What is Soft Skills and why are they so important for a career? Soft Skills: "Soft Skills" Solid

Whether you are at least seven spans in the forehead - without certain skills to communicate and work in the team, the path to the bosses is closed. What is SOFT SKILLS? Is it possible to learn this? And why do firms urge them from their employees?

Connect the employer? Easy!

Imagine this situation: several candidates claim to one and the same position. They have almost the same qualifications - brilliant education, experience abroad, excellent recommendations. What to do? Who still choose? In such cases, Soft Skills, or so-called "soft skills" become a decisive factor in favor of this or that applicant - so this phrase is literally translated from English.

What is harder: kilogram wool or kilogram of iron?

Soft Skills is communicative and managerial talents. These include the ability to convince, lead, manage, make presentations, find the right approach to people, the ability to resolve conflict situations, oratory - In general, the qualities and skills that could be called universal, and not those that have to have a certain profession.

The question arises: What is more important - Hard Skills ("Solid Skills"), under which professional knowledge is understood, or Soft Skills, that is, the ability to communicate and work in a team? They are at least equivalent, the expert on recruiting and personnel policy of Bettina Bartkowiak (Bettina Bartkowiak) believes.

"The higher the position, the greatest role is played by social skills, while professional knowledge is moving into the background. It is explained by the fact that people who occupy high posts usually have enough employees who advise them in all sorts of questions. For the boss the main thing is to be able to accept correct solution, Motivate employees and successfully lobby your ideas, "explains the specialist.

Give the team spirit!

What do employers want to see in their employees first of all? "One of the basic requirements for applicants today is the ability to work in a team," says Bettina Bartskian. "This is due to the fact that often the workflow is the nature of the project in which several people take part."

Very often in vacancy announcements, according to the expert, you can find such a requirement as "flexibility". "It implies the ability to quickly rebuild according to the changed circumstances and stability resistance," Specialist explains. "For example, an employer expects his subordinate without any questions to stay after work on an hour-other, if you need to perform an urgent task."

The rest of the Soft Skills list often depends on the specific position and sphere of activity. Take, for example, computer science. It would seem: sit in front of the computer and work. But no, even in this area in two third job announcements, a candidate with the command spirit is required, and in each second vacancy black in white is registered: "A potential employee must have communicative talents."

And what if the character is so?

The majority of universities in Germany realized the need to prepare their graduates to the established situation in the labor market. Thus, 80 percent of German universities include seminars and trainings for the acquisition of Soft Skills or, as they are also called, "key competencies". However, the question begins: is it possible to learn or Soft Skills - is it still a matter of character and temperament?

"Social skills are not constant quantity. Take, for example, a child at first 2, then 10 and finally 15 years. We see that its ability to communicate and interact with other people is growing from the year. Consequently This can be learned. Many things - say, a brilliant presentation is the result of training and hard work, "Helmut Wagner is sure, Dean of the Faculty of Studium Generale Munich Higher School of Applied Sciences. It is at such faculties that seminars and trainings on the development of communicative and social skills are most often offered.

For example, Munich high school It offers seminars on the organization of projects and information management. "Our students learn how to communicate successfully and resolve conflicts. There are seminars for creativity and much more," says Professor Wagner.

Soft and fluffy, but with hard hand

However, "soft skills" should not be confused with a "soft character" or "softness", notes Bettina Bartskian. For example, the ability to achieve goals and "implement" their ideas requires a hardness of character. According to the expert, the fact that companies are awaiting the availability of Soft Skills from their applicants, indicates that they do not want to see in their ranks of narcotic specialists.

In the modern world, the main thing is information, and in itself the possession of some knowledge is static, because they can quickly outreach. It is much more important - to be able to get the necessary information at the right moment. You can adequately answer this hard requirement of the market, mastering "soft skills" - Soft Skills.

Context

How to choose a business school?

