Demetra Moore is the founder and CEO of Moore Out of Life based in Charlotte, North Carolina. As a certified professional coach and energy leadership master practitioner, she trains and consults organizations across the nation. When collaborating with organizations, Moore emphasizes how important it is for leaders to master their soft skills in order to keep their employees engaged and connected.
“It’s important for employees to have effective communication, leadership, confidence, a positive attitude, relatability, emotional awareness, problem-solving skills, and time management,” she told BLACK ENTERPRISE. “We call these key success skills, also known as soft skills.”
According to Moore, when company leaders lack soft skills, this can have a negative trickle-down effect on the company’s employees, culture, and bottom line. When employees don’t have good leadership to motivate them to meet expectations and deliver a great customer experience, then the brand essence can suffer substantially. The brand essence is how clients or customers feel about an organization and their experience when working with them. For example, a negative experience can be shared with thousands or even millions via social media within a matter of seconds. This can lead to a decrease in customer referrals, enterprise expansion, and profits.
Moore shared seven advantages that soft skills have in shaping a company’s culture and keeping employees engaged and connected.
Demetra Moore, founder of Moore Out of Life (Photo Courtesy: Adina Starke of Enchantment Designs)
Fairness
This ensures that management addresses the needs of everyone on the team by taking an interest in who they are and the value they bring to the team. This will allow them to have access to more opportunities in the future.
Engagement
Companies with higher employee engagement have less turnover and higher percentages of customer loyalty, profitability, and revenues.
Confidence
Soft skills put people at ease and allow space to build confidence and trust in the workplace. Confidence and trust in the workplace allows more opportunity for creativity, appreciation of colleagues, and support on projects.
Time
Burnout seems to be prevalent among both leaders and employees. Learning and employing the essentials of time management, work days can become less taxing, more productive, and this produces greater work-life balance.
Growth
Being intentional about creating a space for professional development really builds strong employees and saves organizations money. It can cost up to 33% of an employee’s salary to replace him/her. However, if the employee feels there’s opportunity for growth and advancement, the likelihood of them staying is higher.
Communication
Clear communication allows employees to know their expectations, company vision, and values. It paints a clearer picture of how success is defined. It’s challenging to perform well and be productive when they don’t understand their role and more precisely, how their role fits in the overall scheme of the organization.
Stability
Unpredictability can be mitigated when using the right soft skills. Volatility within the organization can cripple your team and can lead to problems from employees disrupting other employees to not supporting initiatives altogether.