Dear @Daryn, as I am an engineer, I will focus on soft skills in engineering. "“Technical skills may take you to the doorstep but it is your soft skills that will open up the door for you”! Soft skills are critical to make you employable!

Some of soft skills are: "Interpersonal skills such as communication (both verbal and written, including e-mail etiquette), persuasion, presentation, and active listening and learning                                              Good attitude with respect for the job at hand

Desire/passion to learn, share and be trained consistently

Able to confront reality. If possible, be a specialist in one field and generalist in others

Application of knowledge and concise understanding of “how things work”

Problem solving/analytical thinking and decision making

Honesty, integrity and impeccable ethics

Good time management and stress management skills when the pressure to perform is quite high

Flexibility to work with people from diverse backgrounds (team player)

Positive approach and a “can do” attitude"

http://engineershub.in/role-of-soft-skills-in-engineering-career

Language proficiency, especially  fluency  in English is considered to be the the most wanted soft skill.

A 'patient' hearing; patient= tolerant & patient= 'the' patient

Soft skills --- associated with a person's Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EI/Q )

The group of personality traits, interpersonal relations, social graces/quotient, communication effectiveness, language competence, personal habits, friendliness, managing people, leadership, etc. that characterize relationships with other people are part of soft skills, those are essential to be successful in career.

Interesting question -

Incidentally - the best engineers seem to be often those with Asperger, which means they are people with next to no soft skills (such as 'emotional intelligence'), which is bad for their careers , which in turn tends to be bad for the companies they work for. A classic case of a self-limiting phenomenon.

PS, Sudev, it's 'fluency, not 'the fluency'. From my experience I'd say that good English is a hard skill, very far from a soft skill.

Communication skills is the most important to me.

agreeableness

You require different soft skills in different settings. As an example, Good English does not work where feelings are required to control the situation and feelings are not required where business promotion is needed as a prime task. Here English will work more effectively as as compared  leadership. Even the soft skills are immaterial when dealing with hard sciences such as engineering, and science where real stuff is required.

Regards

Perhaps flexibility and mood to understand other people.

Humility in common concerns and tenacity in representing them are the qualities that may lead to success.

There is widespread agreement among employers, international donors and youth development practitioners that “soft” skills (e.g. communications, teamwork, and problem-solving), are important for successful transition into adulthood and for success in the workplace. Many of these non-cognitive skills and traits remain malleable into adolescence and beyond, and can be more easily improved than cognitive skills.

http://www.wfconnections.org/990_beyond_the_muddle_what_are_soft_skills_or_workplace_competencies

Dear @Daryn, as I am an engineer, I will focus on soft skills in engineering. "“Technical skills may take you to the doorstep but it is your soft skills that will open up the door for you”! Soft skills are critical to make you employable!

Some of soft skills are: "Interpersonal skills such as communication (both verbal and written, including e-mail etiquette), persuasion, presentation, and active listening and learning                                              Good attitude with respect for the job at hand

Desire/passion to learn, share and be trained consistently

Able to confront reality. If possible, be a specialist in one field and generalist in others

Application of knowledge and concise understanding of “how things work”

Problem solving/analytical thinking and decision making

Honesty, integrity and impeccable ethics

Good time management and stress management skills when the pressure to perform is quite high

Flexibility to work with people from diverse backgrounds (team player)

Positive approach and a “can do” attitude"

http://engineershub.in/role-of-soft-skills-in-engineering-career

Communication!

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses so far they have been interesting and there have been a few I did not consider. I would just like to inject a thought:

Research states that conscientiousness is the proximal soft-skill predictor of work attitudes. For example, those whom are conscientious about the quality of their work will likely make fewer mistakes, tend to be more accountable for their activities and are concerned about the well being and relationships they maintain with their fellow work mates. 

Any thoughts?

It depends from the business or corporation purpose. In marketing aim, the more important traits are communication, friendship and persuasion. In management, communication, consciousness and leadership are essential. In politics, tact, leadership, strategy and cultural awareness are needed. in academic, communication, consciousness, teamwork, planning and focusing are important...etc..

I personally feel communication as one of the important soft skill for career.

It will automatically id in achieving other soft skills like,

language, friendliness again comes with effective communication, leadership also asks for better communication.

Hi Rolland,

You are absolutely correct. Interestingly, in North America (trying not to generalize but) many engineers tend to be introverted in their orientation and thus, on the surface lack the soft skills you mention. While such introverts mean no harm, they often come off as shy, brash and sometimes aloof. This was also discussed in a similar context by Mr. Ransford on this thread. Your article seems to take soft skills to the next level.

