Why Tech Skills Should Be Empowered by People Skills

Technical skills are must-have.

However, while technical skills may get your foot in the door, your people skills open most of the doors on your career path. Work ethic, attitude, communication skills, emotional intelligence and a lot of other personal attributes are the people skills crucial for your career success.

Maja Nedučić, Chief People Officer at Vega IT

Why do we need to have people skills?

The term I use the most and dislike the most at the same time is “soft skills”. But. Let's change this term into the other one - “people skills”.

Here in Vega IT, we believe it’s an adequate way to express the way we manage our people's culture. And, we really like it.

By definition, people skills are those skills that are difficult to measure. However, they are one of the most important skills you need to advance your career. Why? Because not only do they define leadership and creativity, but also the way we communicate, deliver our tasks and operate daily.

They are not only about the way we will build our personal relationships. They also determine the way we will deal with stressful situations, challenges, and the way we will react to injustice or somebody else’s happiness and success.

Why Do We Need People Skills?

People are used to believing that developing their personal growth means admitting they have flaws or that they are not good enough. Actually, it’s totally opposite - by taking one step towards improving themselves, they are showing their self-awareness, willingness and courage to leave their comfort zone.

By definition, people skills are those skills that are difficult to measure. However, they are one of the most important skills you need to advance your career.

Ask yourself:

If you do not do anything today, what will change tomorrow? If you are not satisfied with one (or more) aspects of your life, what do you need to do in order to change that?

How Do We Nurture Our People Skills?

At Vega IT, our colleagues have the opportunity for improvement through various workshops which allow them to pursue their personal goals and therefore become a better version of themselves. Some of them are part of the onboarding process (like communication and feedback) and they are obligatory because they help us develop some of the skills which are more than crucial in developing a feedback culture and the culture without KPIs.

Mindfulness, Emotional Literacy, Assertive Communication, First-time leaders, etc. are some of the workshops conducted by me. We organise workshops, but we also organise debates.

My top favourite activity is when we gather together each first Friday in a month and discuss various topics, mostly the ones our colleagues mention during People Operations meetings such as self-confidence, empathy, communication with “difficult” people. “Be the best version of yourself” discussions help us become aware of some things and define them accordingly so that we would know what exactly are the things we want to work on and how to do that.

Because, as Jung said: “We are mostly worried about the things we don’t understand.”

So, do something today that your future self will thank you for!

What workshop has left the greatest impression on you? Which one would you recommend to me? Let me know at maja@vegait.rs.