There are five thousand MBA programs in the world. How to choose "your" school business? And most importantly where - in Europe or in the USA? Representatives of international schools and future participants in MBA programs give recommendations. (08.10.2009)

What is more important - know everything about the selling product or can you sell it? What skills useful - technical or communicative? Everything that a person knows how to conditionally divide into 2 groups - solid skills (Hard Skills) or soft (Soft Skills). Both groups are important, but is it equal to the same proportion?

Solid and Soft Skills

Hard Skills. - These are technical, professional skills. A person can vividly show what he can. Examples:

1. • car driving;
   • creating a logo in photoshop;
   • printing on the keyboard blindly;
   • foreign language possession;
   • programming, etc.

It is solid skills that are prescribed in vacancies to a position, in job descriptions, indicate a summary. It is noteworthy that they are applicable only in specific professional regions. In other words, the competence of the confectioner is unlikely to be in demand in the field of IT.

Hard Skills is clearly visible in everyday life. Actions pass on an automatic or template: the cashier breaks through the goods with the cash register, the driver starts maneuver on the road, painting the walls.

This is the main difference between the soft skills from solid. Ownership level Soft Skills. It's hard to track. But the ownership of this category of skills benefits in any field of activity: they are applicable everywhere, even in disabilities. Examples:

1. • establishing favorable relationships;
   • teamwork;
   • conviction skills;
   • leadership;
   • motivation;
   • critical thinking;
   • oratory;
   • general erudition;
   • flexible thinking;
   • working ethics;
   • effective problem solving and conflict situations;
   • self-organization, etc.

Most of modern trainings are aimed at the development of soft skills - on motivation, leadership, oratory art, time management, etc.

It should also be noted that soft skills suggest good orientation In a situation - taking into account all its nuances.

What is more important?

There is no doubt that the fact that without solid skills is extremely difficult to get a job 🙂 Therefore, undoubtedly, for employment, you need to be able to be able to be hands / legs together with your head. However, soft skills are necessary in order to climb above career stairsAnd therefore, ensure that you have increasingly comfortable conditions for existence. The higher the person occupied by the person, the higher its level of ownership of soft skills.

The importance of Soft Skills is spoken by the past century. Look at yourself: the height of the American Great Depression, the population with difficulty survived on the hope and issued allowance. And suddenly, at the hotel "Pennsylvania" from all over the country, more than two thousand people are going to listen to the lecture of Carnegie Dale about the skill "Conquer friends and influence people." Four hours visitors, standing or sitting, absorbed the words of Carnegie, gradually understanding what skills they lacked all these years.

Studies give the following statistics: performance and high efficiency The employee develops from just 15% holds Hard Skills and on 85% (!) Owning Soft Skills. Obviously, without the last, career development will be difficult.

Why is there such a significant advantage in the direction of soft skills? Almost any work related to profit is also associated with relationships between people. Therefore, establishing favorable contacts, a conversation on equal positions, the ability to put yourself in the scene of the opponent - all this is actually useful for any person.

In addition, the Soft Skills skills are also applicable in the family-household sphere, for example, when raising children or conversations with a spouse. In other words, owning them, it is much easier to achieve cleanliness in the child's room or agree on what walls will be in the living room 🙂

Playing games, the person will begins to recognize new words and concepts. However, not all words mean the same thing. In the article we will try to answer what "skill" is in the most popular games.

To begin with, consider the origin of the word. Skill is the simplest transliteration from English. Not knowing the meaning of an unfamiliar word, gamers simply copied his sound and rewrote the unknown concept by Russian letters. So, the "skill" initially is a certain skill. At the same time, the word can be used and simply to indicate a high level of player's skill or as an indicator of the skill to play. In different games, the concept of "skill" is different, and sometimes very substantially. If the player knows what skill is in "Dota", it is not a fact that it will correctly respond to a similar question regarding, for example, "Warface". Below will try to clarify the question.

