We no longer live in an era where technical skills alone mark you out as a top candidate. When a company advertises a job, they are normally inundated with applications from similarly qualified applicants. What the company really wants to see is evidence that you have the personal skills needed to succeed.
These skills are not easy to quantify but they are essential for good communication, and a lack of them can seriously hinder your chances of completing projects. In this article, we outline the personal skills employers are seeking and explain how to include them in your CV and cover letter application.
What Are Personal Skills?
Personal skills relate to how you express yourself. You can quickly tell the level of an individual’s personal skills by observing how they interact with others in the workplace and everyday life. A person with a deficiency of these skills isn’t easy to deal with, and their presence can cause a rift in a team. Who would you rather work with:
- An honest individual and upfront or someone who says things behind your back?
- A person who is consistent and reliable or someone angry and morose one day and friendly & cheerful the next?
- An individual who recognises your contributions to a team or someone who only ever mentions problems and weaknesses?
Why are Personal skills important?
Often called ‘soft’ or ‘interpersonal’ skills, personal skills are extremely important if you hope to progress as a professional. From collaboration on projects with colleagues to negotiating with stakeholders, you require communication skills, confidence, and apathy, among other things, to succeed. Ultimately, the development of your personal skills can help you:
- Achieve success in your career
- Build upon your talents
- Improve your strengths and weaknesses
- Reach your personal goals
Employers value strong personal skills because they know people who possess them communicate ideas clearly, work well with others, and have excellent speaking and listening skills. Ultimately, team members with high-quality personal skills tend to provide better outcomes for companies. Such individuals are usually better at meeting deadlines, completing tasks to a good standard, and proving their reliability and trustworthiness.
Examples of Personal skills
Goal Setting
Making a decision about what is wanted and outlining a way to achieve it. Staying committed to achieving the goal and navigating setbacks.
Motivation
Showing a desire to succeed and improve at tasks. Showing confidence in one’s abilities and expects to complete all jobs to a high standard
Dependability
Showing reliability, responsibility, and can be depended on to act in a particular fashion. Is willing to work longer to ensure all details of a task have been considered before completion.
Independence
The ability to complete tasks with minimal assistance or hand-holding.
Initiative
The capacity to find opportunities by yourself or make decisions to influence events.
What Personal Skills to Put on Your CV
When completing a job application, you must use the keywords employers are seeking to grab their attention. Make sure you send a cover letter with your CV that shows you understand the skills needed to complete the role. It is crucial to provide examples of how you have successfully used these skills in previous jobs or education.
Types of Personal Skills
In general, there are dozens of possible personal skills, but they are often placed into the following categories.
- Critical Thinking: Companies prefer it when employees can take the initiative and don’t require micromanaging. Critical thinking is essential in every industry, regardless of whether you’re a bar manager or a nurse. Skills within this group include creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness.
- Interpersonal: The ability to communicate clearly with those around you is invaluable. With good interpersonal skills, you get people on your side and help a company achieve its objectives. Important interpersonal skills include leadership, listening, and negotiation.
- Problem-Solving: There is no such thing as smooth sailing in any job. Someone with problem-solving skills understands this and doesn’t panic when something goes awry. Instead, they gather information and use innovative thinking and logic to drive their decision-making. Relevant skills include assertiveness, humility, and teamwork.
- Flexibility: In general, a flexible employee is a dependable one. Organisations love flexible staff members because they know such individuals can adapt to change, shift focus, and alter their schedules without affecting their work quality. Related skills include punctuality, trustworthiness, and competence.
- Motivation: Businesses want employees who are passionate about their jobs and display positivity in the workplace. Such people learn from their mistakes and genuinely enjoy their roles. Related skills include enthusiasm, resilience, and dedication.
What Personal Skills Are Employers Looking For?
There are dozens of personal skills you could include, but here are a few of the most commonly sought-after. See if you can identify any personal skills you possess:
- Work Ethic: This is technically a ‘soft’ skill you can improve upon. There is no excuse not to be punctual and show respect for your colleagues’ time, nor should there be any reason why you can’t work to your maximum ability.
- Problem Solving: Have you got the analytical skills necessary to think on your feet and find a solution to a problem without relying on your manager all the time?
- Loyalty: Hiring staff is an expensive process these days, so employers want candidates who are likely to stay with the organisation for the long term. They also expect you to work professionally and meet the company’s best interests.
- Willingness to Learn: As organisations change, it becomes important to discover new information, expand upon your existing knowledge, and consider new ways of doing things. Companies don’t want employees who stick rigidly to outdated methods of doing things.
- Teamworking: It is hard to get ahead in the modern workplace without solid interpersonal skills. This is another one of the most crucial soft skills an employer is looking for. If you don’t get along with members of your team, entire projects can grind to a halt.
Personal Skills in the Workplace
Employers value personal skills because they know that a ‘people’ person is more likely to work well with managers, colleagues, clients, and vendorsthan an individual with underdeveloped interpersonal skills. As well as making for a more harmonious workplace, a person with good personal skills can communicate their ideas clearly and concisely, while also engaging in active listening.
Most employees have been in a team where there is at least one staff member who constantly moans and falls out with others. It leads to an overall negative atmosphere as this one individual succeeds in bringing down the entire team. In contrast, when you work with a team member with excellent personal skills, you enjoy working with them and productivity naturally increases.
If you have strong personal skills, you showcase a positive attitude at work which rubs off on others, and this leads to a successful outcome for your employer. Individuals with well-developed personal skills are usually highly motivated and passionate about their work, which typically leads to a higher quality result.
Personal Skills Versus Professional Skills
Most people seem to believe that personal skills and professional skills are the same. For example, leadership skills are important in the workplace and involve a combination of excellent personal skills. In reality, there is a significant difference between the two.
Personal skills are recognised as soft skills which are not easy to teach (although not impossible). They are also known as interpersonal or even ‘people’ skills. Examples include dependability, adaptability, motivation, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
Meanwhile, professional skills are ‘technical’ or ‘hard’ skills. They are specific abilities that can be learned on the job, or else you developed them in education or previous employment. Examples include computer programming, machine, writing, or foreign language skills.
Irish employers are looking for candidates with both skill sets, but as so many candidates now possess the required professional skills, it is an individual’s personal skills that are placed under greater scrutiny. These days, more emphasis is being placed on emotional intelligence than IQ, so take a long, hard look at your personal skills and consider ways to improve them; not to mention methods of placing them on your CV.
How to Improve Personal Skills
Even if your personal skills are reasonably well-developed, you can always improve. Here are a few quick tips to help you on this path:
- Overcome your fears as this, more than possibly anything else, can help you overcome the obstacles stopping you from progressing.
- Ask a colleague, manager, family member, or friend for feedback on a recent accomplishment. Use their compliments and constructive criticism to improve your standards.
- Network to expose yourself to different groups of people. By interacting with different personality types, you’ll discover new ways to communicate.
- Begin reading informative journals in your field to gain a better perspective and understand the most important trends.
- Consider approaching someone you respect and asking them to be your mentor.
Ultimately, improving your personal skills will aid not only your career but also your daily life. Self-development is a never-ending process, and as daunting as this sounds, it can also bring immense rewards.
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