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It’s important to hone soft skills in the workplace, especially if you’re a business leader or manager. Hard skills can help you excel at your job, but the more proficient your soft skills are, the stronger leader you can become. Below are three leadership skills you can improve that will have a meaningful impact on your team’s success.
Communication
It takes more than advanced degrees and experience to be a successful leader in the biotech industry. If you don’t have clear and purposeful communication, then you will struggle to inspire and motivate those on your team to achieve organizational goals. But developing communication skills often gets overlooked in favor of other skills. From low morale to wasted time, not improving these skills can cost organizations significantly in the long run. Don’t automatically assume that your employees and clients understand everything that you’re saying. One of the common mistakes you can make is not tailoring your message to your audience. Promote stronger connections with your employees by serving their needs too. Focus on communicating relevant information to individuals, not having a one-size-fits-all message. Being a good listener is critical as well. Take the time to ask questions and really listen to your team members speak about what’s important to them.
Empathy
Emotionally intelligent leaders will continue to be in high demand in the pharmaceutical industry. One of the cornerstones of emotional intelligence is empathy and developing empathy takes effort and practice. An important first step in the practice of developing empathy as a leader is to form personal bonds with each team member. Ask employees about their lives to build stronger connections. Begin to understand what their concerns are and what is important to them. Learn to see things from the point of view of your employees to develop rapport.
Inclusivity
Contract research organizations continue to prioritize inclusive leadership because diverse teams are more creative and successful. True inclusive leadership goes deeper than a leader’s personality traits to encompass these specific actions:
- Ask team members what religious holidays they observe.
- Inquire about and practice correct name pronunciations.
- Get vulnerable; share your own personal struggles.
- Increase fairness by establishing pay transparency.
- Learn more about underprivileged and underrepresented people. Check out resources like Women in the Workplace Report, 5 Ally Actions Newsletter, etc.
Communication, empathy, and inclusion are just three of the top soft skills that you can improve on today. These will set you apart from other leaders and help build a collaborative and productive team. There are many more soft skills you can develop over time, but if you can lead with these meaningful changes, you can help make the world a better place.
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