Soft skills: defin­i­tion and lists

Are you par­tic­u­larly team-oriented, ambitious, critical, em­path­et­ic, com­mu­nic­at­ive, and well organised? Can you present well, manage your working hours, learn new skills, and work in­de­pend­ently? Are you resilient, curious, self-re­flect­ive, and engaged? In ap­plic­a­tion pro­ced­ures, soft skills like these are often spe­cific­ally sought after and almost every employer asks these questions when looking for new employees. These soft skills are not usually certified, but they have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on your character, it is therefore important to know the defin­i­tion and types of soft skills if you want to be suc­cess­ful in the labour market.

Soft skills primarily mean qualities such as the ability to motivate others and work in a team, but in a broader sense, they also refer to those character traits that make someone the person they are and are for that reason, hard to verify. Soft skills are roughly divided into three cat­egor­ies: personal, social, and meth­od­ic­al skills. These areas es­sen­tially deal with the following questions: How do you function as an in­de­pend­ent person? How do you function as a social being? How do you deal with chal­lenges? Soft skills like these often play a more important role after all the can­did­ates have been in­ter­viewed, es­pe­cially when there are several can­did­ates with similar skills.

Hard skills on the other hand are re­l­at­ively easy to verify through cer­ti­fic­ates and qual­i­fic­a­tions. They primarily consist of technical skills and com­pet­ences that can be trained and often play a more important role during the initial ap­plic­a­tion process. However, a soft skill like the ability to quickly adapt to a new role or to learn new skills may make up for a lack of spe­cial­ist knowledge in a certain field.

No matter how im­press­ive your hard skills may be, it could be very difficult to cope with modern working life if you don’t have the necessary soft skills. Although there are jobs that require highly qualified experts rather than social skills, these jobs are rare. Team skills, com­mu­nic­a­tion skills, and or­gan­isa­tion­al talent are required much more fre­quently – in other words, qualities that help you to influence the working at­mo­sphere to a high degree.

Some jobs require more teamwork than others; it could be that one job presents you with new chal­lenges almost every day and therefore requires a high degree of in­de­pend­ence and flex­ib­il­ity, while another job requires a high level of mental re­si­li­ence and dis­cip­line. It is therefore im­possible to say which soft skills are generally more important than others, but as long as you have a suf­fi­cient set of soft skills, this should be of tre­mend­ous help in any job.

While hard skills are often listed in your cur­riculum vitae, it's not easy to list your soft skills. Even if you’ve got an idea of what to write, you can't really say you're a sociable person or that you're a quick learner without having any proof. Ideally, you should make your soft skills im­pli­citly clear in your ap­plic­a­tion letter. Here are a few examples:

• You can influence whether you appear sym­path­et­ic, creative, or head­strong with the way you formulate your cover letter.
• You can underline your character with the way you present your ap­plic­a­tion documents. An original design can show your self-con­fid­ence and cre­ativ­ity, for example.
• If you worked during your studies, this usually demon­strates high stress tolerance and self-dis­cip­line. Depending on the type of activity, you can also draw con­clu­sions about your team skills.
• Stating that you worked vol­un­tar­ily in your CV can point out that you are a socially competent person with a high degree of self-mo­tiv­a­tion.
• A CV often includes hobbies and interests. A team sport, for example, promotes your social skills; an interest in strategy games indicates strengths in solving problems.
• Last but not least, your ap­plic­a­tion photo also says a lot about you. If you can present your authentic self without seeming un­pro­fes­sion­al or uptight, you will stand out in a positive way. In any case, invest in a pho­to­graph­er who presents you ac­cord­ingly.

No list of soft skills is really complete; after all, there are many human traits that are often difficult to con­cep­tu­al­ise. In addition, many of the traits listed below in­ter­twine so that they interact con­struct­ively. The soft skills ‘re­si­li­ence’ and ‘stress res­ist­ance’ overlap as often as ‘ana­lyt­ic­al skills’ and ‘self-re­flec­tion’. Therefore, the amount of soft skills is just as important as how well they work together.

