The main Top Soft Skills for 2021

One of the main programs that we offer for each of our Master programs is Life and Soft Skills, why? Because Soft Skills are the glue that links together all the competences needed by a young talent to pursue his or her career dreams and be able to enter into a selected reality.

But which are the key soft competences that a candidate should have in 2021? 

Here a quick list, sourced form the latest number of Forbes. Soft skills aren’t as soft as they sound. In fact, they can make or break your career – especially when it comes to remote work. As professional world settles into a new norm of working from home, soft skills have come to the forefront in hiring and recruitment decisions.

With more remote jobs there are also more remote job-seekers. Between a steady unemployment rate and the geographic flexibility of remote work, the market is saturated with candidates, many of whom are equally qualified from a technical standpoint, soft skills can make the difference helping you rise to the top.

Here you can find the top 25 soft skills and traits for success in remote work.

1. Accountability: To be answerable. To take responsibility for outcomes through the appropriate use of resources, personal integrity, and self-monitoring. 
2. Assertiveness: The global tendencies to express and interact with boldness, enthusiasm, and confidence.
3. Collaboration & Teamwork: Combine efforts and resources with others toward a common goal. To work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams.
4. Compliance: Global tendencies to maintain self-discipline and conform to another’s plan, rules, will, or direction. 
5. Conflict Management: The ability to effectively negotiate and resolve disagreements. Being able to effectively resolve disagreements is important in every field.
6. Cooperative-Practical: The moderation of reason and feeling, resulting in calm, commonsense thinking—upbeat, attentive, and realistic.
7. Creativity: The desire to think, do, and express in ways that are different from the norm. This includes personal elaborations or variations on known or existing techniques.
8. Critical Thinking: To gather and objectively assess key information as a guide to belief or action. An intellectual process that uses analysis, conceptualization, synthesis, and evaluation.
9. Dynamism: Global tendencies to generate results through intentional, resourceful, energetic mindsets and behaviors. 
10. Enriching Others: Perceiving and reacting to others with acceptance and respect while supporting their development toward full potential.
11. Flamboyance: The drive to impress or excite—to stir others through words or actions
12. Influential Leadership: The ability to positively persuade others’ choices by focusing on what is important to them and building consensus.
13. Inspirational Leadership: The ability to uplift, enliven, fill, and empower people with a compelling vision. 
14. Objective-Analytical: The emphasis of logic and fact-based evaluating over feelings, resulting in clarity, thoroughness, and productivity.
15. Originality: The ability to invent or independently conceive of brand-new ideas, methods, or products, regardless of their usefulness.
16. Perspective: The ability to understand broadly, to coordinate knowledge and experience, and to provide clear-sighted and meaningful counsel to others.
17. Problem Solving: To discover, analyze, and solve a range of unfamiliar problems in both conventional and creative ways.
18. Productivity: To set and meet goals, even in the face of obstacles and competing pressures. To prioritize, plan, and manage work to achieve the intended results.
19. Relationship Management: To use awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others to navigate interactions successfully. 
20. Relationship: The drive to draw close and remain loyal to another person or people—to truly connect and enjoyably engage with them. 
21. Self-Assessment: To engage in self-reflection so as to determine strengths and limitations in one’s values, abilities, and resources.
22. Service Orientation: The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services and the drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty.
23. Social Awareness: To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. 
24. Stress Tolerance: To endure pressure and uncertainty without becoming negative (e.g., hopeless, bitter, or hostile) toward self or others.
25. Supportiveness: The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need. 

Did you read the list? Did any skills stick out to you as opportunities for improvement? Maybe you already know the skills you could grow in. So how do you get started? 

Identify the soft skills that you already possess. Starting with a positive assessment will encourage you in the growth you’ve already experienced and motivate you to attain more soft skills. Do a self-audit to determine which soft skills you feel strongest with and which ones you lack confidence in. Asking people close to you, such as friends, family and coworkers, can also give you insights on where to go from here. 

Take a class. There are plenty of free, online short and longer courses to help you strengthen your skills. Then, once you’ve got a course under your belt, it’s time to practice—at work and in your personal life. You might also seek out new tasks or projects at work, in volunteering, in your community or at home where you can put these newer skills to use.

According to some analysis, the top soft skills across most industries include Critical Thinking, Service Orientation, Social Awareness, Relationship Management and Stress Tolerance. But Communication remains the number-one skill employers of remote teams are looking for.

Why is communication so important in the virtual workplace? Positive relationships are essential to a team’s success, but it can be harder to build it through a screen. “Most remote employers want to hire professionals who can both do the job they’re being hired for AND build excellent working relationships with their colleagues.

These not-so-soft skills are what can set you apart—and put you in the best position possible to land the job.