No matter your role within a company, CEO, administrator, clinical director to an entry-level position, soft skills are essential in helping you thrive in the workplace. They are so important that when something isn’t working or feels off, it is often rooted in a soft skillset vs. a technical skill mishap.  They are used and beneficial in any company, in any industry. If you find yourself with new work responsibility or the chance for one, soft skills are often one of the drivers for your newfound success, the reason you were hired, or why someone is trying to recruit you into a position.  #KnowYourStrengths #UnderstandYourWeaknesses #DoTheWork 

Here are some of the top soft skills that recruiters, hiring managers and business owners are looking for to drive success in a remote work environment:

• Accountability: Take responsibility for outcomes. This could be for an action you’ve done yourself, participated in as a team and most importantly, for your direct reports. The buck stops here – and you are the here.
• Assertiveness: Be confident in yourself and allow yourself the grace to not always be right. Don’t let fear of being wrong stop you from sharing and participating.  Acting courageous and enthusiastic with your communications and actions isn’t always easy, and it is often necessary. And don’t forget to balance your newfound assertiveness with respect, it will take you and your good work farther.  If you need to fake it till you become it, practice. 
• Collaboration & Teamwork: Do not be afraid to ask for help or to help others. Some tasks are better done together and partnering can get work done faster. Combine your efforts and resources toward a common goal and be respectful of others if they have a different viewpoint or method of getting a job done. In some instances, you may need to compromise. In others, do not be afraid to swallow your pride if the task gets completed in the desired outcome. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets credit.
• Conflict Management: Maintaining a healthy relationship with your coworkers is crucial to have a productive work environment. Conflict management is a skillset that helps you compromise and resolve disagreements in a respectful manner. Don’t let little things build up into big issues, and work to solve misunderstandings on a one-to-one basis first, in-person, video chat or over the phone – not in email or text.  
• Practical: Have calm, commonsense thinking. Think realistically when it comes to goals and outcomes and the time it will take to reach them. Setting unrealistic goals in unrealistic timeframes to often leads to failure and disappointment. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dream and push, if simply means that big visions need a level of practically to come true. 
• Creativity: Think, do, and express in ways that are outside of the box. This could be by creating new design ideas, processes or simply variations of current techniques to get tasks done. 
• Critical Thinking: Think in a disciplined manner that is clear, rational, open minded, and evidence based. Looking at problems from different points of view often opens new paths to solutions.  Take the side you disagree with most and argue for it – exercises like that will open your mind and allow you to determine options more openly.
• Enriching Others: Give positive reinforcement and support to those around you. Help create a healthy positive work environment. Be accepting of other’s differences. Mostly, find ways to contribute to the greater good of a project and others.
• Problem Solving: Hone the ability to identify obstacles. Discuss, analyze, and solve for challenges in both conventional and unconventional ways. 
• Productivity: Set and meet goals. Work hard but smart. Prioritize, plan, and manage tasks to knock them out of the way and to achieve your best results.
• Relationship Management: Build relationships with those around you. Be aware of their emotions and take them into consideration if they’re having a bad or unsuccessful day. Stop the often-natural tendency to think the worst and give everyone the benefit of the doubt.  You’ll appreciate it when they do the same for you.
• Self-Assessment: Self-reflect. Determine your strengths and limitations. See where you would add value to a situation or where you could improve and reach out for help. Often understanding your biggest weakness
• Service Orientation: Anticipate and meet people’s often unspoken needs. This can be done by helping them, introducing them to products, or services. Strive to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Show them how you stand out from other places by being attentive and insightful. 
• Stress Tolerance: Be able to endure pressure and uncertainty without becoming negative toward self or others. Be able to handle fast-pace or changing environments or excessive workloads through proper management methods. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help when needed. 

As you read that list, did any skills resonate as talents you feel you may already possess?  How about those that stick out as opportunities for improvement? First, you should identify the soft skills you naturally align with or that you feel you already have mastered. These should appear under Strengths on your resume, during interviews, and as you look for ways to add value to your current team. 

Are you uncertain about what these might be? It’s sometimes hard to understand your strengths, particularly if it is something that comes more naturally.  A good way to identify the skills that should already be listed in your Strengths Column is to ask your current or former boss, talk with coworkers and close friends or take online assessments. Next, to strengthen the skills you feel are important but may lack mastery, read about them, inquire about training that may be available through your current job, or even take an online class. There are many online or in-person classes that vary in length and depth. It is also useful to interview someone who has the skill or skills you’re hoping to start working on. There is a lot to learn from those that are already practicing what you hope to develop.

While excellent clinicians will always be in high demand, the definition of excellent is expanding far beyond having top-notch, specialty-based capabilities.   Most young healthcare providers have the technical knowledge and quickly develop the clinical skills they need for their role; however, many even more experienced professionals continue to need training when it comes to complex problem solving, teamwork, conflict management, business understanding, communication and leadership, known as behavioral or soft skills. These skills are harder to acquire and are learned through life and work experience versus a textbook. 

All medical providers deal with many challenges every day.  The real-life situations involve trying to adapt to constant change, prioritizing our time, learning to listen & collaborate in a team and understanding how to communicate our ideas, findings, and recommendations in a compelling way. However, most of us were never truly taught how to properly go about handling these situations. Even in other professions, roles that require high social skills like sales, leadership, project management, and marketing have seen an increased focus on the importance of heightened behavioral skills.  In 2020, healthcare providers managed changes from the in-person, traditional care model to more non-traditional professional and patient care environments, like telemedicine and remote practice. During this time, they discovered or were reminded just how important the ability to empathize, actively listen, communicate and collaborate is to the success of the patient. A basic lesson: it is never too late to work on your communication skills.

Numerous research studies have shown that no matter how knowledgeable a provider might be, if they are not able to open communication channels with other medical colleagues, their teams and patients, they may be of no help to anyone.  A patient’s perception of the quality of the care they receive is highly dependent on the quality of the interaction with their healthcare provider.  Yet, communication training for physicians and other providers historically has received far less attention in training and mentorship programs. 

Here are six reasons why communication skills really matter for providers.

• The history-taking aspect of a patient interview is critical to diagnostic decisions. When multiple providers are involved in the same patient visit, the opportunity for incomplete data and interruptions is higher, which can compromise the information.
• A patient’s adherence to recommendations is directly impacted by effective patient-provider communication.  There are examples of this in every medical specialty; motivational interviewing was grown out of this basic concern. 
• Patient satisfaction is impacted by realistic expectations, having the opportunity to express their ideas & concerns, the length of their appointment, the provider team in which they have interacted with and their perception of continuity of care among many others.  Communication lives at the core of each of these elements. 
• Patient Safety requires that all the members of a health care team communicate effectively, or medical errors increase, and patient care often suffers.
• The leading cause of most malpractice claims is a breakdown in communication. CRICO Strategies reviewed 23,000 medical malpractice lawsuits filed between 2009 and 2013.  Communication failures were a contributing factor in over 30% of those cases.
• Overall healthcare team satisfaction is impacted when providers do not feel supported, valued, and listened to in the work environment.  The quality of communication breaks down further when working relationships are not maintained.  There is a direct relationship between the provider’s satisfaction and their ability to build rapport with their patients.

There are strong relationships between a provider’s communication skills and a patient’s capacity to follow through with medical recommendations. The clinician’s ability to listen and empathize can have a significant impact on patient outcomes and satisfaction. Further, communication among providers & their teams influence working relationships, job satisfaction and can easily impact patient safety. Keep in mind, just like technical training and book knowledge, softer skills, like communication, can be improved upon through practice.