Personal skills include all the skills that dis­tin­guish you as an in­de­pend­ent person. Many of them are over­rid­den by the other cat­egor­ies. Therefore, it can be easier for a confident and self-re­flect­ive person to motivate others in social situ­ations. Motivated and committed people are usually more willing to acquire or expand their meth­od­ic­al skills.

You work a lot, but rarely find it over­whelm­ing. In times of increased ex­pect­a­tions, you manage to fulfil re­quire­ments without suffering from a sub­sequent drop in per­form­ance. You face un­fore­seen events and de­vel­op­ments with de­term­in­a­tion and have a high stress tolerance. This also makes you a role model for less resilient col­leagues. Every employer ap­pre­ci­ates reliable employees who can withstand turbulent times.

You can work well in­de­pend­ently and assess the con­sequences of your actions correctly as well as accept them and use them for further de­vel­op­ment. People with personal re­spons­ib­il­ity stand up for what they do; they are mature and self-de­term­ined, but also solidary. Personal re­spons­ib­il­ity does not rule out taking re­spons­ib­il­ity for others. As a self-reliant person, you master the chal­lenges of everyday life on your own. This also includes standing by your own mistakes, being liable for any damages that may have arisen, and remedying them in­de­pend­ently.

You are ready to leave your comfort zone, tackle new chal­lenges, and use your skills for purposes that you don’t ne­ces­sar­ily profit from directly. Dedicated people invest time and energy in helping others, for example, by working on social projects. At work, com­mit­ment means not just doing your job, but giving more than what is expected. Committed employees often have a positive effect on the entire work en­vir­on­ment, this is also one of the soft skills that can help you advance your career.

You are willing and striving to achieve certain goals and perform tasks well. Mo­tiv­a­tion is your inner drive, which makes you a reliable and satisfied worker. However, for this to work, you have to enjoy what you do, because real mo­tiv­a­tion comes from within. Many people motivate them­selves by setting them­selves a realistic goal and promising them­selves a reward at the end. Sometimes, being ap­pre­ci­ated by col­leagues and superiors, financial security, or a quiet evening after work is enough. Everyone motivates them­selves dif­fer­ently, it is just important that you establish your own mo­tiv­a­tion factors.

As an in­quis­it­ive person, you have an inner desire to ex­per­i­ence new things and to get to know the unknown. Finding out in­form­a­tion is as appealing to you as finding out the interests of others that you’ve never really talked to before. In­quis­it­ive­ness does not always have positive con­nota­tions in our society; people who are too curious are often regarded as annoying. A healthy curiosity is an important mo­tiv­a­tion for people to seek new chal­lenges and to explore pre­vi­ously un­fa­mil­i­ar territory. In the workplace, this means that you are in­ter­ested in tasks and skills that initially have little or nothing to do with your job profile.

You’re in control of yourself and know how to act. It’s hard to distract you from your main tasks. You react con­fid­ently to un­fore­seen events and do not lose sight of your goals. Certain phases of your day-to-day work require con­cen­tra­tion and focus, which you master with self-dis­cip­line. The basis of intact self-dis­cip­line is an ongoing process of self-control.

By always crit­ic­ally ques­tion­ing your actions and correctly arranging your pri­or­it­ies, you achieve a high degree of self-dis­cip­line. At work, this means that you pri­or­it­ise your tasks ap­pro­pri­ately and suc­cess­fully control anything that could distract you, such as private interests and idleness.

You can crit­ic­ally evaluate yourself and your work and learn from your mistakes. At the same time, you know when you did a good job. Self-re­flec­tion is one of those personal skills that has the most internal effect. At the same time, the effect can also be felt on the outside: Self-re­flect­ive people are quick learners and grow with their tasks. This also includes knowing what you cannot do. For good reasons, certain tasks are better left to experts and should not be performed by non-pro­fes­sion­als (e.g. server main­ten­ance, backend pro­gram­ming). Self-re­flect­ive people run less risk of over­es­tim­at­ing them­selves and causing damage.

