What are shadow skills and what are they for business / Photo Škoda
In modern business, we are already accustomed to “hard” and “soft” skills, which undoubtedly help to develop our own business. However, recently, shadow skills have become important, which help to simplify many decisions.
Shadow skills are born from experience, mistakes, experiments, and team interaction; they are more focused on building relationships in a team, writes Happy Monday.
Business 24, together with Škoda, tells why shadow skills are important and how to successfully develop them.
What are shadow skills and why are they important?
Shadow skills arise as a natural result of daily work: we do not learn them from textbooks or acquire them in trainings – they appear “in the process.”
They help to simplify decisions in a timely manner, solve problems correctly, “translate” from business to technical language and vice versa, and maintain team interaction or morale.
Examples of shadow skills:
- emotional resilience and ability to care for the team;
- the ability to find compromises;
- analytics through empathy;
- crisis communication and stress management;
- facilitation and team training.
While hard skills and soft skills can be purposefully developed through training and practice, shadow skills are established work patterns of behavior that emerge from experience and are activated in specific circumstances.
Shadow skills are needed to:
- notice when it is necessary to intervene in the process or support colleagues;
- influence the outcome through approach, not just knowledge;
- see work more broadly than the list of job responsibilities.
Shadow skills include the ability to adapt quickly to change / Photo by Pexels
How to develop shadow skills?
For comparison, the skill set looks like this:
- hard skills show what you know how to do from a technical point of view: write code, analyze data, create designs, speak a foreign language, or successfully conduct advertising campaigns;
- soft skills demonstrate how you organize work and interact with others: communicate, manage time, develop empathy, negotiate or present ideas;
- Shadow skills are responsible for when and in what form to implement hard and soft skills in a specific context: simplifying decisions to meet deadlines, relieving tension in the team with a good joke.
Shadow skills help to effectively solve complex problems / Photo by Pexels
They are formed through personal experience, observation of others, and reflection on daily work situations.
However, shadow skills can also be developed. The resource robota.ua explains how to do this.
- Reflect after work situations
It is necessary to analyze not only the result of the project or conversation, but also your own actions: when you intervened, where you decided to remain silent, what helped you move forward. It is these repetitive patterns of behavior that gradually become the basis of shadow skills.
- Going beyond the usual
New roles, related tasks, or unusual challenges disrupt automatic scenarios. In such circumstances, it becomes clear which competencies you really rely on and where additional flexibility or experience is needed.
- Observe other people
It is worth paying attention not only to the actions of colleagues, but also to their behavior in difficult circumstances: how they react to tension, conduct difficult negotiations, or find a way out of difficult situations. This broadens the idea of possible strategies.
- Ask for feedback regularly
We often don’t recognize our strengths because they’ve become habitual. Ask your colleagues what actions you take that help move the process forward or reduce stress. This will give you a better understanding of which strengths to build on and which to develop further.
- Notice body signals
The body often reacts faster than rational thought. Tension, discomfort, or, conversely, a sense of calm can indicate what is really going on. The ability to notice these signals allows you to change the pace, format, or approach in a timely manner – before the problem becomes obvious.
You can recognize your shadow skills through introspection / Photo by Pexels
Škoda Kodiaq – another “trump card” for business
In business, the winner is not only the one who has expertise, but also the one who knows how to apply it correctly at a specific moment. Škoda Kodiaq can become exactly that “trump card” that works for image and efficiency every day:
- presentable design creates a strong first impression during meetings with partners and clients;
- spacious interior and roomy trunk – convenient for business trips, transfers or transporting equipment;
- modern safety systems and driver assistants minimize risks and allow you to focus on work issues;
- economical and efficient engines – optimization of fleet costs without loss of dynamics;
- digital solutions and multimedia – convenient smartphone integration, navigation and quick access to information on the go.
- Premium-level comfort – silence in the cabin, high-quality materials, additional options to preserve the driver's resource.
Škoda Kodiaq is your right choice for development.