"Dota 2"

What is skill in one of the most popular - just the case when the initial meaning of the word is fully saved. In this case, the skill of the character is his unique ability, his skill, with the help of which he fights with enemies and helps the allies. In "Dota 2" 4 types of skills are highlighted. They differ on the principle of action and the effects that provide.

Non-target skills

This is the skills that are not aimed at anyone. For their application, you do not need to choose a goal and sometimes you can not use Manu, that is, to conjure (crawling).

If the character uses the caller skill, that is, it causes a bench and so on, then such a skill works immediately after the end of the caste. Most often, Non-Target skills includes either sums (challenges), or metamorphosis. In turn, these skills are three types:

1. Without time caste. Start working immediately after activation.
2. With the time of Caste, for example, "Requiem of Soules". Such skills work only after the goal is indicated.
3. With the Channeling Time (call). Example - "Town Portal" and "Epicenter". They begin to work after a while after the player presses the activation button.

Target Skeilles - what?

These are the skills that require target instructions. Answering the question of what skill with target, it should be noted that they are both in the form of a projectile and without it. From the attack with the projectile it is possible to evaporate if the hero can go to the InVIS (invisibility). At the same time, the projectile continues to pursue the goal during displacement. Attacks without a projectile are blows around the area. So, it is possible to evange from them, simply coming out from the radius of the skill. Toss Toss Skills and Storm Bolt perceive a certain circle, the lesion zone.

Skilles with a caste

They help to aim. For example, the Black Hool skill indicates a goal in the form of a circle. In turn, Teleport simply requires mouse fixing at a certain point.

Skills with fixation on uniform or on the point of locality

Continuing the review and answering the question of what skill is, it is impossible to leave this kind of skills without attention. The group is relatively small, and this category of skills can be crawling (kolden) as aiming for the character and to the point on the ground.

They can also be canceled, simply giving the order to stop, which is very convenient, since in that case the mana will not spend, and the ability will not receive Culdown (updating in time).

"Counter Strike"

This is another popular game. But this is exactly the case when, knowing what skill is in one game, a person will not be able to correctly answer this question regarding another game. In this case, the skill is not a special skill or skill, but just the overall level of the game. That is, the more labels player, the more rivals he will destroy, the higher his skill will be. That is, answering the question of what skill is in the "COP", we can say that this is the skill of the game and the overall level.

Many players are wondering how to raise skills in "COP". For this there is a couple of ways. The first is to play on special servers, on which players learn to tar shoot. Another option is to play on small maps, where the main task is to stay alive. Skill in "COP" depends on the number of deaths, and from the quality of shooting, namely - from percentage of hitting the head.

What is Skill in Warface?

As in the "COP", this is directly the ability to play. In the "warfice" on the question of what skill is, you will be answered, it is a combination of skill, brain, good luck and prediction. Skill himself is the number of murders, hitting the head and the number of deaths. Naturally, the lower the last indicator, the higher the skill. In any game you need to think and analyze the situation, and the "warfice" is not an exception. And, of course, without good luck, it is impossible to play a single session.

Skill in "Varthese", as in "COP", is styled by practicing and once again practice. Eyming (it is precisely the quality of the killings of other players) you can train both in real battles and in the so-called "meat grinder" when the game goes on the principle "appeared in the game - shot - died - resurrected - shot - died" and so on. The game where you just need to learn to shoot at the head of bots, rather boring, but also develops the reaction rate and accuracy. Naturally, in the "meat grinder" all the player skills are swinging at once.

Skill - comes from english word. Skill and translates as skill or skill. What is skill in online games? This is a certain skill, ability or skill. At the same time, there is another - the skill of the player, his ability to achieve results.

The term appeared in RPG and only then switched to online games.

Skill in the game can be understood in different ways in the gamers' environment, depending on what we are talking about in a particular case. To clearly figure out what it is, we will consider a few cases.

In online rpg

In Dota 2, World of Warcraft and other MMORPG are unique capacities and hero skills. It may be magic, jumping and punches, helping him to succeed in confrontation with their opponents.