While self-re­flec­tion requires you to be aware of your weak­nesses, con­fid­ence requires you to recognise and implement your own strengths. Self-confident people never sell them­selves short, but know their value. A strong sense of con­fid­ence spreads to many other skills and areas of life because self-confident people have a solid character. This means that they are not afraid of new chal­lenges or of ex­press­ing their opinion.

Soft skills often refer to those skills that involve social in­ter­ac­tion, i.e. col­leagues and superiors. For many employers, for example, it’s important to know whether an applicant is a team player or is par­tic­u­larly com­mu­nic­at­ive during an interview. Social skills cannot replace pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tions, but they can enhance them and, in some cases, make all the dif­fer­ence. Depending on the job de­scrip­tion, they can even be a key pre­requis­ite.

During the ap­plic­a­tion process, employers try to get a realistic picture of the ap­plic­ant's social skills. Con­versely, your social skills often determine how settled you feel at work and how you interact with other col­leagues, which is what most jobs require – even in offices with computer work­sta­tions.

Being em­path­et­ic means that you put yourself in your col­leagues’ shoes – whether it be in the event of success or failure. Your social intuition also enables you to react sens­it­ively and re­spect­fully to certain situ­ations. Some external or personal factors may also have an impact on your work. If, for example, an employee’s per­form­ance isn’t up to scratch because they are going through a tough time in their private life, show un­der­stand­ing. Empathy in the workplace helps you stay human in difficult situ­ations.

Social struc­tures are often difficult to break down. When you start a new job, however, you don’t have to try too hard to integrate yourself into the existing social groups and help them flourish. You do not remain the ‘new’ person for long, but manage to become an in­de­pend­ent part of the social group in the workplace. Col­leagues quickly turn into ac­quaint­ances or even friends. In­teg­ra­tion does not mean merely complying with the pre­vail­ing con­ven­tions. Capable of in­teg­rat­ing well, you manage to help shape the en­vir­on­ment. You will quickly become an essential part of the social construct.

The ability to com­mu­nic­ate well is one of the most important skills in many companies. As a com­mu­nic­a­tion expert, it’s easy for you to formulate your thoughts concisely and to be a suitable con­ver­sa­tion partner. This often also extends to digital platforms on which you maintain a pleasant tone (e.g. in chat or by email). You will also be able to correctly interpret signals and un­der­stand in­struc­tions. You can also com­mu­nic­ate any concerns you have con­fid­ently and this skill will more than likely be put to the test during your interview.

You have the (quite rare) ability to deal well with any criticism you may receive. This means that you neither react im­puls­ively nor emo­tion­ally to it, but use the input to improve yourself. Criticism often hits people un­pre­pared and harms their self-con­fid­ence – they feel attacked and are pushed out of their comfort zone. However, criticism usually has a justified origin; those who know how to deal with it and use it con­struct­ively will tend to advance quicker.

Knowledge of human nature is a rather vague term. At its core, it describes the ability to assess people as correctly as possible based on certain in­dic­at­ors. Knowing a lot about human nature, you are more likely to achieve the desired result through your own actions. At the same time, you an­ti­cip­ate the actions and reactions of others very ac­cur­ately. This ability is extremely practical in everyday life. Knowing a lot about human nature is par­tic­u­larly ad­vant­age­ous in pro­fes­sion­al fields where you work directly with customers, patients, or clients.

Working in a team is the main feature of many work­places. As a team player, you can deal with dividing tasks, group com­mu­nic­a­tion, authority, and many other aspects that are important when working with other people. It is easy for you to get involved. The ability to work in a team also requires you to make prof­it­able use of other social skills. People who are able to work in a team usually carry a wide range of soft skills that will help them in every workplace. In the modern world of work, the ability to work in a team is one of the most fre­quently desired skills for which ap­plic­ants are con­sciously tested.

This is the way you interact with people. There are people who often joke and thus create a relaxed at­mo­sphere, but who sometimes run the risk of not being taken seriously. On the other hand, there are people who act very seriously in the workplace and attach great im­port­ance to goal-ori­ent­ated com­mu­nic­a­tion. They look pro­fes­sion­al, but could also come across as boring.

