Let’s start at the beginning: what exactly are soft skills ? Soft-skills, is an umbrella term, covering the less technical skills you need for your work. Stuff like communication, time-management, delegating and other fun stuff you have to do outside of an IDE. I sure hope you are one of those programmers that do consider these skills important. Whatever your beliefs are, stay with me and you might just learn something.

You work with people

Obviously, but think for a second of the implications. Your work is based on other people’s work. People decide your tasks. People evaluate your work. And, ultimately, people pay you for your work. When you think about it this way, it seems important now, to learn how to deal with people. This includes negotiating, giving and asking for feedback. Some of the most efficient programmers I know, are great at working with people. They know what the client actually means when they ask for something. They know how people react when they are given both good and bad news. I would argue that a big chunk of their professional success has to do with their people skills. I’m not saying that you can’t be a good code without people skills, I’m saying that improving your soft skills make you a better programmer.

Prioritize

You are a professional and you should treat yourself as one. You should work on the most valuable piece or work first, and then the next one and the next one and so on. Now, the most valuable task might not be the most fun to do, nor the most challenging. It’s not the work you want, but it is the work you need to do now. Do that! It’s that simple. If you put the project above everything else and you treat your time as a valuable resource (which it definitely is), then, what you should be doing now becomes obvious. Do whatever needs to be done to move the project forward by the biggest margin. Additionally, your time is a valuable resource. Don’t waste it on useless tasks, don’t slack off, and never ever half-ass the work.

Opinions do matter

Imagine this: Someone asks one of your colleagues to recommend an awesome programmer for this cool project they have going on at the moment. Will they pick you? Would you like them to pick you? Be aware of your colleagues opinion on you. There are two easy steps to get there: ask and then listen! Learn what your peers want, what they value and fine tune your discourse to emphasize what they value in your work. Now, this might sound a bit mischievous. My advice here is: be honest. There is no harm in glossing over the details someone does not care about, in order to focus on the details they do care about, but don’t lie to your peers.

Communication is important

If you stop and think about it. During your average workday, you have a lot of discussing to do. Some are not that important, like the ones about the weather, while other matter a lot more, like the ones about your promotion. You spend so much time communicating, why don’t you try to do it right ? Communications are the result that the sum of all your soft-skills produce. You should start by listening to your manager and try to understand their motivation. Then, you should make sure you work on the most valuable piece of work available. Trust me that will make your manager really happy. Then, think about the way you are presenting your work. Does your manager understand that your task is difficult, does your manager understand that you care about the same things he cares about ?

I know this sounds tedious, trust me. However, the good news is this: these are all skills, and even soft skills can be learned and, when practiced, improved upon.