Soft skills are notoriously difficult to develop and prove you have, since they are often only cultivated through experience. You may wonder whether an advanced degree is a good way to obtain the soft skills employers are looking for. The truth is, an MBA is a great way to develop more than just hard skills. An MBA is more than a robust degree—it’s also versatile. LinkedIn recently released its list of most in-demand skills in the workforce. We reviewed it and discovered all the soft skills listed are the ones you’ll develop as an MBA student at the University of Utah. What better way to prep yourself to step into your dream job?
Here, we discuss each of those in-demand soft skills and share how you’ll develop them as a student.
- Management
Understanding how to manage both teams and individuals is a difficult skill to learn. So how does one develop it? It turns out an MBA is a great way to learn this soft skill, especially considering the management classes you’ll take during your time as a student. You’ll learn how to juggle your own workload while consistently tracking the workload of those you manage. You’ll learn how to have difficult discussions when employees aren’t meeting key performance indicators and you’ll understand how to work with those around you to improve work ethic and output. When you pair your management skills with leadership abilities, as discussed in the next point, you’ll be the kind of employee companies can’t get enough of. And your MBA will take you there step by step.
- Leadership
It’s a common misconception that leadership and management are the same skill with different titles—but they’re actually quite distinct in nuanced ways. While management involves overseeing employee workloads and being responsible for the outcome of a project, leadership involves cultivating ideas and promoting improvement on a personal level, not just a company and project level. Managers may get the job done, but leaders care about developing the individuals they’re responsible for. How does one learn leadership skills? Instead of taking the trial-and-error route, potentially with poor results for those you lead, you can attend an MBA program. There, you’ll learn leadership skills and have the chance to practice them until you are prepared to navigate difficult situations on your own.
- Communication
Communication may be the broadest on this list of soft skills in demand. What do employers really mean when they ask for good communicators in job descriptions? First and foremost, good communicators solve problems in a face-to-face manner without causing excess conflict. They listen carefully to all sides of an issue and help achieve compromise while also advocating for what will best help the company. Good communicators are also capable of offering constructive criticism in a kind and inspiring way. As an MBA student, you’ll not only learn the principles of good communication—you’ll have the opportunity to communicate with your peers and faculty members using these skills in order to gain meaningful experience.
- Teamwork
Being a good team member involves listening to those you’re working with and being willing to give others’ ideas a shot. It also means you allow your team to give recommendations and make suggestions to your plans based on each of their professions and experience. Much of your work as an MBA student will be done in teams and with the skills you develop, you’ll leave your program with the ability to be a great teammate in all future aspects of your work.
The in-demand skills employers are looking for can be found in our MBA programs at the University of Utah. Ready to learn more? Get started here.