In these games, skills can be divided into two types, characterized by the principle of action:

1. Passive (abbreviated passives) - do not imply the choice of goals and are often tied to time. For example, a challenge of sovereigns, passive and asunde skills.
2. Active - target abilities at a certain purpose. Focus on goal or definite locality. Apply the point damage for a specific purpose, spend manu or its equivalent.

In Counter-Strike

Here the term means the level of skill. The more rivals destroy the person, the steeper he plays and thereby his skills becomes better. Battle Skill Level here can be enhanced by successful tasks, the number of deaths and fragments, shooting quality.

In world of tanks

Here this term means clear and effective actions aimed at winning. Wot player skill folds from the following indicators:

• Ability to punch the armor of different tanks.
• The ability to act tactically correctly on different cards.
• Own experience.
• Quality equipment in a tank.
• The number and quality of game mods.
• Communication with other people during battles.

Examples

"Skilly Katch"

"Put the 1st skill on autoatak"

All skills are divided into two large groups: Hard Skills ("solid" skills) and Soft Skills ("soft" skills).

TO hard Skills. Believe professional, technical skills that are easily observed, measuring and visual demonstration. This category includes, for example, blind printing skills, possession english language, car management, etc. The concept of "Hard Skills" complies with technical or administrative procedures that are present in the Company's activities (programming, work with equipment, processes management, etc.).

On the contrary soft Skills. - These are the skills, the manifestation of which is difficult to track, check and clearly demonstrate. This group includes communicative and management skills, for example: the establishment of relationships, teamwork, hearing and understanding of the interlocutor, negotiation, the skills of persuasion, speech art, presentation, discussion, management, solving problems, decision making, leadership, learning others, motivation , creation of effective teams, taking into account cultural differences, resolving conflict situations, etc. The concept of "Soft Skills" is associated with how people interact with each other, that is, "soft" (differently - "social") skills are equally necessary as for everyday lifeAnd for work. Indeed, the leaders at all levels are always very much based on social skills, whether a demonstration on their own example or creation of teams, delegation of powers or resolution of conflict situations, mentoring, coaching or motivation, which is confirmed by the results of numerous studies.

Thus, the results of the study conducted at Harvard University (Stanford Research Institute) suggest that the Hard Skills contribution to the professional success of the employee is only 15%, while Soft Skills define the remaining 85%.

Perhaps this result will seem amazing, but we should not forget that the business is always associated with society and includes the establishment of contacts and communication with people, as well as positioning yourself and the company in the most "favorable light" and a convincing form. And for this, you just need "soft" skills. On the other hand, Soft Skills is a way to express Hard Skills.

Determining the range of skills necessary managers for the company's prosperity, it is impossible to leave a psychological concept emotional intelligenceproposed in 1990 P. Sallem, J. Meier and D. Caruso. In accordance with which emotional Intellect (EQ) It is defined as a group of mental abilities that contribute to the awareness and understanding of their own emotions and the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence includes four components: self-consciousness, self-control, social sensitivity and relationship management. In the West, the concept of "emotional intelligence" is very popular, although there is an opinion that from a scientific point of view in the concept there is no content other than the concepts of communicative skills and communicative competence taken in the psychology

Thus, some experts believe that the concept of "emotional intelligence" is an alternative name for communication skills. Although, from the point of view of the definition of "soft" skills, submitted by us earlier, emotional intelligence differs from Soft Skills, at a minimum, the presence of such a component as "self-consciousness". And the skills included in the component EQ "Relationship Management" fully fall into the Soft Skills category.

Studies conducted as part of the development of the concept of emotional intelligence indicate that the factors of emotional intelligence largely coincide with the "soft" skills. For example, as a result of the study by D. Gullman and his colleagues, the purpose of which was to determine which abilities of managers determine the outstanding performance of companies, it was found that its intellect's exceptional success determines, and cognitive skills are especially important - the width of the horizon and the ability to anticipation. At the same time than more high level The manager is held in managing the company, the more significant role is played by the abilities associated with emotional intelligence, while the differences in functional skills are not so important. That is, the higher the rank of the manager, the more emotional intelligence skills are laid in the foundation of its success.

