Here's a look at the soft skills that are in demand for top managers.

Soft skills are important. Nowadays it’s not only about what you know or how well you can do it. It’s about how you are too. Your technical skills are weighed against your soft skills - and it’s the quality of your soft skills that gets you noticed.

Scenario: Think about it, everyone has a similar degree to yours and they might even have the same amount of practical experience as you.

Question: What will make them choose you over the others? What sets you apart?

Answer: By combining your leadership traits with your people skills. Putting these soft skills together will complement your hard skills and make you stand out from the crowd. In other words, the qualities that emanate from your personality as well as your interaction with your colleagues will make you a better manager and get you ahead of the pack.

These specific soft skills are what the world’s best managers are made of:

Interpersonal Skills: 

These are a measure of your people skills, specifically your ability to work well with others. People skills employers now demand from their senior management include:

Working together, building and developing a team, making sure that everyone in the team is happy with their tasks and feels appreciated. Remember, you are representing the company and employee satisfaction therefore begins with you and how you treat those in your team.

Leadership Skills: 

Organisations need managers who are leaders. Leaders are those who provide guidance and direction, implements plans and motivate staff.

Leadership skills differ widely between individuals since it’s based somewhat on a person’s philosophy, personality, and experience both in and outside of professional life. There are also a few common leadership styles, like ‘inspirational,’ ‘ethical,’ ‘visionary’ and ‘action’ leaders. Employers will often cite leadership traits and styles they most need either in interviews or the vacancy brief.

Strategic Thinking: 

This is the ability to think along a clear path of action, and to be able to apply this path, or strategy, at every stage in your work and decision-making.

Strategic thinking means setting a company’s direction and you also have to ensure that it doesn’t get knocked off the intended course. As a soft skill, strategic thinking is important because employees seek candidates that have functional expertise. As a manager, you need to have the ability to ‘see the bigger picture’ and be able to get a sense of where the future of an organisation as a whole lies.

Communications Skills: 

This soft skill relates to interpersonal skills in your ability to communicate with others. Working towards a common goal and getting on well with your team is in the interest of all teams. Miscommunication within a company is much more widespread than it should be, and can lead to wasted resources if people are not all on the same page.

Communication skills also extend to your presentation ability, on paper and in speeches. Much of the art of persuasion rests in the way you come across when presenting to stakeholders. Also think of what you communicate in non-verbal instances, e.g. your dress code, your body language, the neatness of your desk or office, etc.

Invest in your soft and hard skills and your career will be booming in no time. Couple that with more Career Growth advice from Careers24 and a vacancy to match, and you’re set for managerial heaven.