As we grow up, we learn that we need to have a particular set of life skills to thrive in the adult world. Those skills are not always academic materials; but, they are an essential part of your work, life, and social success. When you become proficient in those life skills, you can convincingly promote yourself, communicate your ideas, and influence others positively.

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By mastering some essential life skills, you can comfortably socialize and relate to other people. You can even predict behaviour and plan your next move. Those skills include soft skills, interpersonal skills, social skills, and non-academic intelligence – emotionally and interpersonally. That said, you may not have known earlier, but these skills are also required for climbing the ladder of corporate success. That is why when new trainees join firms, employers tend to evaluate existing strengths and skill gaps before deciding on their effective learner engagement strategies. This happens to help employers to understand what skills the new trainees might need to acquire. Likewise, it helps trainees to work on obtaining new skills. However, in the event that you already are in possession of all the necessary skills, then you might not have take headache of acquiring them.

Having said that, if you are unaware of the entire concept of skills, then here are some essential life skills that you need to know if you dream to succeed in work and life as an adult.

Social Assertiveness

When you are socially assertive, you will preserve a lot of social energy in your daily life. Having social assertiveness means knowing what your social needs are and harnessing whatever is necessary to achieve them. At the same time, you are confident in interacting with other people.

Being socially assertive is not the same as being a social butterfly. Every person has different types of social needs in terms of scales and degrees. When you have social assertiveness, you know which one is your priority and make sure you have fulfilled that. It also means that you have identified what social skills and etiquette you need to fulfill your needs, no matter if you are an extrovert, introvert, or ambivert person.

Strong Presence

You do not have to be a highly remarkable or visually striking presence to have a memorable persona. Keep in mind that a strong presence makes people remember you often and eventually more likely to collaborate with you. It affects your capability to make a lasting personal relationship and wide networking.

When you wonder how to make a strong presence, remember the old saying, “first impression matters.” It is not about how you look, but it is about how you present yourself. The more interesting you are, the stronger the presence you emanate.

Learn how to mix and match your outfit to suit your character. Our outfits are what people judge us off, whether we think this is fair or not. it represents your style tastes and fashion sense. What you wear, will reflect your character. Sneakers and boyfriend jeans might show you are laid back and hardworking, gym wear will show you’re sporty, Over the knee high boots and a dress could give off a classy but confident feel. You choose your personality for the day. Then, of course, you have to equip yourself with basic social etiquette, including some of the more sophisticated ones like table manners. You can practice your table manner at home by using your usual linen napkins. Practice how to fold and unfold them, then how to place them on your lap. As you have tackled the basic necessities, you can focus your mind to be more interesting to make a lasting impression.

Public Speaking

Presenting your ideas and communicating your message in public takes a lot of courage and confidence. However, public speaking signifies your presence as a great communicator. By doing so efficiently, you have presented yourself and got your intention across effectively.

You might be an excellent professional with tons of great ideas stored in your mind. However, it would not guarantee your success until you relay your message to the right addressee. Remember, you and your idea are worthy of attention. Public speaking helps you to communicate your ideas convincingly, usually in a larger forum.

To enhance your public speaking skills, you need a lot of practice and preparation. The better the preparation, the better you anticipate whatever may occur during your presentation. The more you practice, you will get used to the flow, even if you have to speak spontaneously. Nervousness is normal; all you have to do is shift your focus to what matters – your message and your audience.

Conversation Mastery

It is not the small talk we are talking about here. You might have known how to initiate a conversation and, maybe, end it properly. The biggest challenge is to sustain the conversation and shift into the “real talk.”

An effective conversation helps you present and pitch yourself to other people. It will also help you learn more about them and, eventually, widen your network. You can use conversations to socialize, flirt, initiate sales, and even get better at rapport building. If you are in sales, having good negotiation skills can help your career quite well. It might be better to get professional training if negotiation skill is a big part of your job profile. For example, Scotwork’s negotiation solutions are tailored to better fit your specific negotiation needs needs and can even help your career.

The first impression also matters in a conversation. The first five minutes can be the crucial moment. You decide to let people know about you and, at the same time, you assess if the person is worth getting to know. In a good conversation, you must know when and how to get past small talks and initiate the real talk.

Body Language Reading

Reading body language can be a life-saving skill in many situations. It can help you in conversation, public speaking, or even normal situations. By reading the body language, you can assess your approach to any situation and adjust your reaction to work in your favor.

There are various body languages you can observe as you interact with people. You need to be sensitive to those signs and adjust your behavior accordingly. After all, you do not want to get trapped in an interaction without meaningful engagement; and you do not know what to do but wasting your time.

Reading the room and paying attention to the mood can help you anticipate whatever may come in the interaction. Learn your addressee’s facial expression, and you will see if they are interested or if their mind is somewhere else. Pay attention to the posture and movement as well. You know that people will lean towards you when they think the interaction is enticing.

Leadership

You do not have to be the head of departments or the president of an organization to have leadership skills. Among all of the other essential life skills mentioned above, leadership is a skill that you need to develop to thrive. A good leader (be it in work, social, or romantic life) is able to influence, organize, and encourage people to succeed together.

In order to be a good leader, you need to work on your empathy, goals, and strong will. Good leaders build on excitement; they know that people matter for them and harness the energy to focus on tasks that also matter. Leaders should also know people around them – their strengths and weaknesses – and how to harness the knowledge to achieve the common goal. Leaders also make a plan, organize, and encourage everyone to be in the same team to make the plan works.