The results of this study correlate with the results of another study conducted by Stenford research Institute (Stanford Research Institute) together with the Carnegie Foundation Melon (Carnegie Melon Foundation), among general directors (CEO) companies from the Fortune 500 list. Analysis of the results of which has shown that the long-term and stable success of the executives of companies in the work by 75% is determined by Soft Skills and only 25% - Hard Skills. Thus, it is Soft Skills that determine the success of the manager. In the context of what disciplines are most important in the program training program, the opinion of one of the Guru Management, Henry Minzberg (Henry Mintzberg), deserves attention: "Disciplines such as finance, accounting and marketing, occupy a disproportionate time due to critical Soft Skills - Leadership, teamwork, communication, non-standard thinking, - precisely those skills that distinguish the best from the worst management of the world. And the consequences of this approach threatening - the market is filled with graduate young leaders who do not have real leader's qualities. Such a system, undoubtedly, dysfunctional.

TO hard - disciplines It is also possible to include mathematical modeling, statistics, economic and investment analysis, marketing planning, financial management, etc. A K. soft - disciplines: Team-Building ("Building Team"), the art of presentation, leadership, etc. Conduct a clear line between Hard and Soft disciplines is quite difficult, since many courses suggest the use of both "solid" and "soft" skills (for example, "personnel management" is not only planning, official instructions and budgets, but also communications, psychological tests and corporate culture). In the program of the project management, you can also allocate Hard and Soft - Segments .

And finally, the main, and a rather controversial question - can I teach skills ?

It is believed that training for communicative and managerial skills (Soft Skills) in the framework of trainings and master classes on MBA programs and other courses has stably gives positive results. However, as studies show, skills are really quickly mastered, but the slightest deviation from the scheme, any unprimated question, in fact, easily lead participants to confusion. For example, a well-trained sales manager, entering the door with the inscription "Director" Manico, as they taught, checks out: "Who makes you decisions? ". And there are many such examples.

Training skills is usually built on the principle of separation of a certain skill (for example, sales) into small and final, functional operations (acquaintance; presentation; active listening; questions and work with objections; conclusion of the transaction), which allows you to train, consolidate and demonstrate the result of the skill development. More complex for development, managerial skills are often crushed into groups: time management, delegation of powers, negotiation, and groups, in turn, are divided into concrete actions: goal-making, planning, decision-making, analysis, motivation. But the use of "soft" skills in practice requires integrity and systematic, understanding of their own and common interests, the vision of the whole, the ability to use various models behavior, express priorities and make a choice. Effective use of Soft Skills implies not only the ability to see and distinguish between goals and objectives, but also take into account the plurality of solutions and the importance of individual aspects. There is a contradiction, - training skills is based on the principle of fragility, and business requires systemicity and integrity.

On the other hand, it is easy to detect that the principle of separation of skill to separate operations (processes), the best way Suitable for training with specific professional and production skills, that is, Hard Skills in the framework of the industrial model of the division of labor (in the other, within the framework of the conveyor production model). That is, the implementation of those operations in the company's activities whose result is predictable and measurable, you can teach. But the principle of training for professional skills of Hard Skills, based on a tough norm and finite division of labor is insufficient for learning communicative and managerial Soft Skills skills.

What way, in this case, master Soft Skills?

First, you need to remember that the skill is only the path, the task solving tool. Secondly, Soft Skills work under certain circumstances. According to experts, knowledge and understanding of the tasks and the context of application becomes a key condition for ensuring integrity in training "soft" skills. That is, the vision of the whole, the formulation of professional and corporate goals will ensure the integrity in the development and use of "soft" skills.