Episode: 216

Episode Title: The Top 5 Soft Skills I Hire: Communication

File Name: the-top-5-soft-skills-i-hire-communication

As a small business owner, I’m always looking for five critical soft skills in the people I hire. We’ll look at the first one today, coming up next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 216 show:

You’re starting your week in The Perna Syndicate—welcome! I’m your host, Mark Perna, and I’m a huge advocate of soft skills, or as I call them, professional skills. 

These are the non-technical skills that relate to how you work, and they’re in short supply. As a small business owner I recognize the critical value of these workplace skills. We can’t train someone on our company standards and culture if the individual doesn’t want to learn. 

This week I want to share the top 5 professional skills I look for when I’m hiring. The first one on my list is communication. Written and verbal, virtual and in person, this is the ability to speak and write clearly, listen well, and process what others say. A person who cannot effectively share and receive information is marooned from the rest of the team—now more than ever in today’s remote and hybrid work environments. 

For those seeking to improve their communication skills, my best advice would be to find a real-life role model of great communication to study and emulate. 

Once you’ve identified such a person—either in your professional or personal life—be active in dissecting what makes their communication skills so good. You might even ask that person to consider a mini-mentorship in this area.

Communication is essential to everything we do at work and in life, so it’s worth it to enhance your skill in this area. 

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the power of being engaged at work and why this professional skill is so hard for people to attain. We’ll see you back here then at the Syndicate.