The 4 Soft Skills You Need For a Successful Career In Business

If you’re a student of a business degree – such as an online MBA with AACSB, for instance – and you’re aspiring to pursue a successful career in the business world, there are certain skills you’ll need to develop. What you may not already know, however, is that many of the skills you require to succeed in business are not strictly technical skills you can be formally trained in or acquire through professional employment. No, some of the essential ingredients for a successful career in business are soft skills. But what are soft skills, exactly? Also, what soft skills do you need to develop to succeed in your business career? 

To clarify, soft skills can be defined as non-technical attributes that can be cultivated, influenced, and shaped by our life experiences, personal development, and learning. Soft skills are essential for success in almost any workplace. But to succeed in business specifically, some examples of the soft skills you’ll benefit from cultivating include communication and interpersonal skills, time management and organization skills, leadership skills, flexibility, and adaptability to change, just to name a few. 

Curious to learn more about these types of skills? Let’s explore these examples in further detail. 

1.  Communication and Interpersonal Skills

While communication and interpersonal skills go hand in hand, there are some differences between the two. 

Communication skills, on the one hand, relate to how we express ourselves, how we convey our perspective to others, and in some ways, our ability to persuade and influence other peoples’ opinions. Interpersonal skills, on the other hand, refer to the way we relate to and interact with others. Our interpersonal skills are also deeply related to our ability to empathize with the people around us, as well as understand how our behaviors and actions impact other people.

2.  Leadership Skills 

If we want to be successful in a business career, we need to be able to lead by example. Why? Often, as business professionals, we’ll be required to manage teams, and at times, step up into business leadership positions.

So, what does it take to be a competent business leader? Succeeding in business leadership involves acting with integrity, guiding, managing, and inspiring others, and also, performing as a role model to our peers. 

3. Time Management and Organization Skills 

To succeed in the realm of business, we need to be well organized. This means cultivating time management skills to help us plan, manage, and organize our workloads better. The good news? There are many time management hacks you can call upon to help you become more efficient and boost your productivity. Some examples of these include:

• Creating to-do lists, and ticking through completed tasks. A bonus of utilizing this method? The dopamine buzz many of us experience every time an actioned task is ticked off our to-do list.
• Time blocking. That is to say, allocating blocks of time to specific tasks, and focusing solely on completing those tasks within those time blocks.
• Productivity hours, also known as ‘power hours’ – where all external distractions are eliminated to produce as much output as possible within that window of time. Disabling email or SMS notifications, for example, or using social media pop-up blockers, can be especially effective. 

4. Adaptability and Flexibility

Another element of business success? Cultivating our ability to be flexible and adaptable to change. Why is this important? In the ever-changing business landscape, processes, perspectives, and schools of thought are constantly evolving. 

To stay relevant and up-to-date as a business professional, the goal must be to stay abreast of these changes and even, be ahead of the curve. Being conservative and stuck in your ways won’t get you far – you need to be able to embrace innovations and advances in your field to be able to succeed.

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As discussed today, succeeding in business is not just about developing a specific professional skill set. Achieving business goals also requires us to cultivate certain soft skills – like communication and interpersonal abilities, leadership capabilities, time management and organization, and also, flexibility and adaptability. 

Cultivating these soft skills can allow individuals to become more competent, efficient, and well-rounded business professionals, which can then translate into successful careers in the business world.