6 Soft Skills That Are Undervalued When It Comes to Entrepreneurship

In today’s article, we’ll go beyond what’s obvious and will discuss 6 additional soft skills that you’ll find incredibly useful in entrepreneurship.

Numerous times before I’ve discussed the importance of having soft skills. In fact, I truly believe they are more quintessential for success than any hard skill, merely because mastering a hard skill is far more achievable than mastering a soft one. Why?

Mostly because soft skills come from deep inside of you, they are a direct link between who you are as a person and what you wish to represent in front of others. Many people can learn how to code, how to teach, how to practice medicine, how to engineer, how to do whatever – yet, not many people can quickly learn how to be good listeners, how to show proactivity, how to be curious, how to be outspoken or any other interpersonal skill that would come in handy not only in entrepreneurship but virtually every other type of human and social contact.

So today’s article’s goal is to look for soft skills that are perhaps not your first clue when we discuss entrepreneurship. The above-mentioned abilities are usually what first comes to mind whenever someone considers what it takes to be a good leader – and while attaining them is surely your golden ticket to success, there are some other soft skills that are also worth your time, attention and effort.

Sometimes we are so focused on one thing that we often forget to widen our horizons – it happens with soft skills, too

Everyone who is willing to step into the world of entrepreneurship surely researches the subject a lot.

A frequent topic is self-development and growth – as entrepreneurs, we are all trying our best to improve our skills and attain new ones we believe would come in handy.

Along with the long lists of hard skills every industry requires, there is this other list of skills and abilities that come as a great plus and advantage. What’s more, having impeccable soft skills is usually considered to be a more significant asset since they represent a huge part of you. Reaching certain milestones in your self-improvement journey is often viewed as a recipe and a great predisposition for future professional success.

And often we direct our gaze towards soft skills such as open-mindedness, curiosity, active listening, empathy, etc. – I’ve covered those exact soft skills in several articles of mine, for example, this one.

Don’t get me wrong – all those soft skills are absolutely essential for anybody wishing to enter the realm of entrepreneurship. But I’d like to add six marginalized soft skills that we often tend to overlook – I’m pretty certain there are no less important than the most notorious ones.

6 subtle and somewhat undervalued soft skills that would increase your chances in entrepreneurship

Along with the most famous and most needed soft skills in entrepreneurship, try directing your attention at the following as well:

1. Master the power of persuasion. More often than not, owning a business has a lot to do with mastering the power to persuade. And we are not referring to clients only when we have to present our products and services and persuade them as to why our company would best meet their needs. I’m referring to employees as well – there are numerous times when we, as entrepreneurs, may decide to change courses or try out different work approaches – in cases like these, persuasion may indeed be a great asset in our soft skills department.
2. Being able to work individually is great; being able to work in a team is even greater. Some people may consider entrepreneurship to be more of a solo game, but there are multiple instances when the business owner has to collaborate with team members or managers. That’s why it’s essential for every entrepreneur to be able to excel in teamwork as well.
3. Rhetorics is your friend. Public speaking is an incredible asset because it enables you to easily distribute ideas and plans in front of a crowd. In the world of entrepreneurship, this crowd would be represented by your employees and customers mostly – both groups are vital for your company’s future development. Try mastering the art of rhetorics if you want to lead outstanding meetings.
4. Be great at optimizing the work process. Remember that while you have managers who will manage the employees, someone has to manage the managers. Sounds a bit like a tongue twister, isn’t it? All jokes aside, every entrepreneur should also be good at optimizing the work process because this way they will incredibly help and support the tasks of the higher management.
5. Don’t let personal matters and relationships affect your work and decision-making. We are all humans and entrepreneurs are not an exception. We all deal with incredibly challenging situations in our personal lives but at the workplace, we should try to minimize their effect to the fullest. The same goes with your personal relationships with the team – for instance, in team buildings you can have those great friendly relationships with the employees, but they should not interfere with the way you deal with work.
6. Surprisingly, catastrophizing may not be so bad after all. We know that this cognitive distortion is frowned upon since it pushes us into negativity. But sometimes trying to foresee a bad outcome can actually help us to come up with a plan in case the worst happens. This allows us to be ready for whatever happens; it also helps us in being more resilient to failure.

To wrap things up

Soft skills are indeed essential and they are as important as the hard ones are, if not more important.

Developing your soft skills is closely related to your personal growth – this is yet another reason why should everyone who wants to step into the world of entrepreneurship focus on enhancing their soft skills. Along with the most common and sought-after ones, there are also more subtle ones but combining them all can really make you stand out and greatly improve your social experiences.