Every company that wants to be successful in the market needs to have a team made up of competent employees. This statement, which is a consensus in the corporate world, needs, however, to be detailed so that we can understand the importance of behavioral skills for professional improvement.
In this article you will learn about the concept of the word competence, importance of behavioral skills, behavioral skills for employees, focusing immediately on behavioral competences, which together with technical competences offer a professional the basis for high corporate performance.
You will also understand the importance of developing such competences for the success of your career, and, in addition, we will list the main competences currently required by companies.
What are competencies?
Anyone who comes across the word competence will know what it means, even if it is roughly speaking. Its concept revolves around the set of skills, attitudes and knowledge that someone needs to have to generate results within the work environment.
Competence is a combination of learned skills, innate skills, skills that you absorb with life, skills that you add through your academic, school, and professional training, in short, all this union results in the most complete concept of competence, and that makes a professional much more likely to be successful at work.
Behavioral skills
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While we have skills that are built through experiences at school, college, a technical course, a specialization, a corporate training process , that is, skills that are consequences of their educational and professional experiences, there are also skills that are the result of your personality, which are formed by your beliefs, your ideas, your personal and family relationships, and your values.
They are called behavioral skills, as they are in the sphere of human behavior, their relationship with others, and their relationship with themselves.
Within the corporate world, it is strategic, as behavioral skills will indicate if you are someone able to manage people, work collectively, be a leader, develop your role in the company well, and develop as a professional and brand representative. , among other possibilities.
Behavioral skills x technical skills
Behavioral competences are focused on attitudes, different from technical competences, focused on knowledge acquired through academic and professional experiences.
Within the HR area, it is a very careful task to find employees who are qualified and able to perform strategic functions in the company and who are also interested and willing to exercise such functions. And this relationship is what differentiates the two types of competences.
Example of technical competence: For an engineer to build a real estate project, for example, he will demand all the possible technical competences, which will be the result of his academic training, courses, specializations, masters, doctorate, training, lectures, among others.
Example of behavioral competence – But it’s useless for him to have all this necessary technical knowledge if he doesn’t have attitudes that help him build a real estate project for the company. These attitudes, which can be exemplified by the idea of commitment, discipline, responsibility, and others, are not learned in college, and are a result of your personality and how you see the world and things around you.
The main behavioral skills
If you want to enter the job market, or want to be promoted in the company, it is important to understand what are the most demanded behavioral skills. But it is useless to have this information if you are not prepared to develop it in a natural, spontaneous and healthy way.
Because they need, like a good plant, to be watered day after day so that they bear fruit in the future.
The main behavioral skills are:
- Commitment;
- Persistence;
- Creativity;
- Proactivity and initiative;
- Persuasion;
- Empathy;
- Communication;
- Leadership.
Commitment
A professional committed to the work and the company offers a reasonable level of security for a manager. The term compromise is linked to a series of attitudes, such as being involved with the work, being able to fulfill all the responsibilities necessary for that role, understanding that your work is relevant to the company and your team and always being someone who add value.
Being committed is one of the behavioral skills most desired by leaders and most sought after by HR in any company. Commitment provides the basis for anyone’s professional growth.
Persistence
More and more companies are looking for employees with this behavioral profile. And why is that? Because persisting is the key to perfecting techniques, improving production and growing any company in the market.
Finding employees who do not give up easily to complete a goal, to reach an objective, even if the obstacles are great, is a difficult task, and therefore highly valued in the HR area. Being someone persistent is not something that is learned overnight, but it can be worked on little by little, with a lot of will, which we can say, is the cousin of persistence.
Creativity
There is a misconception that creativity is something that is born with someone, and that you cannot develop with life. Mistake. Being creative is seeking to see the world in different and varied ways. And this is learned through reading, studying and many life experiences.
Being creative within the corporate universe is to seek various possibilities and perspectives for day-to-day problems, as well as for goals, objectives, everyday events, among others.
Being creative is thinking outside the box, that is, not always being obvious. For a company, having someone with this behavioral profile is very advantageous.
Proactivity and initiative
What is being proactive anyway? Well, often in everyday life, in the company, in college, in life, problems, unforeseen events and obstacles arise. Being proactive is taking the initiative and generating spontaneous and natural responses to these situations.
A company wants to have employees who can solve many problems and unforeseen events on their own, without the need to have someone tell them, oftentimes, obvious things.