A ‘good’ style of in­ter­ac­tion is being in the middle of this spectrum. You should appear competent and reliable without being con­sidered boring or uptight. Your in­ter­act­ing style in­flu­ences your effect on other people to a large extent.

This category comes closest to hard skills, because meth­od­o­lo­gic­al skills often manifest in practical expertise. However, these skills are not so easy to demon­strate since they are often the basic pre­requis­ite for acquiring veri­fi­able hard skills. For example, the soft skill ‘present­a­tion skills’ is an essential basis for the hard skill of being able to operate ‘Power­Point’, while problem-solving com­pet­ence is necessary for learning pro­gram­ming languages.

Meth­od­ic­al com­pet­en­cies (e.g. stress res­ist­ance) also often overlap with personal skills (e.g. re­si­li­ence). Nev­er­the­less, meth­od­o­lo­gic­al skills belong in a separate category because they not only cover the personal spectrum, but also support or even define much more direct pro­fes­sion­al skills.

Analysis means un­cov­er­ing the mech­an­isms behind complex facts and breaking them down into their most important com­pon­ents. Your ana­lyt­ic­al skills make you a precise observer who puts the knowledge gained into practice in order to con­stantly help yourself, your method, and your team improve. Es­pe­cially when it comes to failures, it’s important to use your ana­lyt­ic­al skills because this is the only way you can learn from them. A certain degree of self-re­flec­tion, and com­mu­nic­a­tion skills will help you tre­mend­ously.

Sometimes pro­fes­sion­al life means you have to juggle several tasks since they cannot be completed at once. The ability to arrange lots of tasks makes you a reliable in­di­vidu­al. If you have a distinct or­gan­isa­tion­al talent, you can pri­or­it­ise things in a mean­ing­ful way and structure your day-to-day work and that of your employees in such a way that they work as ef­fi­ciently as possible. Or­gan­isa­tion­al ability is a soft skill that becomes all the more important the more in­de­pend­ently you work and the broader your range of tasks is.

You have a confident demeanour and an engaging way of speaking, and can therefore present ex­cel­lently. Whether it’s a Power­Point present­a­tion to present a specific project or a summary of your progress in a team meeting, your present­a­tion tech­niques will ensure that the issues are com­mu­nic­ated in an un­der­stand­able way. This soft skill increases in im­port­ance as you move up the corporate ladder.

This soft skill is closely related to your ana­lyt­ic­al skills. Problem solving requires an ap­pro­pri­ate strategy, and to find it, you need to have a clear un­der­stand­ing and analysis of the problem. As a competent problem solver, you will face any chal­len­ging de­vel­op­ment with an alert mind and creative ideas. No matter the problem: You find its source, recognise the con­sequences, and develop a suitable strategy to solve the problem. This ability can easily be trained in a playful way, for example, through chal­len­ging computer games or mind sports.

The ability to deal with stress is primarily based on your personal skills. Re­si­li­ence, re­spons­ib­il­ity, and mo­tiv­a­tion work together in order to reliably master the often un­pre­dict­able chal­lenges of everyday life. There are many tech­niques for coping with stress, but stress res­ist­ance comes from a strong character. As a meth­od­ic­al skill, it also refers to the ability to nip any possible stress in the bud through a high degree of dis­cip­line, self-or­gan­isa­tion, and self-re­flec­tion.

Today's digital landscape offers many pos­sib­il­it­ies, but also many dangers. Using new media (social networks, online platforms, business networks, etc.) in a skilful and sensitive way is an important soft skill for rep­res­ent­ing not only yourself, but also your col­leagues and the company to the outside world. Using this media in a careless way can cause sig­ni­fic­ant damage, e.g. if you reveal sensitive company in­form­a­tion via private accounts or complain about your workplace on social networks.

Be aware that social networks, in par­tic­u­lar, have changed the way we present ourselves to the public, so use them in a way that doesn’t damage your repu­ta­tion or that of your company. In general, you should develop a certain flair that enables you to use your personal and social skills suc­cess­fully online.