When it comes to success in the workplace, a university degree isn’t always sufficient. Years of expertise on the job don’t always equate to success, either.

Often, having “soft skills” is the key to getting ahead in your career. A few intangible but critical qualities not only enable you to effectively collaborate with people at your job, they also can help you find more contentment in your personal life.

Essential soft skills include leadership, problem solving, communications and conflict resolution abilities. Some of the biggest companies in the world are looking at these qualities to hire new workers. In fact, a major criterion identified by Google for its hiring process is the ability to learn.

Having great soft skills can be an enormous game-changer as your career progresses, and a few, in particular, are more valuable than others.

Paying Attention to Others

People often correlate good communicators with folks who have excellent speaking skills. However, the best communicators are actually great listeners.

The fastest way to build a trusting relationship with someone else is by taking a personal interest them. You can achieve this by trying to really hear what people are saying when they talk. Good listeners aren’t planning what they’re going to say next when someone else is talking.

Rather, someone with good communication skills makes it all about the person they’re with – not about themselves. They make every attempt to be curious about what the other person is saying, and ask follow-up questions to learn as much as possible.

Accepting Responsibility

While it’s not a skill per se, being able to accept responsibility when something goes wrong does take a certain amount of personal confidence.

When something goes wrong, you should accept any responsibility for the role you may have played in it. Being accountable also means not making assumptions, it means holding others responsible and following up to verify tasks you delegated have been handled.

Being responsible also means keeping the agreements you make.

Solving Problems with Limited Resources

Solving a problem is easy when you have the resources necessary to do so. It’s when you don’t have everything you need at hand that you must get creative and solve an issue with the available resources.

For instance, if a chef wants to make a dish that needs 10 ingredients, but she only has seven of them, she finds a way use those seven ingredients to make a delicious dish.

The greatest ideas have a tendency to arrive under limitations. Keeping this in mind allows you to handle situations that others might shrink from. Always try to focus on the ingredients you have and then embrace the simple guidelines this circumstance creates.

At Cornerstone, we’re always helping job seekers work on improving their soft skills, and land new logistics jobs. If you need guidance in improving your skills or you need help to emphasize those skills during your job search, please contact us through our website.