These essential Soft Skills are:
1 Adaptability
2 Culture add
3 Collaboration
4 Leadership
5 Growth potential
6 Prioritization
6 soft skills (with questions) that reflect potential (ranked in order of importance):
1 Adaptability: To stay competitive today, a company needs to be able to adapt to a changing economy and business needs. That means they need employees who can adapt as well, and high-potential people often have this ability.
Questions that want to explore your adaptability skills:
- Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react? What did you learn?
- Describe a situation in which you embraced a new system, process, technology, or idea at work that was a major departure from the old way of doing things.
- Recall a time when you were assigned a task outside of your job description. How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?
- Tell me about the biggest change that you have had to deal with. How did you adapt to that change?
- Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a colleague’s working style in order to complete a project or achieve your objectives.
2 Culture add
Culture add vs culture fit:
Cultural-fit interview questions can be broadly categorized into questions that assess -
1. Core values, beliefs, and attitudes
2. Personality traits and behavioral skills
3. Work environment and working style
BUT: If all employees act and think the same, your company won’t thrive.
Instead, companies now look for candidates who share the same beliefs and values as your organization, but also bring diversity of thought and experience that will drive the company forward.
We call this a “culture add”. Research shows that employees who are a good culture fit are more likely to stay with a company and will have greater performance and job satisfaction.
Questions that want to explore your culture add skills:
- What are the three things that are most important to you in a job?
- Tell me about a time in the last week when you’ve been satisfied, energized, and productive at work. What were you doing?
- What’s the most interesting thing about you that’s not on your resume?
- What would make you chose our company over others?
- What’s the biggest misconception your coworkers have about you and why do they think that?
3 Collaboration
Hiring people who can collaborate effectively and work well with others is essential to business success.
Done right, collaboration keeps the business moving at a fast pace.
Questions that want to explore your collaboration skills:
- Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. How did you handle interactions with that person?
- Tell me about a time when you were communicating with someone and they did not understand you. What did you do?
- Tell me about one of your favorite experiences working with a team and your contribution.
- Describe the best partner or supervisor with whom you’ve worked.
- What part of their managing style appealed to you?
- Can you share an experience where a project dramatically shifted directions at the last minute? What did you do?
4 Leadership
Employers look for people who can inspire, motivate, and unleash potential in others.
Questions that want to explore your leadership skills:
- Tell me about the last time something significant didn’t go according to plan at work. What was your role? What was the outcome?
- Describe a situation where you needed to persuade someone to see things your way. What steps did you take? What were the results?
- Give me an example of a time when you felt you led by example.
- What did you do and how did others react?
- Tell me about the toughest decision you had to make in the last six months.
- Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your coworkers or group?
- How did you do it? What were the results?
5 Growth potential
Today’s fast-paced work environments require employees who can do the job now, and have the potential to grow into new roles or leadership positions at a company in the future. After all, if an employee leaves, it costs the company that employee’s salary to replace her.
That means that hiring people who have the potential to grow within the company not only saves the pain of replacing them, but also saves them money.
You can predict if a candidate has what it takes by screening for goal setting and self-motivation.
Questions that want to explore your growth potential skills:
- Recall a time when your manager was unavailable when a problem arose. How did you handle the situation? With whom did you consult?
- Describe a time when you volunteered to expand your knowledge at work, as opposed to being directed to do so.
- What would motivate you to make a move from your current role?
- When was the last occasion you asked for direct feedback from a superior? Why?
- What’s the biggest career goal you’ve ever achieved?
6 Prioritization
When juggling multiple tasks, we have to be able to decide which ones need to be tackled immediately, and which ones can wait. Hiring someone who can’t get this right means that key due dates and project timelines can fall through the cracks, ultimately hurting the business.
People who can manage their time and prioritize effectively will help your business thrive.
Questions that want to explore your prioritization skills:
- Tell me about a time when you had to juggle several projects at the same time. How did you organize your time? What was the result?
- Tell me about a project that you planned. How did you organize and schedule the tasks?
- Describe a time when you felt stressed or overwhelmed. How did you handle it?
- Give an example of a time when you delegated an important task successfully.
- How do you determine what amount of time is reasonable for a task?