Soft Skills for IT Professionals

As IT Professionals we are always looking for the next technical skill to add to our skill stack.

Courses, classes, certifications, and degrees all focus on technical skills. And these skills are critical. If you are
going to be successful in IT, you must have a solid base of technical skills. After all, you are in technology.

But there is another set of skills that are equally, if not more, important than technical skills for your long-term
success as an IT Professional.

A set of skills that will set you apart from your peers and help you realize your full potential.

I am talking about soft skills.

Your technical skills will get your foot in the door. Your soft skills will kick the door down. They will make it
painfully obvious to anyone who is paying attention that you are ready to level up in your career.

They will keep you more focused. They will make you someone that others want to work with. They will help
you see your career more as a mission than a profession.

Your soft skills are your gateway to opportunity.

So, the next time you are ready to learn a new technical skill. Stop, and ask yourself:

“Is my time better spent learning this new technology, or improving upon myself?”

Honest answers only.

 What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills will help you realize your full IT career potential. But what are soft skills and why should you care
about them?

Google provides a simple but effective definition:

Personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.

Unlike technical skills (or hard skills) that represent specific knowledge, soft skills define personality and
behavior. Technical skills are “what” you know. Soft skills represent “how” you will behave.

Sometimes called “social skills” or “interpersonal skills”, they are a collection of behaviors that define who you
are. They demonstrate how you are likely to conduct yourself in any given situation.

Common Soft Skills include:

 Emotional Intelligence
 Communication Skills
 Time Management
 Problem Solving
 Decisiveness
 Networking
 Teamwork
 Flexibility

Ok, so now we understand what soft skills are. The question is: why should we care about them?

 They are evergreen. Tech skills can become obsolete, soft skills do not have an expiration date.
 They will increase your earning potential and help you get promotions.
 They will make people seek you out and want to work with you.
 They will make your career more meaningful and enjoyable.
 They will maximize the value of your technical skills.
 They will help you have more impact and influence.

As you look over this list, the power of soft skills becomes obvious. They drive your earning potential. They
drive your leadership potential. They drive your job satisfaction.

Soft skills will help you realize your full potential in your IT career…and life.

Soft Skills put the “Pro” in IT Professional.

Let’s explore three of the most important soft skills for IT Professionals.

 Networking
 Time Management
 Emotional Intelligence
 Networking
There is a reason they say: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” A deep and wide professional
network is one of the most valuable assets you can have in your tech career.

It’s safe to say that most IT Professionals tend to lean towards the introverted end of the spectrum. We are
not always the best at “putting ourselves out there” and meeting new people. We may tend to feel more at
home behind the monitors, coding, or managing a network.

However, nothing will help to advance your career as much as having a strong network. It is worth the effort
to improve your networking skills.

This was a tough soft skill for me. I am naturally an introvert and putting myself in a room full of people to
introduce myself and make small talk was not my idea of fun. I suppose I am like a lot of IT Professionals. I
went to training classes and seminars. I would meet people along the way. I built a small, informal network of
other IT Professionals I had become friends with.

It took a gentle nudge from my boss and a business coach. Both suggested I actively seek out more
opportunities to “get out there” and become a more active networker.

I’m glad I took their advice. Networking has become a fun and rewarding practice.

Benefits of Networking:

 Serendipity - You never know who you are going to meet and the impact they will have on your life. I
once met someone in a college class. We became friends. He gave me a job where I met my wife, and I
am currently CIO. One random meeting shaped my life. You never know when that person will cross
your path.
 Increased Opportunities - The more people you know, the more opportunity will present itself. It will
not always come from a direct connection. It may come from someone connected to a connection of
yours.
 Safety Net - A strong network is a safety net against disaster. If you find yourself out of work, you can
reach out to your network for support or your next opportunity.
 Rewarding Career - Networking is more about giving value than receiving value. Networking is about
helping others. Either through a skill you have or an introduction you can make.

How IT Professionals Can Become Better at Networking

 Go First - Always make the first move. Don’t wait for others to introduce themselves to you or say hi
first. Be the one who goes first to create relationships.
 Keep Your Profiles Up to Date - Make sure your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles are up to date with your
skills and experience. Make it easy for like-minded people to find you on social media platforms.
 Prioritize It - Make it a goal to have at least one networking activity per week. Go to a virtual event.
Give an existing connection a call. Reach out on social media. Make it a priority.
 Help People - This is the most beautiful form of networking out there. Build your network by helping
others.

TL; DR - The Quality of your Network = The Quality of your Career. Make the effort to meet people and build
your network.
 Time Management
Time is the currency of our lives. It is more valuable than money. It is a non-renewable resource. Though many
people scrimp and save every penny, they freely waste their most valuable asset…time.

Don’t be one of those people.

In 2007 my first son was born. Personally, it was one of the happiest times of my life. Professionally, I was
drowning in stress. I was working at a growing company that had a lot of technology demands. I was neck-
deep in projects while trying to keep the day-to-day tasks afloat. My desk was full of sticky notes, notepads of
things to do, and little pieces of paper with notes jotted down on them. I felt like I was trying to juggle with
one arm tied behind my back. The balls were starting to drop.

I spent my two-week “paternity leave” bound and determined to develop a system to bring order to my
chaotic professional life. I decided to read the book “Take Back Your Life” by Sally McGhee.

It was one of the most valuable books I ever read. It taught me the importance of time management and
helped me build a system to manage my time and tasks that I still use today.

