Upskilling in today’s work has grown beyond technical expertise and academic excellence. Of course, you need to be an expert in something to excel in a chosen domain. All the same, behavioral skills have come to take center stage. Today, some experts with excellent technical skills come to an organization and things begin to fall apart. They have expert technical skills but terrible behavioral skills.

The good news is that just like you can learn and develop into an expert, you can also learn and grow your behavioral skills. 

Nobody works in isolation. Whether you are running a small business, managing a big organization, or even developing your professional career, these are human skills that will propel you to excel. Of course, there are many in-demand skills for 21st-century work. These 4 top human skills are needed to be successful at work in today’s world:

1. Collaboration, 
2. Communication, 
3. Critical Thinking
4. Creativity

In an official youtube blog article – The 4 C’s of upskilling in today’s world, Doreen Tran curated the stories of experts in these fields. Here I have tried to paraphrase or rephrase to break down the meanings. Read on to understand the vital importance of these human skills in today’s workplace and how to grow with them.

Collaboration

Today, companies are giving great importance and preference to professionals who, in addition to having technical skills, also have behavioral skills–the famous soft skills.

– Adriana Cubas

Call To Action

• Prioritize developing your soft skills like communication skills, interpersonal relationships, and active listening. 
• Take the initiative to operate outside your domain and invite those from outside your domain in order to find solutions. 
• Build a diverse network to exchange ideas, interests, and knowledge. 

Communication

In today’s world, we don’t just speak words at work. We speak and work to communicate the value that drives change. The words you speak at work are supposed to help people reason with you. Understanding your words will make them adopt your ideas through trust-building. This means we are to be purpose-driven as we communicate. Knowing exactly why you should say something will help you think through and communicate more effectively. This is even more especially important now with the rise in electronic communication – email, zoom, Microsoft meet, chat rooms, etc. Our words must have a purpose, build trust, encourage collaborative reasoning and drive growth.

Research has found that even a single powerful word can chemically change an interaction. Even reading the word ‘win’ can make people more motivated.

– Vanessa Van Edwards

Take These Actions according to Vanessa Van Edwards

Stop giving automatic messages or responses.  Instead of being on autopilot by using the same everyday words, be more human. Use words that motivate instead of using words that are too formal and overused. 

Instead of saying “meeting,” say “brainstorming session.” 

Instead of saying “morning tour,” say “familiarisation tour.” 

Instead of saying “thank you,” say “This was great. I appreciate your being helpful.” 

You are contagious, according to Vanessa Van Edwards in this TEDxLondon presentation.

When communication is poor, the costs can be very high and damaging. This is especially true for leaders as highlighted in an article by David Grossman – The Cost Of Poor Communications

Creativity

According to theFutur, “Creativity is being brave enough to fail.” Creativity exists in every aspect of work today. Beyond the traditional view of creativity as a quality, some few have, creativity is simply connecting ideas in new ways to create strategic solutions. Creativity is perceiving what would be when others can’t readily see beyond the moment. Great companies thrive to the extent they foster creativity and leverage it. To be creative is to try bringing new ideas together, failing, learning, optimizing, and growing. 

Research has found that even a single powerful word can chemically change an interaction. Even reading the word ‘win’ can make people more motivated.

– Vanessa Van Edwards

If you want creativity to flourish, then 

• Make sure to start with a clear purpose 
• Be clear on what success will look like
• Make sure all stakeholders are on board. 
• Test concepts fast so you will not find it difficult to go back when you have already put in so many resources. Validating ideas early will also help you get valuable feedback and to detect difficulties fast. 
• Avoid working in silos. Get teams across departments to interact. When challenges are co-owned, everyone works for a win-win situation.

Critical Thinking

Information is no longer a scarce resource today. A simple google search will bring up millions of results for any query. In fact, you can easily get unsolicited information via WhatsApp groups and other chat platforms. 

What is scarce today is the ability or even willingness to separate credible information from one-sided and misleading ones. This is where the need for critical thinking skill is needed.

In fact, critical thinking is the number one item among the 6 core skills that are essential for a child to really succeed at this age according to The British Council, 

Critical thinking will help deliberately leverage logic and evidence to determine what information is reliable and how to use it. Utilizing our critical thinking skills will help us become more responsible citizens even beyond our work environments. However, according to Tonatiuh Moreno of Curiosamente, critical thinking is more effective when complemented with lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is what is normally referred to as thinking ‘outside the box. It simply means to creatively consider reasons that are not immediately obvious. 

Whenever we seem to be very sure of something, question it.

– Tonatiuh Moreno

Exert tips from Curiosamente:

In the first place, be very aware that not only others, but ourselves, are very susceptible to falling into logical fallacies and cognitive biases (the “thinking traps”) and that it is our “system 1,” a concept explained by Daniel Kahneman, and that this system operates thoughtlessly and is the one in charge most of the time. 

Be aware that the Dunning-Kruger effect applies to all human beings and, whenever we seem to be very sure of something, question it. Realize that, as Edgar Morin says: We sail in an ocean of uncertainties where there are some archipelagos of certainties. Be always suspicious of someone who is too sure.

Wrapping it up

These 4C’s remain absolutely important skills to have. All the same, there are other very important aspects of human interaction needed to succeed in today’s workplace. You are bound to be raising your star when the 4 and other productive human interactions are aligned with your professional skills. These upskilling expert guides will be more effective when they are all tied to your overall personal brand strategy. See The 5 Best Ways to Build Your Unique Personal Brand.

Go and excel.

You May Want To Learn More: 

• If you want to have a deeper understanding of collaboration skills click here
• For 14 ways to improve your communication skills,  click here
• For an ultimate guide to understanding today’s most important skill – creativity click here. 
• For 7 steps to building your critical thinking skills with examples click here

YouTube videos that may interest you.

• The Single Best Team Building Exercise – Start, Stop, Continue by Vanessa Van Edwards
• Reinvent Yourself (2022)- Obstacles Are Opportunities in Disguise, by Chris Do
• Why incompetent people think they’re amazing – by David Dunning