Employees
Improving soft skills is important for career growth, yet asking for help is often difficult in the seed industry. Agriculture has a “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality. Spoken or unspoken, this sentiment makes some people hesitant to ask for help or training. It’s hard to overcome this mindset even if it is holding you back. You will help yourself in the long-run by being proactive and improving your soft skills with or without help from your employer.
One option is to approach your manager with a request for training or a program that will improve one or more soft skills. This should be a researched request and not a quick Google search for a conference in a tropical location that is quasi related. It might be a meeting you want to attend that you think will directly benefit you and improve your job performance.
It might be getting approval to dedicate some time each week for structured soft skills training. A great option to improve public speaking is Toastmasters. There are chapters all over the world. Members meet weekly and practice public speaking. The fees are low. Employers can show support by giving you the time to attend the meetings or you can find a session outside of office hours and go on your own.
According to the AgCareers research, strong writing skills are important. With instant messages and emails, communication has gotten sloppy and informal. An easier way to improve your writing skills are to take the extra time to type out proper messages. This means using proper titles, not using abbreviations, and correcting spelling and grammar mistakes before hitting send. It takes a few extra minutes, but your efforts will be rewarded.
There are many ways to improve your skills outside of work. This means finding opportunities to network, speak, or lead that is unrelated to your job. These opportunities exist everywhere. Schools, churches, and other community groups always need additional support. Find a way to participate, hone your skills, and gain experience at the same time.
Finally, let’s talk about leadership. Everyone can be a leader. At my daughter’s pre-school, all of the children are encouraged to be leaders when they can. We are never too young to take other people on our wings’ and show them the way. Older children are encouraged to help young children learn the classroom schedule and where to put their lunchboxes. Sometimes, when one child struggles with a toy, another child will play with it, teaching the first student in the process.
The point is, you do not need to be promoted to a leadership role to be a leader. There are opportunities every day to help a coworker that needs computer help or to better understand technical details. By taking advantage of these occasions you learn patience, how to adjust your word choice to ensure someone else understands what you are saying, and finally how to help other people grow and achieve their goals. These skills will prepare you for a leadership role, as well as help you create meaningful relationships with your coworkers and clients.