20 SOFT SKILLS: what they are, what they are and examples

Soft skills are increasingly valued in our society for their influence on the probability of adaptability and success of people in their personal, professional and social life. These are skills that are not usually worked on directly at school but rather in a transversal and, due to its importance, its development is considered more and more necessary from ages early.

From Psychology-Online we are going to expose you below the most outstanding aspects about the soft skills: what are they, their importance, what they are and how to develop them.

Index

1. What are soft skills: definition
2. The importance of soft skills
3. The role of soft or transversal skills in learning
4. List of examples of soft skills
5. How to develop soft skills

The soft skills refer to non-cognitive skills that allow us the knowledge and relationship with others and with oneself, efficient and creative problem solving, recognizing and managing emotionally, setting goals and planning to achieve them, etc.

These are skills that with respect to cognitive skills that focus on experience and content acquisition, they are transversalIn other words, they occur in all contexts of life and represent, broadly speaking, the way in which people relate to our environment.

In the following article you will find different types of skills.

Soft skills are extremely important as their benefits go far beyond academic or professional success. People with positively developed soft skills tend to be happier people, with a pro-social behavior and with a very good level of health.

People with high cognitive habilyties They can achieve great academic achievements, but if they are not accompanied by good soft skills, they may not happen as expected. On the other hand, people with high transversal skills but without academic studies can achieve very good levels in their quality of personal, professional and social life.

Non-cognitive skills can greatly determine content learning and cognitive skills themselves. There are people who, despite their low ability in some (or many) of the aspects of transversal skills, achieve high academic achievements. From here on, these types of people may stay there without reaching any goal in their personal life for lack of soft skills or, there are also cases, they achieve great professional success but are characterized by being little people pro-social.

On the other hand, it is worth highlighting the so-called "alternative pedagogies" that are emphasizing how education should focus on accompanying and developing soft skills to, from there, develop knowledge and skills cognitive. It is precisely the respectful accompaniment of the different needs of children, according to their evolutionary state, which will allow them to develop favorably on a physical level but also on an emotional and psychological level, giving them enough confidence to feel motivated towards the learning.

From this approach, it is also highlighted how the child's learning should not be adapted to the academic content and cognitive ability to be developed but the other way around. If the content is adapted to the child's developmental level, including here her personal characteristics, this content will be motivating for him and, therefore, your learning will be meaningful and will last longer in his personal baggage.

This learning and development of soft skills or, as they have come to call, "21st century skills", are posed as alternative to rote learning content or unique development of cognitive skills typical of most of today's formal education.

Soft skills, which are now known as the "skills of the 21st century", as they are the most valued and considered necessary to develop optimally in our current social environment, we can classify them into the following: following:

1. Creativity: fundamental aspect to grow as a person and society, taking into account that life itself is constant movement and fluctuation. Here you can see more information about the creativity.
2. Innovation: it supposes creating things that can be beneficial for the moment we live.
3. Critical thinking: allows you to reflect on new or already established aspects with the ultimate goal of generating new responses. In the following article we talk in depth about critical thinking and how to develop it.
4. Problem resolution: indispensable ability to successfully navigate moments of crisis that occur on a day-to-day basis
5. Teamwork: a very satisfactory way of working that favors the positive development of human relationships and from which very profitable results are obtained by uniting the strength of the different potentials humans.
6. Collaboration: this aspect, together with the multidisciplinary team work, represents a great advance at a human level and results.
7. Effective communication: the ability to convey the message in a positive, clear and respectful way along with the ability Active listening and empathy favors personal relationships and, with it, the achievement of Projects. Here you will find techniques for effective communication.
8. Capacity of concentration: good ideas and, above all, good developments come from moments of great concentration.
9. Organizational capacity: essential for the effective development of any project.
10. Willpower and effort: it is necessary to continue the action despite the obstacles that have arisen along the way.
11. Flexibility: ability to effectively navigate the changes that occur on a day-to-day basis.
12. Adaptability: ability to adjust to changes that require it.
13. Initiative: allows you to open new paths to what has already been established.
14. Autonomy: possibility of taking things forward by oneself.
15. Sociability: ability to maintain positive social relationships.
16. Intercurtural competition: With globalization, it is increasingly necessary to be able to move optimally in different cultural fields.
17. Productivity: that the final result of the work carried out represents a useful product and is carried out efficiently and effectively.
18. Leadership: facilitates the organization and development of groups and projects. You can know your level in that capacity with this leadership test.
19. Responsibility: necessary skill to guarantee seriousness and rigor in our work
20. Emotional intelligence: capacity that allows emotional self-management and with others in a healthy and respectful way, favoring pro-social relationships. Here you will find more information about emotional intelligence and how to develop it.

Taking into account the importance of soft skills in life performance, it is very important to develop them from an early age. The methodology used could be the following:

• From the educational institution, they must carry out a planning on the execution of the action strategy; evaluate the soft skills to develop; establish the necessary technology policy and carry out the necessary training of the faculty.
• On the other hand, from the pedagogical aspect, they will formulate learning activities that enhance the training in values, commitment to society, collaborative spirit, teamwork, promoting self-esteem, flexibility and adaptability and the use of ICT. All this through the use of the game adapted to each educational level, the natural learning process of children.

It is important to take into account, throughout the process, respecting the rhythms and personal needs of each child so that learning takes place according to the internal motivation of each student. Otherwise, we will fall back into the trap of current teaching by introducing content without the child being prepared to incorporate it. The learning that children carry out from their own internal needs are integrated in a much deeper, more meaningful and lasting way.

Here you will find how to develop some soft skills, such as: strategies to improve concentration, how to develop creativity or how to help a child to be responsible.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Soft skills: what are they, what are they and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

• González, A. (2020). Education: 21st century skills. Hop Toys. Solutions for an inclusive society.
• Ortega Goodspeed, T. (2016). Unraveling the conversation about soft skills. Inter-American Dialogue.
• Ortega Santos, C.E., Febles Rodriguez, J.P. and Estrada Sentí, V. (2016). Theoretical-methodological foundation of a strategy to develop soft skills from initial teaching. Scientific journal Ecociencia, Vol.3, Num.3.