Ask Me Anything: Learning Soft Skills

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Last Thursday, we were joined by @deborahreid , a valued community member and seasoned professional with over 12 years of testing experience, for an enlightening Ask Me Anything session all about Learning Soft Skills.

If you missed the live session, a recording will be available on the Ministry of Testing website for pro MoT members once we’ve edited it and added captions.

Resources

Here are the resources mentioned during the session:

Unanswered Questions:

Here are the three unanswered questions we didn’t get to.

  1. Are there any books out there that help to develop key soft skills? - Sam Stringer

  2. Do you have a cheat sheet or mantra to live by in regard to soft skills? - Emma K

  3. How to assess our own soft skills? - A

Deborah will try to answer these questions as possible over the coming days. But can you help with any unanswered questions from the session?

If I missed any resources or you thought of a question you’d like to ask on this topic, why not add it to this thread?

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Books on soft skills:
The books below might be good for learning some soft skills. My recommendation is to understand what each soft skill is and means, then try and practice them in some of the everyday activities we talked about like puzzles, driving, games and crime dramas!

  • Soft skills for dummies
  • Critical thinking for dummies
  • The soft skills book - Dan White.
  • Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman

Cheat sheet:

  • my current draft lists each soft skill, its meaning, ways to practice and examples in the workplace in a table format.
  • I will try and work on a cleaner version / cheat sheet for the community later this year! What would you like on it?

Measuring soft skills
We discussed how evaluating soft skills has a subjective element; the techniques employed can be prone to personal interpretation and bias. But there are techniques that can be used to help get a more accurate gauge of an individual’s soft skills:

  • Self-assessment questionnaires: Rate your own soft skills by reflecting on your performance. There are plenty of examples online with a quick Google.
  • Peer assessments: Get feedback from colleagues about your soft skills.
  • 360-degree feedback: Get feedback from multiple sources, such as supervisors, peers, and juniors to get a well-rounded view of your soft skills.
  • Behavioral interviews: when assessing others, you can interview them about past experiences demonstrating their soft skills.
  • Role-playing scenarios: Give folks hypothetical job-related situations to see how they would handle them.
  • Group activities or discussions: Observe how individuals interact with others to assess their teamwork, communication, and leadership skills.
  • Digital tools: Use software to assess soft skills, often using a combination of the methods above. For example Mind Tools offer various resources related to leadership and soft/people skills. They provide self-assessment tools with visual results e.g. MindTools | Home

While these methods can provide insights into an individual’s soft skills, it’s crucial to remember that, given the subjective nature of these skills, multiple methods should be used in conjunction to reduce bias and obtain a more holistic view.

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