How to Improve Your Soft Skills – 5 Tips
How to improve your soft skills is an important question to answer for your career success. It is also a tough question to answer in general as soft skills encompass many different skills in two general categories.
Self Management Skills- those we use to manage our emotions, self-perception, and reactions to unexpected situations. Examples of these soft skills include stress management, self-
Soft play areas are a brilliant place for toddlers to visit for a number of reasons, not least because they are places which are incredibly enjoyable for them. If you want to see the benefits in your child, take them to soft play kmspicosoft areas regularly, so that they can continue to grow and develop.
Allowing your child to play in a soft play area may be essential for their proper development, because it provides them with a proper, controlled environment in which to test their limitations without risking serious injury. Although there are many special toys that a toddler can play with at home, soft play areas are much bigger and safer spaces. Because these areas have been designed for toddlers, they are soft enough to take a tumble in, without having to worry about getting hurt. It is much easier for a toddler to tumble in a soft play area than it is for them to tumble onto a hard wood floor or a rough carpet, as they would in the home. Knowing that they aren’t going to hurt themselves too much (other than the initial shock of falling) gives youngsters a much needed confidence boost to try out new things and develop their skills. They will be able to then transpose these skills to other environments.
Soft play areas have been designed to show children a multitude of different colours and shapes. All of the equipment which is included in a soft play zone will have been designed with a specific purpose (in addition to fun) in mind, even though you might not be able to identify that purpose at first glance. Brightly coloured equipment is always used because colours help to stimulate young children and stimulation can encourage brain development, which makes children more receptive to knowledge. Many of the pieces of play equipment can also be used for educational games, so your child will be able to learn about colours, shapes, numbers, letters and animals whilst they play.
As well as building their brains, play equipment can help young children to develop their motor skills. Soft play equipment such as ball pools and soft see-saws can help to teach children how to be more co-ordinated. They also help children to develop better spatial awareness skills. See-saw type toys help children to understand that the ways in which they use their bodies can affect other things around them.
Communal play areas help children to develop their social skills by allowing them to interact with other children. If your child does not have any other young siblings, this can be especially important, as it allows them to interact with people who are the same age as them. Building social skills at a young age is very important, as it can help children to communicate better in later life. In a play zone, children will learn important skills such as sharing and teamwork. They will also learn that playing well with others can increase their own level of enjoyment and happiness.
confidence, emotion control, etc…
People Skills- those we use to influence how others perceive / receive us, our work, our ideas. Examples of these soft skills include communication skills, leadership skills, teamwork skills, ability to deal with difficult personalities.
Any one of these skills will take time to improve. At a high level, here are five tips I recommend to start improving today.
Build self awareness – understand why you react to certain situations and people a certain way, why you become stressed, angry, shy, irritated, etc… In order to develop any self management skills, you first have to understand yourself. Change starts at the point of awareness
Understand other people’s motivations – With any interaction with people, what you are dealing with is your motivation / insecurity and theirs. Any action that cause conflict in motivation or trigger yours or other person’s insecurity, will create a difficult or unexpected situation. By proactively trying to put yourself in their shoes before any interaction, you could communicate better and can better manage your reaction to unexpected situations
Don’t try to eat a cow in one bite – This is a famous Chinese proverb that basically means don’t try to achieve too much in one step. You will set yourself up for failure and end up feeling defeated. You cannot improve all your soft skills over night, so identify one skill you want to start with. Start researching (books, blogs, etc…) and practice on that one skill. Once you make progress on one skill, it will give you the confidence to improve more on others a step at a time.
It’s all about changing yourself not others – Some people may think improving soft skills can help you manipulate/change others’ actions. It’s not true. Improving these skills is all about changing yourself, your perception, your approach to situations. Only when you change, will people’s reaction to you also change.
Practice, Practice, Practice – Soft skills are not something you can just study in a book to get better, improvement takes practice over time. Improving these skills is fundamentally about changing your behavior and thought patterns toward yourself and others. So every next interaction you have with people at work is an opportunity to practice a soft skill.
Refer to my article, List of 28 Soft Skills to help identify which skills you want to work on first and start today. Best wishes in your career. I am always in your corner.