In the day-to-day work of engineers and
technical specialists, soft skills are as important as technical skills. These
skills, or emotional intelligence, are often not learned in school and enable
professionals to navigate smoothly and effectively through a wide variety of
social and professional situations with a wide variety of people. Such skills
include communication, cooperation, creativity, leadership, and organization.
Soft Skill 1: Communication
While speaking, writing, and listening are everyday actions, many
professionals underestimate the importance of communication skills. Engineers
tend to prioritize technical skills over communication skills, not realizing
that they cannot be fully effective in their jobs if they are inadequate
speakers, writers, and listeners. Yet it is particularly in the engineering
fields that effective communication skills are crucial to success.
The interaction between stakeholders, whether it is internal in an
organization or external with partners or clients, is fraught with
opportunities for misunderstanding. That is why effective communication also
involves listening, which is itself an essential soft skill. Without actively
listening to customers, clients, or project partners, problem-solving becomes
much more difficult and time-consuming.
Soft Skill 2: Creativity
Creativity is arguably the driving force behind innovation and therefore
increasingly gaining recognition as the new capital in uncertain and challenging economic times. Innovation thrives
on breakthrough thinking, nimbleness, and empowerment. Organizations often
depend on big ideas and creative employees to develop innovative products and
services.
In the engineering fields, creativity can be as valuable to solving a
problem as the technical skills to identify and troubleshoot the source of the
problem. As such, creative thinking is a soft skill that engineers, scientists,
and others in the STEM fields should cultivate in order to become invaluable
members of their organizations.
Soft Skill 3: Adaptability
There is no shortage of challenges and issues that arise on any given
workday. Having the ability to identify solutions to unforeseen problems
requires being able to modify and adjust accordingly to the environment and
situation.
This flexibility is one of the soft skills that increasingly more employers
look for in employees. The way professionals demonstrate their adaptability is
by showing they are able to think on their feet, assess problems, and find
solutions. The ability to develop a well-thought-out solution within a given
time is a skill that employers value greatly.
At the same time, today’s tech frontier is rapidly reshaping industries,
which means that organizations often must implement change internally to keep
up. Here, adaptability also means a willingness to face the unexpected.
Soft Skill 4: Collaboration
The days of single-inventor innovations have been replaced with team
research across nearly all fields.
Whether you call it cooperation, collaboration, or teamwork, an engineer’s
ability to work with other people from different backgrounds is essential.
Soft Skill 5: Leadership
Leadership, in and of itself, is not one skill but the blending and
integration of a variety of skills. By its very nature, leading people is about
successfully interacting with them and convincing them to follow.
“In an engineering context, leadership incorporates
a number of capabilities which are critical in order to function at a
professional level,”
While much of leadership is character-based, engineers can develop or hone
certain leadership skills or attributes to foster personal and professional
success.
“Leadership skills are also important to allow engineers later in their
careers to help develop and communicate vision for the future and to help shape
public policy,”