The IT Professional who manages their time well focuses on the most important things. They deliver the most
value. They have their projects completed on time. They don’t let important things “slip through the cracks”
because they were distracted by trivialities.

How IT Professionals can get better at managing their time:

 Have a System - It is not enough to tell yourself you need to manage your time. You need a system to
support your efforts. You need a system that supports both your tasks and your calendar. You must get
away from writing things down on scraps of paper. All your important tasks and commitments need to
get into your system. Once you are collecting everything into a digital system, you can optimize from
there.
 Get it on the Calendar - If you have something important to do, don’t just add it to your to-do list. Put
it on your calendar. Make the time commitment. Make it clear to yourself when you will complete that
task.
 Think Like a Lion - This is a mental exercise that helps me focus on my most important tasks. Think of
yourself like a lion. Think of your important tasks as antelope. Think of your unimportant tasks as mice.
Be a Lion! Hunt antelope, do not chase mice.
 Maker vs. Manager Time - Ask yourself a couple of questions. What time of the day are you most
productive? What time of the day do you feel most distracted? Ok, your productive time is your
“Maker” time. This is where you do deep work on your most valuable projects. Your distracted time is
“Manager” time. This is where you work on tasks and schedule meetings. We don’t always have the
luxury of owning every minute of our day. But when you can, do your most important work when you
have the greatest focus.

TL; DR - Time is your most precious asset. Spend it wisely. Use systems and mindset to better manage your
time to complete your highest value tasks.
 Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence is about understanding your emotions and the emotions of others. As we understand
our own emotions, we can master them and work towards better understanding the emotions of others.

Emotional Intelligence is different from “standard” intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is also referred to as
emotional quotient, or “‘EQ”. EQ is defined as an individual’s capacity to identify, monitor, and control
emotion. The measurement of intelligence is referred to as intelligence quotient, or “IQ”. IQ is a score derived
from standardized tests that measure an individual’s intelligence and academic abilities.

So which is more important?

As IT Professionals, it is important to be “smart”. A certain level of IQ is needed. Building an application is

hard, managing a network is hard, building a cyber-security plan is hard; it takes very intelligent people. But it
has been proven that to progress in your career, your technical skills and intelligence (or IQ) will take a back
seat to your “people skills” (or EQ).

Let’s face it, we IT professionals get a bad rap when it comes to emotional awareness and communication. We
are not seen as having high empathy or being great communicators. I am not saying this is true in all cases. But
I do believe that every IT Professional who became an effective IT leader either naturally had, or purposefully
developed their Emotional Intelligence.

How IT Professionals Can Become More Emotionally Intelligent

 Name Your Emotions - Start naming your emotions as you feel them. “I feel frustrated.”, “I feel
nervous.”, “I feel happy.” Just inside your head, give your current emotional state a name as you are
feeling it.
 Create the Space - Next, work on creating some space between an event and your emotional response.
Identify what events trigger a negative emotional response. Practice putting some space between the
event and your response.
 Capture the Energy of Your Emotions - After you get good at identifying your emotions and creating
space between stimulus and response, you can now work on bypassing a negative response altogether.
Channel your negative emotional energy into something positive.
 Identify Emotions in Others - Practice identifying emotions in others. Observe your co-workers and
family members to determine what their current emotional state is.
 Develop Empathy - Now that you know the emotional state the other person is in, you can start
practicing empathy by acknowledging and meeting them in their emotional state.

TL; DR - The farther you go in your professional life, the more important your “people skills” become. Poor
people skills will prevent you from getting far in your career. Emotional Intelligence will help you become a
better “people person.”
 A Blueprint for Success in Your Tech Career
The three soft skills of Networking, Time Management, and Emotional Intelligence are critical to your success
in IT. But they are only the tip of the iceberg.

There are many more skills I have learned in my 20+ year career in tech. Some of them are soft skills, but there
are many other unique skills that helped me have a long, rewarding, and lucrative career in tech.

I call them “Power Skills” because that is what they are; impactful and powerful.

I assembled all the Power Skills into one resource to make them easy for you to learn and implement:

The IT Leadership Blueprint

It is the blueprint of the Power Skills that will help you build a successful career in tech.

If you have read this far, it means you are passionate about success in your tech career. I want to help you
achieve that success and reach your full potential. I am offering the readers of The Top 3 Soft Skills for IT
Professionals a special 33% discount on the price of The IT Leadership Blueprint.

Click Below to Check out The IT Leadership Blueprint and Claim your 33%
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Yourself!
 About Me

Hi, I’m Michael McGill

I write about Leadership development, particularly for IT Professionals. My goal is to help IT Professionals
become IT Leaders.

I have been in IT for 20+ years. Starting as a contractor, I have worked my way up to Chief Information Officer.
Along the way, I learned leadership lessons at every level of my IT career. Some through great mentors, some
through experience, some the hard way. All of it valuable.

I love to share my experience with other IT Professionals who are looking to level up and make the leap from
IT Professional to IT Leader. Digital Transformation and Cloud Technologies are changing the IT landscape. IT
Professionals must develop their leadership skills to have influence and impact within their organizations, and
to have meaningful careers.

In addition to writing, I coach and mentor students and IT Professionals to reach their full potential.

Please feel free to visit my other spaces online:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcgillmd921

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmcgill21/

Newsletter: http://www.michaeldmcgill.com/newsletter/

Blog: http://www.michaeldmcgill.com/

If you need help implementing soft skills, I’m here for you.

Email me at michael@michaeldmcgill.com with any questions you have about reaching your potential in your
tech career.