Engineered Advice: The Importance of Soft Skills as Engineers
As you enter your career as an engineer, it is likely that you have prioritized and perfected your “hard skills,” also known as your technical skills. However, it is important that you don’t let your “soft skills” get pushed to the back burner! Soft skills are personal attributes that affect how someone interacts with others around them. Those with strong soft skills are able to interact with anyone and everyone harmoniously.
Examples of Soft Skills:
- Communication: conveying information effectively and efficiently through verbal, written, and non-verbal means. This includes active listening, clarity in expression, and adapting communication style to different audiences.
- Teamwork/Interpersonal Skills: collaborating effectively with others towards a common goal. This involves cooperation, compromise, conflict resolution, and recognizing the strengths and contributions of team members.
- Emotional Intelligence: Recognizing, understanding, and managing one’s own emotions, as well as understanding and empathizing with the emotions of others. This includes self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and interpersonal skills.
- Leadership: Guiding, motivating, and influencing others to achieve objectives. Leadership skills include decision-making, delegation, communication, and the ability to inspire and empower team members.
Soft skills are equally important as hard skills when launching your career in engineering. Engineers need to know soft skills for several important reasons:
- Engineers need to collaborate with colleagues, clients, stakeholders, and sometimes even with individuals from non-technical backgrounds. Strong interpersonal skills help in building productive working relationships, fostering teamwork, and resolving conflicts constructively.
- Even if engineers are not in formal leadership roles, they often need to lead projects, mentor junior team members, or coordinate tasks. Leadership skills such as decision-making, delegation, and motivating others are valuable for guiding teams towards common goals and driving project success.
- Engineers frequently engage with clients or end-users to understand project requirements, gather feedback, and deliver solutions that meet their needs. Soft skills such as empathy, negotiation, and business acumen help in building trust with clients, managing expectations, and ensuring project alignment with business objectives.
Sot skills complement technical expertise and are essential to thrive in your career. These types of skills are highly valued in the workplace, as they contribute to a positive work environment, effective collaboration, and overall professional success.
