“Each person is as unique as a snowflake.” Have you ever heard that expression or something like it? While it could seem trite, it expresses a deeply important truth. Each of us is wholly unique, harboring special and invaluable talents. By leveraging our time and experiences, we can develop our raw talents into discernible skills that can be used to secure our place in the ever competitive modern workforce. These skills fall into two categories: hard skills and soft or success skills. While these two kinds of skills differ in nature, both are crucial for starting or restarting careers.
Hard skills
Hard skills are specific and teachable abilities that are often quantifiable or measurable. Mostly learned through formal instruction, training, or even on the job, these skills tend to be useful to specific fields of work. They are typically well defined, easily measured, and necessary for specific job functions. These skills are often noted as desired or required in job descriptions. We can make the most of our hard skills when we train diligently to acquire them and bring our best efforts when we use them.
Hard skills, for instance, can include technology skills, like a proficiency in a coding language, hardware, or software, a foreign language, data analysis, accounting, graphic design, use of machinery, and so forth.
Hard skills are fundamentally important to the workplace. Without the specialization created by hard skills, organizations, trades, and specialized practices would be unable to operate. With nearly 35 million Americans working in the trades, hard skills are undeniably important to the workplace. What’s more, most of our passions and talents that define our purpose would go unrealized if not for the development of hard skills.
Soft or 'success' skills
If hard skills are more easily measurable or quantifiable, soft skills are not. Immeasurable and often intangible, these skills are crafted through our experiences, life lessons, and informal training. And, like other talents, some people seem to be born with certain soft skills. Often referred to as ‘success’ skills, these skills intertwine with our hard skills to round out our abilities and create the best version of self. While hard skills may steer us to a specific path, our soft skills equip us with the capabilities we need to travel it. Soft skills are equally as important to develop and procure as hard skills.
Success skills can give us a competitive edge in our chosen field and propel us forward. They apply to just about all professions–great and small. They include time management, customer relations, interpersonal skills, problem solving, critical thinking, public speaking, leadership, work ethic, communication, and so forth.
Honing your hard and soft skills
Continuing to craft both your hard and soft skills is an essential element of success in today’s workplace. In fact, many generations of workers prefer to hone their own skills and to work with or manage others who consistently seek the same. If you want to stand out from your peers, make the most of each career opportunity, or simply bring your best self to the workplace, work on crafting and improving your hard and soft skills. Fine-tune the unique talents you’ve developed while also harvesting new abilities by seeking new, diverse experiences, and growth opportunities in and out of the workplace.
Hard and soft skills are incredibly important to professional development–and to personal development. When we invest time and effort into developing and perfecting our skills, we can push our careers to new heights and become all we are meant to be.
If you’re interested in honing your hard and soft skills and propelling your career forward, The Growth Group is here to help. With this exclusive new ebook, “Starting Your Career”, you’ll discover key principles needed to start or switch a career. From finding a workplace that best suits you to navigating the remote workplace, we provide you with everything you need to kickstart a successful career. Explore the modern workplace and discover what it takes to bring your best self to work every day with “Starting Your Career.”
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