You’ve heard the term soft skills, right? These are typically the skills you desire in your team members but are very difficult to teach. We expect that anyone can learn, grow, and develop sharper skills, but training for soft skills is not often part of a typical staff meeting or staff development day. However, these skills are frequently listed as strengths on a job application and are what you should be looking for in your team. Not everyone will be an expert at everything on your list, but everyone can be great at some of them. Your entire team can expertly cover them all if you can master hiring strategically for soft skills.

Soft Skills include:

• Innovative Problem Solving

• Conflict Resolution

• Communication

• Critical Thinking

• Time Management

• Proactivity

• Collaboration

• Leadership

• Life-Long Learner

• Confidence

• Resilience

• High Emotional Intelligence

• Positive Work Ethic

• Adaptability

• Creativity

This list can be overwhelming, but it’s essential to review and decide if your team checks all the boxes. If they don’t, it’s time to ensure your next hire has some of what your team is missing. First, let’s talk about some of the overlooked soft skills necessary for every team.

Time Management

Adults should be able to manage their own time and schedule. Of course, we’d all like to believe this is true. The pandemic showed most employers that, for the most part, their teams continued to show up for work and were even more productive working from home than they were in the office. However, there are some adults who simply cannot manage their time, choosing to procrastinate and failing to meet deadlines. Their teammates often pick up the slack making those slackers seem somewhat successful. Imagine if you had a team without said slacker. What are the possibilities?

Resilience

According to the Oxford Dictionary, resilience is “the ability of people or things to recover quickly after something unpleasant, such as shock, injury, etc.” Why is this soft skill important? Well, life happens. Our team members must be able to continue when the unexpected occurs. Whether it is your company experiencing a devastating loss or just one team member dealing with it, the world moves on, and so must the team. Allow your team members the time they need to heal or grieve, but hire the smart ones who are resilient and come back stronger.

Positive Work Ethic

Who wants a Debbie Downer on your team? They spread their poison and become toxic. You want people who desire to work and contribute to your team and work environment. Choose to hire people who want to make a difference and work hard for themselves, their families, and you. As our children grew up, we asked, “Are you doing that just to get it done, or do you want to do it right and make it look good?” They often chose just to get it done early on but eventually learned that doing it right was better. As adults, they are grateful we taught them to do it right, so it looks good and moves their team forward. Getting things done right is more important than just getting stuff done - every time.

Life-Long Learner

We’ve recently read “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer and were struck by the fact that the typical 20 to 30-something male has spent 10,000 hours playing video games. BUT it only takes a bit over 400 hours a year to read one to two books every week. Can you imagine what can be learned in 10,000 hours? Of course, being a lifelong learner does not mean you need to read a book every week. But it does mean you are willing to engage in activities that help you turn weaknesses into strengths, build leadership skills, learn about conflict resolution, and build confidence and creativity.

This post-pandemic hiring world is crazy. Finding the perfect fit for any position is challenging, to say the least. The skills necessary to do the job may be teachable, so focus on your team's soft skills. Find the right person for your team, and be flexible in creating the position that allows them to bring their best to the table.