Gone are the days when a bachelor’s degree would guarantee a place of employment.
The changing nature of work, spurred by high digitalisation and staff cuts arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased presence of artificial intelligence (AI), is seeing oncoming graduates predicted to change careers five to seven times throughout their lifetime.
Modern workplaces prioritise recruits with translatable soft skills, like communication, innovation creativity, time management, networking, teamwork, complex problem solving and critical thinking, and intermediate-to-advanced digital skills. The same goes for employees looking for promotions and career progression.
As a result, competition between younger and older generations in the workforce is higher now than ever — your foundational knowledge and experience will not suffice without improvement in your soft skills and digital literacy. Fortunately, the two can be developed simultaneously.
Soft skills are interpersonal and intrapersonal qualities transferable across occupations. However, cultivating your AI, virtual reality, and your Microsoft Teams, Office suite and Zoom literacy, as well as increasing your podcast and audiobook listening habits, can improve your intrapersonal skills.
Enhancing Emotional Intelligence with AI
Not everyone has natural abilities for emotional intelligence and communicating with others. Research from Yale suggests being a “people person” and understanding emotions objectively and subjectively improves decision-making efficiency at work. Having emotional intelligence is instrumental in changing processes to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity across an entire company, as it helps identify gaps and needs within interactions between all stakeholders in work environments.
Though it sounds contradictory, there is strong reason to believe that artificial intelligence will further human performance, with menial labour and people skills.
Advancements in machine learning can examine correspondence to find trends in communication skills and customer service. AI can thus collate data in the form of written or oral conversations and perform a data analysis of learning styles and personality profiles of colleagues and customers to provide insights into conversational skills, conflict resolution, and negotiation techniques to optimise better communication, sales, and the overall performance of operations and projects.
Virtual Reality for Leadership Training
Leaders are made, not born. However, great power comes with the added challenge of managing relationships between team members, clients, and individuals. Were you to handle workplace situations with the wrong approach, it could have disastrous consequences on your team’s willingness to perform for the benefit of the business.
At the core of intrapersonal leadership is displaying empathy. Virtual reality (VR) can provide learning platforms to stimulate complex interpersonal situations, so leaders can practise decision making and leadership without the risks involved. Rather than completing long, unengaging online courses, VR leadership training offers opportunities to find potential ideas and ways to resolve conflicts through example simulations of common workplace experiences.
Companies like Walmart are already using virtual reality to support key behavioural and emotional connections with employees. Why not elevate your business and role as a leader with Priority Management’s virtual training programs, which include a variety of problems to increase your leadership skill set?
Building Team Collaboration Online
Building Team Collaboration OnlineUltimately, there are few results one can achieve working individually in a business. Effective team collaboration is the backbone of every organisation’s success.
As industries embrace remote work, teamwork must be as efficient online as it is in the office. Apps like Microsoft Teams and Zoom allow professionals with integrated platforms to replicate work environments they are comfortable with. Moreover, they take into account the different ways people like to work: online, collaboratively, and internationally.
Priority Management’s proven tips for seamless integration on Teams is to establish SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and trackable) goals that align with the broader organisational strategy to streamline project management. Support team members with lower levels of digital literacy with how-to guides, training, tips, or video tutorials to familiarise themselves with the online environment.
Using Podcasts and Audiobooks for Soft Skills Development
Another convenient and accessible way to enhance communication skills is by integrating podcast and audiobook listening into your daily routine.
Podcasts are available on any topic and interest you may have. From science to history, or true crime, in individually hosted, interviews or conversational formats, they’ll cover questions you may not have realised you had, and expose you to different accents, manners of speaking and thought processes. Moreover, podcasts with multiple hosts provide insights into building rapport and connection with others.
Similarly, exploring audiobooks will broaden your vocabulary, enriching your grammar, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Both fiction and non-fiction audiobooks will indirectly but effectively assist your ability to write reports and give you an advantage in client discussions at work.
Be sure to set aside time to listen, however. Whether on the commute to work or during evening downtime before bed, make connections, form opinions, and take note of any observations and learning throughout your listening.
Become Both Tech Savvy and a People Person
It is impossible to progress in the current work landscape without a strong combination of digital and soft skills. Thankfully, there are resources and software out there using automation and simulating scenarios that offer employees the opportunity to develop expertise in areas like leadership and emotional intelligence.
Online collaboration is easier now than ever before with the help of Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and the growth of audio content services provides virtually unlimited exposure to language and rhetoric for industry use.
Professional development is an ongoing and often overwhelming process. Priority Management has decades of experience in training leaders and their teams, so businesses can concentrate on adapting elements of our courses into their routines.
With training tailored to your team’s needs and crucial follow-up coaching to ensure your goals are met, discover the latest technological tools to boost your soft skills with Priority Management.