Actually, I think every Engineer should read that article and those three were lucky to have a programme director who cared. Those internships might have been a turning point in their careers.

Good value added post!

Daryn

Business is clear that developing the right attitudes and attributes in people - such as resilience, respect, enthusiasm and creativity - is just as important as academic or technical skills

http://www.frazerjones.com/articles/blog/soft_skills_essential_in_workplace/

Dear Daryn

In my language there is a saying: 'The spoken word can't be taken back even with an elephant's help'. This shows the importance of speech, and I think it is the most important soft skill

Narayanan

In today's business environment, --- competence, language, communication, and interpersonal behaviour are important soft skills.

I find "passion" is 1 of the important soft skills as it can motivate a person to achieve success by fueling the pursuit from current state to the goal that the person is aiming for.  There can be many inhibitors or resistance toward one's success, but passion helps overcome these barriers.  Without passion many people will give up when facing barriers and will not work the extra miles to overcome them.

I find listening as one of the most important soft skills! Listening is not same as hearing! 

"Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to: better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work...Effective listening is a skill that underpins all positive human relationships, spend some time thinking about and developing your listening skills – they are the building blocks of success..."

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen.  Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. -Rachel Naomi Remen

http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/listening-skills.html

Emotional Intelligence

Yes, Krishnan,

Emotional Intelligence increases competence in --- interpersonal behavior and leadership!

Emotional intelligence (EI) skills are very important, yes @Krishnan. "EI is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they're telling you, and realize how your emotions affect people around you. It also involves your perception of others: when you understand how they feel, this allows you to manage relationships more effectively.

People with high EI are usually successful in most things they do. Why? Because they're the ones that others want on their team. When people with high EI send an email, it gets answered. When they need help, they get it. Because they make others feel good, they go through life much more easily than people who are easily angered or upset..."

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_59.htm

Hi Ljubomir,

Agreed your point "listening" is an important soft skill.  Finding "listen first" is good starting point to address any issue or resolve any problem as per this RG post I replied:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_do_you_motivate_a_negative-minded_person2

In fact Bible in Book of James 1:19 taught us we need to swift to listen, slow to speak & slow to become angry as the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

In addition to the above as stated by RG members, In my opinion, Learning aptitude, patience and dedication are more important soft skills which will be more useful for any achievements.

Listening patiently is very important for effective understanding and communication.

Soft skills are more valuable than the learned - knowledge & technical skills

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/the-venture/do-soft-skills-really-matter-20150401-1mcjsl.html

Dear All

Empathy and social intelligence are important......

Hi All,

Thanks for all the responses, 

Quite the list of soft-skills we have made, many I would never have thought of.....any other originals? 

Daryn

Yes, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and cultural competence are important -------- !

Skills Excellence Competition - WorldSkills São Paulo 2015! All the best professionals have passion, passion for their skills. Convert skills to results...Watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1NIh8F1fwM&feature=youtu.be

Thank you all for your input,

I have finally had a chance to summarize in a nut shell our discussion. I have been putting together a list of our soft skills and this is what I have so far:

Quite an impressive list, did I miss any? I removed what I thought to be hard skills...If this is our list, what would be the top five?

Very comprehensive list of soft skills. I like it.

Add one more --- Reflective thinking!

Hello Rolland,

I agree, some are more like values or admirable traites. Nonetheless, a lot of employers would like to have them. What do you think?

Daryn

Yes, Dear Roland and Daryn,

Both of you are right! Still admirable collection/compilation of list of soft skills!

Thanks!

Soft skills is simply understanding other person's viewpoint and genuinely helping others! 

Yes, if we do speak about helping others, we can not avoid emotional intelligence. Soft skills are present within. For example, Adaptive Intelligence!

"The ability to exhibit high levels of adaptability and resilience to diverse situations, experiences and events. To problem solve effectively, navigate through and understand deeply diverse situations. Here, competency and comprehension exists in many different domains of life. Adaptive Intelligence is almost the opposite to Situational Intelligence. Adaptive Intelligence is exhibits a great and sound understanding of diverse circumstances, but is not quite exceptional at all of them – more than adequate though to navigate through with a more coherent understanding than when first encountered. Those with adaptive intelligence are ‘all rounders’, they are not specialists. They also have levels of applied situational awareness. They know a little or a fair amount about many facets of life… They are not limited to a funnel of knowledge, but rather a bucket…"

http://thelabyrinthoflife.net/2014/06/15/monday-16-june-2014-intelligence/