In a business environment that seems to emphasize academic qualifications, it is easy for job seekers to forget just how important non-technical skills are. And yet, top executives and hirers across all business sectors agree that soft skills are as important, if not more important than technical skills.

Technical skills can be learnt, and new employees in any company are given training in any specialized skills they need for their work. What can’t be taught (at least not easily) are the soft skills which are vital in all jobs, without which, an otherwise competent employee can find his career floundering.

We at ALS spoke to top managers and hirers, to find out what soft skills they look for when hiring. Run down the check list below to see if you have A Soft Touch.

Communication Skills

Consistently ranked as the most important soft skill that hirers look for, communication skills are notoriously hard to teach. Being an effective communicator requires one to be able to write, speak and listen well.

Whether you are sending emails, or chairing project meetings, time is wasted clarifying misunderstandings and repeating instructions. The ability to communicate lays the foundation for career success because to interact successfully, you must communicate effectively.

If you need to constantly repeat yourself, or notice that your colleagues don’t ever seem to understand what you are trying to say, your communication skills may need work.

Creativity & Problem solving

A dynamic business world needs dynamic individuals who can synthesize the technical skills of their jobs with the creativity to apply these skills to new business developments.

Problem Solvers and Creatives keep a business growing, they are constantly looking for ways to refine processes or enhance quality; in other words, they are the ideal employee. And you don’t have to be a manager or decision maker to apply your creativity to your work. A friend of mine was temping doing telemarketing and data entry for a dot.com in 2000. Realizing that the work was repetitive and tedious, he wrote a simple macro in Excel and shared it with his colleagues. The productivity of the temps doubled, and he got a big fat thank-you bonus at the end of his term there!

Leadership & Teamwork

We sometimes hesitate to show leadership and initiative for fear that we’ll come across as demanding and bossy. In fact, most hirers agree that the stronger the leader, the more effective the team.

With so much inter-department interaction, project teams are often without a specific manager, and bosses are very grateful when they see someone stepping up to take charge and delegate work!

Being able to lead though, should not set you apart from the team, and teamwork ranks on par with leadership as one of the soft skills most looked for in potential hires.

The ability to fit in with a diverse team, and work in ways that complement rather than compete can be a decisive factor in the overall success of a project or team. Conversely, the inability to work well in a team does not just sabotage your project, but could also sabotage your own career – not to mention leaving you very unpopular at the workplace.

Interpersonal & Cultural Sensitivity

Workplaces are diverse and interactive, and becoming more so by the day. An employee needs to be able to get along with his co-workers. After all, these are people that you probably spend more time with than your own family.

A person who is unable to respect the feelings of his colleagues can breed strife and disharmony at the workplace. This always has a negative impact on productivity, and bosses do not look kindly on anything that negatively impacts productivity.

Adaptability & Flexibility

Just like creativity, the importance of these particular soft skills have grown in tandem with the changing demands of today’s business environment. You may have been hired as a marketing manager, or a data analyst, but your job is likely to require much more than that.

A planning manager who had spent 3 years in her company was passed over for a promotion in favour of someone who had been with her firm for 6 months. After she tendered her resignation in protest, she was told that it had been a close call between the new girls’ qualifications and her experience, but that her VP had finally made the decision because when she was asked to coordinate an interdepartmental lunch she had protested that it was HR’s job.

Of course, a single incident is rarely the whole reason one misses out on promotions and opportunities, but a person who is unwilling to work outside her comfort zone, or take on a variety of responsibilities is also likely to be a person who cannot cope with senior level management tasks.

How did you fare on the soft skill scale? If you didn’t do as well as you would like to have done, don’t worry. Whilst Soft Skills cannot be easily taught, just being aware of the need for them can go a long way to helping you acquire them. In our next update, we will revisit these skills and talk about what you can do to enhance them – and enhance your career whilst you’re at it!