What are your soft / behavioural skills?

Ok so you’ve been in a job for a while but you fancy a change but you have no idea where to start and what skills you have. So what are organisations looking for?

Jobs are made up of knowledge, skills and behaviours.Hate your job

Knowledge being linked to experience

Skills being linked to specific skills and qualifications

And Behaviours being linked to transferable softer skills

Knowledge and Skills are fairly easy to identify and define but Behaviours can be a bit more difficult to define.

For instance, a Retail organisation will be looking for people who have retail knowledge and experience. If you have a qualification, maybe an NVQ in Retail or Customer Service.

More recently organisations have been looking more at the softer skills or behaviours a person may have or bring to their organisation. An employee may have years of experience and lots of qualifications but can still be a poor performer, a poor team member or even upset customers. As a result many organisations now look for these softer skills and place more emphasis on these. Behaviours are sometimes referred to as “attitudes” or “personality traits”. It’s not always easy to assess these traits.

So what behavioural skills have you got?

This exercise is all about exploring these Behaviours.

So all you have to do is look for examples from work, past and present, for each of the 10 areas listed below. The more examples the better.

At the end of this exercise you should have a much better idea about your transferable skills. It is always useful to be able to tell employers what behavioural traits you can offer them.

By completing this I can guarantee that you will be preparing yourself for creating a c.v. , filling in an application form or attending an interview. It is a good idea to review this every year and add more examples.

Let’s go!

 

Behaviour Description Example
Self-Awareness and Self- Management Develops awareness of own strengths and weaknesses and reflects / learns from experiences.  Manages emotions and actions appropriately and professionally.  

 

 
Developing Self and Others Looks to continually develop self and/or others to improve performance.  

 

 
Strategic Thinking and Commercial Awareness Looks at the bigger picture presently and in the future. Spends time developing and driving strategic goals through the business. Understands the industry, sector and business you are in, and also the wider business arena.
Change Focus and Innovation Regularly review what you do / deliver with a view to developing new initiatives, ideas and solutions in order to progress yourself, your people and your business.  Accepts the need to learn from others, manage change proactively and embrace innovation.
Team Working and Leadership Be an effective part of a team / network and proactively contribute to building a team / network.  Lead individuals and teams using a style that is motivational and empowering.  

 

 
Interpersonal Skills and Communication Can build appropriate and professional relationships with a wide range of people.  Is able to utilise a flexible style with others to build relationships. Uses appropriate communication skills to ensure that people understand your message.
Achieving Results Delivers high quality results that impact on the business and drives self to achieve more whilst maintaining quality.  

 

 
Service Focus Provide a professional service to people that goes the extra mile. Demonstrates a service focus mind-set.  

 

 
Decision Making Using appropriate decision making processes that consider outcomes and implications. Keeps in check spontaneous decisions and high levels of changing your mind or indecision  

 

 
Planning and Organising Sets objectives / strategic goals and manages self, time and resources in working towards them.