As we navigate the world of remote work, the demand for hiring talent has become more challenging than ever. Especially when you’re working remotely, power skills, also known as the rebranded soft skills, have become even more critical than they were before. They have become crucial success factors for your business to thrive in this ever-changing work environment.
What are “power skills” and why are they important? To put it simply, power skills are all about people skills. These are personal qualities that cannot be replicated by any machines or even AIs. Think of traits such as intelligence, leadership, resilience, adaptability, communication – these are all examples of power skills that are highly critical in the job market.
You can also think of it this way – expertise in a specific function is a hard skill, while being able to power through difficulties, solve problems, or communicate effectively is a power skill. Hard skills can be taught, while power skills are learned and refined over time. These power skills give us the ability to lead a team and handle any ambiguous circumstances.
So, the question is how can you unleash your employees’ power skills while they’re on remote?
Develop their leadership skills
Leadership isn’t just about managing a team – it’s also about being able to lead yourself. And one of the most important traits of any leader is self-awareness. Leadership is about building a vision for yourself, mapping out where you want to go, and planning steps on how to achieve the goals that you’ve set for yourself. And even at a remote work setup, you can develop every employee’s leadership skill by assigning them to lead projects. Trust them with responsibilities and watch how they inspire others. See how they go about it – how they build confidence in themselves and build lasting relationships with their teammates. Having leadership skills, especially in this challenging environment, will help your team to always find reasons to push through and cope with the ups and downs.
Improve their emotional intelligence
Developing the level of grit in your workplace culture is important. Employees with low grit tend to easily give up when things get tough, while those with high grit can bounce back quickly from challenges and stay focused to achieve their goals. The ultimate way to build the emotional intelligence of your team is to do regular coaching and mentorship. Providing your team with opportunities to challenge themselves can help unlock hidden talents and personalities they never knew they had. But you should also know when they are about to reach a wall. That’s when you need to provide them with guidance and feedback and encourage them to constantly develop the skills they need to thrive.
Inspire them to be their best selves
Building these power skills in the workplace should be exciting with all the new opportunities and possibilities. But along the way, your employees may experience some slumps, and you should be able to move past them. When things get overwhelming, provide them with clarity. Encourage them to speak their mind, listen, and make them feel supported. Keep the enthusiasm by boosting their curiosity. Being curious about how and why things are the way they are invites them to learn more. There are so many ways to inspire your employees to be their best selves. And you must be creative about it.
Conclusion
Having a strong set of power skills in your employees and work culture could be your organisation’s biggest asset. While hard skills are necessary to excel in the technical aspects of your job, power skills are what help you navigate any situation with confidence and ease. Investing time into honing these power skills can elevate your team’s performance and make them more effective and successful.
If you want to know more about how you can fire up power skills in your teams, check out our Filta services or you may schedule a chat with our Chief Growth Officer, Nerissa Chaux, for consultation about managing global remote teams.
