Soft Skills: Essentials for workplace success

Businesses want soft skills for success Rarely does a person get to work alone. While
These days we in CTE A recent article in Techniques magazine (May, the underlying concept of a project or a piece of
(Career and Technical 2007) demonstrated that businesses want to hire research is organization, to the extent that peo-
Education) are work- employees who can contribute more than tech- ple need to work together, team members need
ing hard to explain nical knowledge to the workplace. These busi- many soft skills. They need to set goals together
our role in teaching nesses cite the lack of soft skills as the chief cause and assume roles that will work best for the
students to use and of project failure. (“Soft Skills: the New team—reaching consensus and working through
develop academic Curriculum for Hard-Core Technical disagreements. They need to respect one anoth-
abilities. Professionals, by Randy Bancino and Claire er’s talents and time. They need to behave
Zevalkink) They are not just talking about frills, responsibly. All of the skills we mentioned under
As we do this, howev- they’re talking about the polished habits and communication apply to any kind of joint effort
er, it’s easy to lose social and teamwork skills that make the compa- as well.
nies successful. Yes, they are the soft skills.
track of our commit-
Which aspects of DECA develop these soft
ment to teaching the
What do we mean by soft skills? skills? Almost all. Your chapter officers need
essential soft skills as
soft skills to lead the chapter and to work
part of workplace Bancino and Zevalkink quote Wikipedia in
together. Teamwork and commitment are
readiness. Are our defining the soft skills as “the cluster of person-
required by any team project. Social intelligence
efforts at nurturing ality traits, social graces, facility with language,
isn’t just for making friends—it develops social
these more personal personal habits, friendliness and optimism that
abilities and increases emotional intelligence.
skills just fluff? Do mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills com-
People need to understand others and take that
these skills have a plement hard skills, which are the technical
perspective into account in their personal inter-
legitimate place in the requirements of a job.”
actions and their work. Are these the “extra”
classroom? If so, why? aspects of a “club”? No, they are building blocks
Do they enhance or Communication and teamwork
for a productive and fulfilling career and life, and
interfere with the Two main areas link the technical competencies are an asset in any business.
basics of our curricu- with these soft skills—communication and team-
lum? Do they waste work. These two core sets of skills for marketing Soft skills for competitive events
classroom time? and management extend your curriculum into
the world of work, and they both combine a As DECA’s competitive events put classroom
The article at the right range of skills that include academic competen- knowledge to work, they require these extended
describes the soft cies and personal abilities. personal abilities. Management Team Decision
skills as a crossover Making events and many written events are
between academics Communication has its base in language com- undertaken by teams. This isn’t an accident. The
and personal skills. petency, a core academic skill. Reading and writ- team approach is designed to teach cooperative
The companion article ing are its foundations. Yet when we put lan- techniques in pursuit of a goal.
on page 7 shows how guage to work in interpersonal situations, anoth-
one teacher develops er skill set evolves: the ability to speak concisely Presentations and role-plays require skill at
these personal skills in and clearly, to listen actively, to send and receive speaking and listening. The role-plays particular-
the classroom and, nonverbal clues, to “think on your feet,” to hit ly demand clarity, confidence, active listening
along the way, the right tone (appropriate enthusiasm), even skills and quick-wittedness.
achieves competitive just to be confident enough to engage others in
event success. conversation or debate. Is there any question As you teach your curriculum through the
that these are vital career skills in marketing and real-world interactions of the competitive
management? Look at the basic marketing skill events structure, don’t neglect the soft skills.
of selling or the ability to manage employees. Tricks and gimmicks may sometimes seem to
Teaching students to extend their communica- be a shortcut to role-play success, but teach-
tion abilities into the real work of the market- ing and practicing the real personality
place involves all of this and more. enhancement of confidence and communica-
tion skills are essential not only to role-play
Teamwork to accomplish a task or reach a goal success, but to career and life satisfaction.
is an essential business skill as well as a life skill. (See more on page 7)