Soft skills are personal attributes and qualities that relate to things like communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. They are intangible and difficult to quantify but can make a big difference and be the key to success in a variety of settings and situations.
As a CTO, you already know that while it is important to have a team with the right set of technical abilities, it is equally important to ensure that these people possess the competencies required to perform their roles effectively. And this is where competencies mapping come in.
So by having a clear understanding of the competencies required for each role, you can better identify gaps in your team’s skillset and put together a plan to address these gaps. Once you have mapped out these competencies, you can then begin to identify potential candidates who have the right mix of hard and soft skills.
This article aims to give CTOs and tech leaders advice on why they should keep soft skills in mind when building their teams, which ones they should look out for when hiring new talent, and how to assess and develop them. .
Why soft skills matter
Tech leaders, developers, product managers, and any other tech talent who works on remote and hybrid tech teams need to have strong soft skills in order to be successful.
After all, even the most technically brilliant team will be inefficient and unproductive if they don’t know how to manage conflict, give and receive feedback, or explain complex terms and ideas to others, especially when team members are not physically together in the same place.
In fact, and as stated by CompTIA, 41 % of HR leaders have a new emphasis on soft skills for remote work when hiring tech staff. This is because, in the post-pandemic workplace, people have had to quickly adapt to new ways of working and living. These top skills (like flexibility, adaptability, and communication) have become more valuable and essential than ever before.
What soft skills to look for in tech teams
These are some of the soft skills examples every tech professional should have to contribute to the overall success of the team:
1. The ability to communicate clearly and effectively
When we think of tech teams, we often imagine people hunched over their laptops and coding away in silence. But what’s the point of having a team full of brilliant developers or designers if they don’t know how to communicate with each other?
Constant communication between team members helps to achieve common goals. Whether you’re working with clients or colleagues, communication is key to ensuring everyone is on the same page and completing tasks efficiently. Besides, it avoids misunderstandings and conflict and creates a more positive and productive environment. So communication skills are a must for every remote team.
| At UPPER, we have a guide for remote communication best practices. This guide explains our work ethic, how our team members should communicate with each other, and which tools they can use. Remote work is not ‘alone’ work! |
2. Teamwork and collaboration
Gone are the days when coders worked in isolation, poring over lines of code in their cubicles. Today, the most successful tech teams are those that can work together effectively, and nothing can be more accurate than that. So to achieve this, you need to hire talent with interpersonal skills such as teamwork and collaboration.
Aristotle famously said: ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. And we can definitely use this quote in today’s business world.
When a tech team works together, they are more likely to spot errors in code or problems in a project before they cause bigger problems. They use their individual strengths, skills and different perspectives to solve challenges, and they can tackle bigger and more complex tasks.
In addition, these couple of soft skills build trust and foster a sense of community within a team. When team members feel like they are part of a supportive community, they are more likely to be loyal and committed to the team’s success, plus they’re more likely to be motivated to do their best work.
As a CTO, having this sense of community is super important. It directly impacts in the retention of talents and happiness within a project, even if you’re working with freelancers.
| Agile teams are an excellent example of teamwork and collaboration. Their members work closely to achieve common goals and complete projects on time, so as a tech lead, you need to focus on these essential skills when building agile teams. |
3.Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
As anyone in the tech industry knows, problems are inevitable. It can be a software bug, broken code, premature optimization, issues related to a limited budget or a cybersecurity challenge (ransomware attacks or software vulnerabilities), but there’s always the potential for things to go wrong for software developers and IT teams.
In this sense, adopting a solution-oriented mindset is super important. It means your team will be able to get things done and done right, and they will help anticipate, analyze and resolve any issue that may arise, perhaps even before it happens. Of course, not every situation can be easily anticipated or avoided, but having the skills to deal with them is essential to any successful tech team.
4. Passion for tech and willingness to learn
Being passionate about technology and willing to learn new things are essential soft skills you can’t ignore as a tech leader.
Passionate and curious team members are eager to try out new technologies and approches in order to improve their skills and knowledge. This willingness and passion to learn makes them better able to adapt to changes and helps to keep their teams on the cutting edge.
As a tech leader, you need to be able to communicate your vision, inspire others to achieve great things and share your expertise. After all, no matter how good your technicall skills are, you won’t be able to accomplish much if you can’t get others on board.
| Today many businesses are shifting to remote work after the pandemic, so cybersecurity has become an increasingly important concern. In this sense, employees who are willing to learn about the new cybersecurity trends will be better equipped. |
5. Time management to enhance the team’s productivity
Time is money and nowhere is this more true than in the tech world. Technology teams often operate on tight deadlines and roadmaps with equally tigh budgets, and they often have to manage multiple stakeholders, both within the company and externally with clients.
For this reason, good time management is a critical soft skill you need to look for when hiring new talent. It helps to enhance the team’s productivity, boosts morale, reduces stress levels, and saves time and money.
After all, tech teams are often under immense pressure to deliver results quickly and efficiently, so they can identify ways to work smarter and use their time much more wisely by being aware of how much time they use.
| 💡 TIP: Try to build in some flexibility into the project timeline to allow your team to accommodate unforeseen delays or changes in scope. You can also take the ‘Eat that Frog’ technique, which is followed by many CTOs. This means identifying the most important task by order and tackling it with single-minded focus until it is completed. |
How to develop and assess soft skills in tech teams
There’s no question that soft skills are just as necessary as technical skills in the tech industry. Your team needs to know how to code, but they also need to be able to work together and efficiently on a project.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to develop and assess soft skills in tech teams. How? Well, first, you must identify which skills are most important for your team’s success, depending on your team’s goals and objectives.
Once identified, you can create assessment tools that can accurately measure them. The best way to assess these skills set is during the interview process. This is when you can use personality tests, simulation exercises or direct questions about the candidate’s experience.
For instance, you can find sample interview questions to assess soft skills online, and use the START interview response technique as a guide. You can also ask the candidate’s soft skills with their references or use assessment platforms like Clevry.
On the other hand, one way to develop soft skills is to encourage team members to get involved in activities that require them to use these soft skills: team-building exercises that focus on teamwork and communication, problem-solving exercises to help team members to think creatively and critically, etc.
How to find tech professionals with the right soft skills for your team
At UPPER, we evaluate our candidates based on experience and hard skills, such as their proficiency in specific programming or scripting language. We’ve also developed our own method to assess candidates’ soft skills, including communication, leadership, adaptability, critical thinking, and teamwork.
Our goal is to ensure the perfect match between our top tech freelancers and our clients’ roles and projects. In short, we believe that having the right person in the right role is key to the success of both.
If you need help with hiring top tech freelancers, contact us here!
We have already helped fast-growing companies like Gorillas, Formel Skin, and Streamwide by enabling them to find the right candidates for their projects in a matter of days.