Top Personal Skills to Develop for Work

Personal skills are considered soft skills, or skills that are intangible but that improve your work-life by boosting your ability to express yourself and effectively interact with others. Nearly every job requires professionals to have good personal skills, although the specific personal skills needed will vary from position to position. Employers look for potential employees who possess a myriad of personal skills because they are often more equipped to handle various situations and contribute to an overall positive outcome for their organizations.

Individuals with strong personal skills are passionate about their job, motivated to complete their duties, willing to help others in the workplace, and are more likely to be successful in their roles than those without these skills.

Personal skills, or soft skills, are those that cannot be easily quantified or proven. For example, your ability to communicate effectively with others is considered a personal skill, but it’s not something that can be measured by employers. For this reason, demonstrating your personal skills is the best way to show employers that you possess these skills. You can also use specific examples of times you’ve previously used a soft skill at work when interviewing for a new position to demonstrate a particular personal skill.

Hard skills, on the other hand, are measurable skills that can be easily proven. Hard skills must be learned and are most often obtained through school, training materials, certifications, and on-the-job training. Examples of popular hard skills sought by employers include typing speeds, computer programming, and copyediting.

There are several personal skills that employers actively look for when hiring new employees. Many of these personal skills can be broken down into different categories of skills. Popular skills categories include:

Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills are skills that enable you to communicate and interact with others in a productive and successful way. These skills are needed in various professions, such as in administrative positions, customer service roles, and managerial roles. The top interpersonal skills that employers look for include:

• Teamwork skills.
• Motivation.
• Empathy.
• Patience.
• Flexibility.
• Respectfulness.
• Collaboration.
• Attentiveness.
• Consideration.
• Relationship building skills.
• Sociable skills.

Critical thinking skills

Critical skills are an important category of personal skills and refer to a person’s ability to make informed decisions and solve problems through creativity and analysis. Positions that often require critical thinking skills include accountants, attorneys, scientists, researchers, and teachers. Common critical thinking skills include:

• Curiosity.
• Troubleshooting.
• Research skills.
• Logical thinking.
• Deductive reasoning.
• Observation skills.
• Problem-solving skills.
• Analysis skills.
• Interpretation skills.
• Decision-making skills.
• Open-mindedness.

Intrinsic motivation skills

Being intrinsically motivated is a highly attractive skill to employers because it means that you’re able to find the motivation and passion needed to complete tasks without the need for exterior rewards. Intrinsically motivated people often enjoy the process of accomplishing a goal and come off as more trustworthy and reliable in the workplace. Skills that fall under the intrinsic motivation category include:

• Determination.
• Dependability.
• Ambition.
• Confidence.
• Optimism.
• Positivity.
• Confidence.
• Passionate.
• Independent.
• Good attitude.

Communication skills

Communication skills are another subset of skills that fall under the personal skills category. These skills are highly attractive to employers and are required in nearly any profession to be successful in the workplace. Examples of jobs that require strong communication skills include customer service representatives, public relations professionals, teachers, and journalists. In-demand communication skills include:

• Active listening.
• Verbal communication skills.
• Written communication skills.
• Nonverbal communication skills.
• Friendliness.
• Open-mindedness.
• Concision and clarity.
• Empathy.
• Respect.
• Asking questions.

Personal development skills

Personal development skills refer to the skills needed to foster your growth both professionally and personally. An employee with good personal development skills is an asset to a company as the employee is continuously striving to better themselves on their own. These skills are essential to excelling in your career and can help you reach career goals, advance your career, and improve on several types of talents and strengths. Top personal development skills include:

• Self-confidence.
• Integrity.
• Strong work ethic.
• Leadership skills.
• Self-motivated.
• Commitment to growth.
• Time management.
• Compassion.

Performance management skills

Performance management skills are an individual’s ability to effectively manage their performance as well as the performance of employees working under them. This skill set is especially important for professionals in leadership positions such as managers and team leaders. Common performance management skills employers seek in candidates include:

• Empowerment.
• Delegation skills.
• Constructive criticism.
• Mentoring and coaching skills.
• Goal-setting skills.
• Goal management skills.
• Reward management.
• Feedback.
• Open communication.

A great place to highlight your personal skills when applying for jobs is on your resume. You can do this in both a designated skills section on your resume as well as in the descriptions of your responsibilities from previous roles. When deciding which personal skills to include on your resume, a good rule of thumb is to first look at the job posting and note any personal skills specifically listed. This will give you a good idea as to the exact skills the employer is looking for in potential candidates.

Include any of the personal skills from the job posting that you possess in your resume. In the skills section, you can list each skill individually and then provide a specific example of a time in which you demonstrated that skill at work. In your work history section, reference personal skills and times you used them when describing your previous work roles. For example, to demonstrate intrinsic motivation, you could describe a time in which you accomplished a work goal that other colleagues quickly lost interest in.