Your ability to manage your emotions and recognize and influence the feelings of others is considered an essential skill. We live in a hi-tech world, but your soft skills – empathy, patience, open-mindedness and your ability to communicate, listen and establish trust with those you work with and interact with will play a significant role in your success. According to Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research, sixty-seven percent of the competencies required to manage and lead others are emotionally based. If you can’t connect emotionally with others, you’ll have difficulty managing or leading them. Are you missing out on that promotion?

Worth Remembering – So much success has nothing to do with hard skills. – Harvey MacKay.

Soft skills won’t guarantee that promotion, but not having them puts you at risk of not getting the offer.

Empathy – is your ability to see things from another person’s point of view. Put yourself in their shoes and do what you can to help them.

Patience – is your ability to remain calm under pressure and accept delays or problems without becoming anxious or angry and lashing out at someone.

Open-mindedness – is your willingness to consider someone else’s point of view, whether new or different, before deciding on a course of action.

Communicating – is your ability to communicate in a way that others will understand. Whatever you say won’t mean anything if they haven’t received the message as you intended.

Listening – is your ability to give someone your undivided attention when they are speaking. Remember what Covey said—listen to understand, not necessarily to agree.

Trustworthiness – is your ability to establish trust. Whatever you say you’re going to do – do it. People must be able to trust what you say. If they can’t trust your word – they won’t trust you.

Worth Remembering – Likeability is a soft skill that leads to hard result. – Mo Bunnell.

Soft skills are people skills that are not negotiable. People like to work with people they like. Not everyone wants to lead – but everyone gets to decide who they want to follow. If no one is following you – you aren’t leading. Are you missing out on that promotion?

Copyright 2025. Brian Smith – Power Link Dynamics. Not to be reproduced without permission. Are you searching for a keynote speaker for your next event or planning an in-house training session. Brian works with people who want to learn how to communicate and interact more effectively, build collaborative teams, resolve conflict or motivate others to perform at their best regardless of gender of generation. Contact Brian to learn more.