For someone to be proactive within a company, it is essential that they have the necessary technical knowledge, as it is also useless to take the initiative to solve an unforeseen event that you are not able to solve.
Persuasion
Many feel that persuasion is a necessary skill only for salespeople. Being persuasive is having the power to communicate in such a way that your idea ends up prevailing over others.
This is a desired behavioral competence if used responsibly and knowingly. But in fact, for companies, having persuasive employees can give them great advantages in the market.
Empathy
Empathy is the behavioral ability to put yourself in another’s shoes, or at least seek to understand the position and context of your companions in different life situations, professional and personal.
Being empathetic is a quality that enhances the human being, and more and more companies seek to have in their staff people with this ability to provide a productive, peaceful and collaborative work environment.
Communication
Being clear in communication is one of the most valid behavioral skills, as it tends to avoid unnecessary noise, stress and discussions in the work environment.
Being communicative is a skill that is born in the personality, but that can be worked on, developed and perfected over time. However, to be communicative, it is necessary for the person to know the language well and the power that language exerts over the world.
It’s no use wanting to talk a lot if you don’t have much to say.
Leadership
You may have heard the phrase: he is a born leader. Well, it’s still a lie, because there are people who are born with this ability to lead, even if it’s within their small surroundings.
In the corporate world, having professionals with the ability to lead is essential for the company to be able to project itself in the long term, because there is nothing more pleasant for a manager than realizing that within his team there are many potential leaders and that they can cohabit with each other. if in peace and tranquility.
And what would it be like to lead? Well, if you have the ability to inspire others, to persuade many people with your ideas, and to positively motivate someone, then you have the skills of a leader within you.
Why develop behavioral skills?
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Developing behavioral skills these days is a huge differential in the business world.
We live in the age of technique, where technical and technological knowledge dominates the world. However, we need to understand that behind all this there is still a complex world, full of humanities.
Thus, for a company, having a team made up of committed people, with a collective vision, who show solidarity with each other and who think collectively, is a safe and important step towards success.
The benefits of behavioral skills
There are many benefits that a team formed by employees with outstanding behavioral skills generates for a company.
Improves productivity
Employees with behavioral skills generate a much more productive environment for a company, as we have already mentioned that skills such as empathy, collective thinking, collaboration, clear communication and other examples provide a corporate environment with the ideal climate for the focus to be fully on the production of ideas. and in the development of work.
Increases profitability
In an environment that generates greater productivity, one of the immediate consequences is also an increase in revenue and profit.
Improves work environment
Well-being and quality of life are two differentiating elements that high-performance professionals seek in their lives. If a company can generate a healthy and productive work environment, then it is helping its employees to have a good career experience.
A work environment with people who have behavioral skills tends to be the best place to work.
Retain talents
A company that creates a productive, healthy and rich work environment, provides career growth possibilities for its employees. And an employee who feels valued will certainly be more engaged in the company’s goals, and won’t think twice about staying in the company for a long time.
How to develop behavioral skills?
As we have already said, even if there are, or not, some behavioral skills within you, you can always improve and improve.
It’s a journey of self-discovery
Behavioral skills relate directly to your values, beliefs and desires.
Understanding what they are is half the battle to develop essential skills for teamwork or for performing certain functions.
Get to know yourself, understand how the other sees you and use all the feedback received to improve, evolve, grow and improve.
Stay focused on goals
One of the basic skills to improve as a behaviorally skilled person is to be fully focused on goals.
Understanding that it takes commitment to improve as a professional is one of the keys to developing behavioral skills.
Always be motivated
Motivation is the central point of any journey of self-knowledge and skills improvement.
Being a motivated person demands a lot of desire to achieve a goal.
Know how to listen
You depend on the other to evolve. Realize that the human being always needs external motivations to grow professionally, and one of these motivations is the similar one.
Listen, absorb and know how to use all criticism and feedback to improve as a professional.
Conclusion
Studying is essential for you to have the necessary technical knowledge to be admitted to a large company. However, there is no point in entering on its technical merits and being dismissed for its unhealthy behavioral characteristics.
A company today dreams of having technically competent employees, able to perform day-to-day functions, but who, above all, are committed, responsible, empathetic, collaborative, communicative, supportive, among other attributes.
These skills are not easily learned, but anyone with a lot of will can develop and achieve professional success more easily.
And you, what do you think about professional skills?