What are Examples of Soft Skills?
You probably have heard the term ‘soft skills’ a few times in your life.
But you had no clue what it was at the time & went about your day.
Today’s blog post is going to show why that is a BIG mistake.
People sleep on soft skills every day.
But little do they know, they are doing themselves a huge disservice.
‘So are you saying that soft skills will play a big role in my life?/’
Absolutely.
It is going to play a role in terms of your emotional, social & financial well being.’
‘Wait really?? Financial as well?’
Yep.
The world is more interconnected than ever. Therefore, It is crucial to have the soft skills to be able to connect with your most important assets:
People.
This post will cover what soft skills are, why you have not been taking them seriously, & how to find value in them.
Soft skills are a modern day superpower.
Time to invest in it!
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are your interpersonal skills.
‘Damn bro, that is a big word!’
Yea it is..
Let me clarify some more.
Soft skills are your street smarts.
You ever heard of the terms books smarts & street smarts?
Well, soft skills directly correlate with your street smarts.
How well you can communicate with people.
How well you can manage your emotions to produce.
Plus how well you can think creatively to get what you want.
Believe it or not, when you get out into the real world, you will be leveraging this skill set more than ever.
The real world is a chaotic place.
Solely relying on what you were taught in the comfort of your school will not get you very far.
Heck, it will make your life much more difficult.
When you get out into the real world, you will learn the world is not remotely fair, it is neutral.
And a neutral world will have you getting screwed over a lot.
You will need to rely on your communication skills, creativity, emotional intelligence to navigate around the loops & rise above anyways.
Why are soft skills slept on?
The reason soft skills are slept on is because they cannot be measured with an exam.
It is very difficult to measure your state of creativity with man made exam. So what happens?
We are expected to figure out how to learn soft skills on our own!
Were you ever taught how to communicate & build a friend? Doubt it.
You were simply thrown out into a social scene & expected to figure it out.
If you look closer, the school system only focuses on hard skills. Why? Because hard skills CAN be measured with an exam.
It is easy to measure if your program executed or not.
It is easy to measure if you scored the passing score on the standardized exam.
And it is easy to measure if your excel sheet functions.
But just because it’s easy does not mean it’s effective.
The mass majority never invest in their soft skills because they have YEARS of programming which indicates that it’s not important.
So what do they do?
They simply focus on improving their hard skills (technical skills) and hope they can let the soft skills figure itself out.
The Dangers of Neglecting Soft Skills
Hard skills are learned with your left brain (logical side).
Soft skills are learned with your right brain (creative side).
If you are someone who solely relies on the logical side to tackle life, then you are doing yourself a massive disservice.
You risk spending your entire life in the comfort zone.
Another theory I have for not being taught soft skills is so you can remain a herd thinker.
Being a herd thinker makes it seamless to fit into the system.
And as the masses fit into the system, the few who are in power look down to see the effects taking place.
The people in power are soft skills reliant.
Don’t believe me?
Look at anyone in power that you know. All have the ability to speak harmoniously, build connections & think creatively to propose solutions.
The people who spend their entire life only perfecting the hard skills are able to logically fit into a system also know as the comfort zone.
Breaking past that comfort zone is an unfathomable feat to their logical brains, so they decide to avoid it altogether.
Once you neglect your street smarts & solely rely on your book smarts, you WILLINGLY leave growth on the table.
Your Plan of Action
‘Dang Armani you are scaring me! Okay I won’t be so hard skills reliant. What should I do then?’
I recommend you amplify you hard skills with soft skills.
Be book smart & street smart.
Humans are dynamic creatures who are capable of insane growth! So don’t just pick one. Pick both!
Look a little bit closer.
You have been implementing both in many facets of your life, but have been unaware of it.
Let’s use an example:
When you first began coding, you logically learned the basic frameworks.
You learned how to create the loops, functions & structures.
At the learning stage you are thinking very logically. Which is good because logic allows you to effectively learn the frameworks & foundations.
But after weeks & months of practicing, something happened.
You were now able to get your creativity involved.
Then you felt a lot more free. You expanded beyond the frameworks provided to you by the textbook & began devising your own frameworks.
This does not apply to just coding, but to many other facets of your life.
Learning how to ride a bike, turning an stranger into a friend, learning to draw etc.
But this can happen even faster if you understand the importance of soft skills.
You have to understand that the skills can be learned and exercised into your existence.
Which soft skills do I recommend learning?
The ones’ that I talk about on this page, of course!
Public speaking to communicate your message at scale.
Storytelling to make your message riveting.
Emotional intelligence to enjoy good emotions & turn bad emotions into fuel.
Social dynamics to build a powerful network
Creativity to connect the dots.
Pick one soft skill & go all-in on it. As you learn concepts & frameworks on the topic, begin to execute.
As you begin executing, you will go from logically learning the soft skills to creatively executing it.
Once you have a strong grasp of one soft skill, it will be MUCH easier to pick up the next one.
The beauty about soft skills is that most of them intertwine!
So pick one & go ALL in.
Joining the 3% club
It’s very ironic. Although we live in the most interconnected world that we have EVER lived in, social kills are at an all time low.
It’s at an all time low because the rise of social medial has plummeted social skills.
Too many people interact digitally rather than in real life.
Digital connections are necessary & will help build a more diverse network, but it cannot be solely relied upon.
If you are someone who has soft skills in their talent stack, then you join an exclusive club.
A club filled with winners & future leaders.
At the end of the day, it’s all a game of communication.
The person who is able to communicate their message harmoniously with the world in a confident way will always find a way to rise.
Welcome to the 3%.
If you are someone who has been struggling with communication skills, then contact me.
I am providing a FREE 30-minute evaluation of your communication skills.
Find out your weak spots & where your strengths lie.
Fill out the form below & I will get back to you if you apply.
Apply here
– ArmaniTalks 🎙️🔥
