Is it really possible to work on your soft skills?

Soft skills, non-technical skills that have become essential in the workforce, don’t have a universal definition. However, scientists agree that we can work on and develop these well-known skills thanks to our brain.

A plastic brain for learning

Organisation, adaptability, emotional intelligence, stress management, benevolence, empathy… these are not just personality traits but what are commonly referred to as soft skills. Therefore, it is possible to work on and develop them. Although some have an innate ability – as is the case for hard skills – our brain is able to learn new skills. That’s why we say that it is plastic, meaning that it can change as a result of experience.

Put simply, the brain is full of links between neurons. Researchers have found approximately seven networks with intra- and internetwork connections, and our soft skills come from all of their interactions.

Human beings are social animals

The neocortex can be found in our interconnected brain. It is a part of the brain that is particularly well developed in humans. It is, in part, what makes us humans.

We are also a hugely social animal, which is why evolution has preserved the cognitive functions that allow us to interact with our fellow men as well as to survive in nature, since these functions have allowed us to adopt an organizational arrangement based on cooperation. These complex functions that have allowed us to cooperate are mainly what we call soft skills: communication, empathy, problem solving, flexibility, team spirit, etc. Therefore, if we were able to work on our soft skills as a species to survive, we can definitely do it individually to find our path and land a job.

Assessing your own soft skills to better develop them

To work on your non-technical skills, you must first know where to start. There are several types of exercises to assess your skills. You can do a self-evaluation based on the perception that you have of your own skills. It sounds easy, but you have to be mindful of the biases that you may have. Overconfidence, or the Dunning Kruger effect, can skew the way you perceive yourself. It is therefore ideal to put yourself in the place of someone who knows you well; it allows you to take a step back.

You can also test what researchers call reflective practice. For example, you can create a document in which you list all of your experiences – personal and professional – to identify skills that you have developed. For every competency that you identify, write factual proof of your skill. Don’t forget to share your results with your colleagues or friends, it will help ensure that you are not completely off the mark.

And, of course, you can try Hester, a tool developed by JobTeacher’s researchers to help us review our soft skills capital.