answers.
• I take minutes of meetings, even if I am not the designated person taking the minutes.
• Refer to information from the meeting in future discussions.

Active listening is just as important when it comes to customers. Marketers want to ensure they are providing consumers with valuable content, which is achieved by actively listening to what they want. HubSpot’s Content Hub helps teams create a more memorable customer experience.

It offers tools to create personalized content that directly addresses audience needs and drives more engagement. With analytics and unified CRM data, Content Hub optimizes content to ensure it resonates with audiences and shows them your company is responsive to their needs.

7. Work ethic

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I’ve been told many times that if I want to be considered for a promotion, I have to do the work I want. That may seem unfair. Why do I do extra work if I don’t get paid for it or given the title I deserve?

A strong work ethic shows a willingness to go the extra mile to do a job well.

People with strong work ethics will take the time to learn new professional skills to improve their work. This is why I am told to do the work I want.

After all, how can my manager trust that I can handle the increased workload and time commitment if I don’t already prove that I can?

Accordingly ADP People at Work 2024 report.Work ethic is the most important skill employers look for in new hires. You understand Hard skills can be taught But soft skills like a strong work ethic are harder to find. People with a strong work ethic tend to produce higher quality work and are more satisfied with their work.

I practice these soft skills by carefully considering each assigned project and task.

Often there is a way to get the job done with minimal effort. Although there is a time and a place for this (sometimes tasks need to be prioritized), I often look for a way to complete the task by going above and beyond.

This may require conducting additional research or design work for a slide presentation or gaining additional insights and analysis following a social media campaign.

Whatever it is, it will signal to your manager that you take your work seriously and will consider you for further growth opportunities.

Additional soft skills that need to be promoted

Although the seven soft skills listed above are crucial for career growth, the list doesn’t end there. Read on to learn more soft skills that I have found incredibly valuable in my current and previous roles.

8. Strong communication

Communication is an extension of several soft skills listed above.

For example, to be a great team player you have to communicate well with everyone. Good communication can promote emotional intelligence and empathy.

However, communication skills can go even deeper.

Consider verbal versus written communication. Of course, I’m a freelance writer, so written communication is essential to my role. But even in non-written roles, eloquent, respectful and concise communication in emails and chat is essential.

One of the most difficult skills I learned was written communication, how to appear assertive while remaining polite.

Accordingly MIT Sloan Management ReviewOral and written communication skills are among the top five most sought-after skills among new hires. Employers want people who can communicate ideas and information effectively.

I find this particularly important when communicating with people of different levels. I would share ideas very differently with a close colleague than with a C-level executive.

While good communication is important in the workplace, it is also important outside of it. Good communication with customers, external agencies and partners demonstrates the ability to see the space, connect with others and adapt information appropriately to the target group.

A good way to improve my communication skills is to think about a piece of information that I need to share. Then I practice sharing it with different audiences, both verbally and in writing. As always, trust is key!

9. Problem solving

Problems arise and my instinct is often to panic. Unfortunately, that’s not the best way to deal with situations like this, so problem solving is a skill I’ve nurtured throughout my career over the years.

This is an important soft skill because it demonstrates the ability to draw conclusions under duress. Analyze a situation, identify it Possible solutions and choosing the best course of action demonstrate the ability to apply logic and make informed decisions, regardless of whether the problem needs to be addressed urgently or not.

Problem solving also encourages creativity and innovation. I’m a person with big ideas, but since I’m a subordinate in my workplace, I rarely get the chance to make big decisions. However, when problems arise in my environment, I can intervene and think about unconventional, innovative solutions.

For example, my team recently drafted a script for a talent shoot. However, because too much talent was needed in such a short time, our script was rejected. Instead of accepting the failure, I offered to shorten the script significantly, which required a rethinking of the production requirements.

In the end, my team loved the idea and the script was approved.

The most important part of problem solving is staying calm, critically analyzing the situation, coming up with one or more solutions and confidently proposing them (or making the decision if that’s your responsibility!).

HubSpot’s service hub is a perfect example of a tool that empowers teams to solve problems. It offers scalable support with AI-powered self-service, an omni-channel help desk, and 24/7 availability.

Customer service teams can then deliver personalized experiences and eliminate unnecessary manual processes to focus on innovative, seamless solutions for customers.

10. Time management and prioritization

In a previous position I worked 10 to 12 hours a day. I got used to this schedule and felt like I couldn’t get my work done in less time. Then I set myself the challenge of finishing the work in eight hours. Whatever was left could wait until the next day.

I quickly adjusted to this new schedule and realized that I could complete most, if not all, of my daily urgent work in eight hours.

This was a powerful lesson on time management and prioritization.

I always find ways to utilize my time. By reducing the hours I gave myself, I was more productive in those hours because I was using better time management methods.

This included blocking time in my calendar to work on projects and prioritizing tasks based on urgency and deadline.

Timewatch’s research on time management in 2022 found that 90% of people believe better time management would increase productivity and 86% say it would improve concentration on work.

Personally, time management has helped me achieve more at work with less time and effort, reduce stress and improve my work-life balance.

This also showed my superiors that I was using my time efficiently. You can trust that I will work during working hours and complete my work correctly and on time, which proves that I will continue to be able to manage my time if promoted.

With AI-based marketing tools HubSpot’s marketing hub promotes time management and prioritization by personalizing messages and automating campaigns. Tools like these help me prioritize creative, thoughtful, and strategic tasks that require my time and let automation do the busy work.

Prove your potential with soft skills

Experience and skills can get me a role, but soft skills can get me a promotion.

I have always viewed soft skills as the icing on the cake, but have learned that they are the necessary building blocks to make a job more enjoyable and rewarding, to build and maintain professional relationships, and to demonstrate enthusiasm and the ability to grow.

What ties all of these soft skills together is a positive attitude. It may sound cheesy, but believing that there is a positive outcome in every difficult situation helps me to cope with everyday work and work better with my team.

While soft skills are harder to learn and teach, they are incredibly rewarding in both your personal and professional life. My next goal will be to evaluate the soft skills I haven’t yet mastered and practice them until they become second nature.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2017 and has been updated for completeness.