Bedside Manners: One of the biggest skills you can gain in your career

Have you ever heard of the term “bedside manners” when it comes to doctors? We all know that we don’t want our doctor to just know how to do his job right; we want him to communicate with us and help us feel better emotionally. This is what we call “Soft Skills,” and we can all benefit from it to stand out in our profession.

So what is bedside manner, more politely called “Soft Skills?” Once you learn about them, your career as a leader can be limitless!

There are two types of skills that you need to become successful in your chosen career.

Learn the difference between Hard Skills and Soft Skills

Hopefully you already have the “hard skills” needed to do your job, either with a good college degree, a CFA, a CFP, a JD, as well as sheer years of experience that has taught you the information to do your job right.

The first set of skills you need in order to have a successful career, hard skills, are the technical skills you gain to complete your job. For instance, if you’re a nurse, you’ll need to know how to take vitals, fill out forms with proper terminology, etc. These hard skills are job specific.

This includes your years of experience, your analytical skills, your problem skill capabilities, your ability to store information and more.

Also, your IQ can be a good measure of this. The higher your IQ, in theory the better your hard skills in your chosen profession.

But we all know that we don’t just select someone to work with, either as an employee, a partner or a business we select, based on just the hard skills. If that was the case, anyone who just showed us their performance, their school grades, or their CFA would get our business.

Most of us require something beyond just the hard skills.

Which leads us to the the second set of skills you need to thrive in your career, soft skills, which can bolster your ability to work within the environment of your place of employment, and most of them are vital to every career.

Unlike hard skills, soft skills aren’t taught in college, but you can still learn them. There are eight soft skills to consider, which we will outline below. For a basic understanding, you can think of them as adding support to the workplace by being a considerate team player that can clearly communicate and problem solve when issues arise.

One all-encompassing soft skill is leadership. You don’t have to be in a managerial position to display leadership. It simply means you can guide those around you from one place to another, whether that’s an issue that needs to be fixed or the presentation of a new idea. 

To be an effective leader, you need good communication skills. This includes both verbal and nonverbal cues. If you can present a pleasant demeanor while fully outlining the reasons a specific solution will work for an issue, you have good communication. If you couple communication with interpersonal skills, which encompass how you treat people, including active listening, remaining calm during a disagreement and generally being courteous towards your coworkers, you can keep the workplace positive and efficient. 

Two other essential skills are work ethic and teamwork. If your coworkers can depend on you to be a team player and remain invested in everyone’s success, that will create a great work environment. You’ll need to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your fellow team members and learn when to step in and when to bow out while remaining ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work when it’s needed. 

Problem-solving and exhibiting adaptability are two more soft skills, and they allow you to think quickly and efficiently in the moment without getting flustered. This means that you remain flexible and have sufficient knowledge about your career to create solutions. 

The last important soft skill is conflict resolution. It’s crucial that you learn to use your communication and interpersonal skills to reduce conflicts within the workplace. Using your problem-solving and adaptability skills, as well, will help you negotiate in such a way that everyone remains productive during the process. 

With these eight skills in hand, you’ll be a significant asset to any organization. Many resources are available to help you bolster these skills and learn how to use them, but you must first take stock and recognize which ones you need to work on. 

Want to improve you and/or your team’s soft skills so you can thrive within your industry and profession? Schedule a call using the link below.