10 things you should know about developing soft skills to advance your IT career

IT pros often have considerable technical training under their belts but lack experience in some key nontechnical areas. These pointers will help you focus on career-boosting soft skills, including communication, leadership, and relationship building.

To succeed in the IT industry, you need more than technical knowledge. Employers are looking for something extra--something a little harder to measure and define. This list of essential soft skills provides a starting point for charting the nontechnical aspects of your professional development, with recommendations such as:

• Actively listen. Most IT pros tend to be analytical by nature, so when a customer or coworker approaches with a problem, they're likely to hear only the literal statements. Being an active listener requires more focus and sometimes more patience, but empathizing with clients can help build stronger relationships.


• Communicate with illustrations. Many customers and users become confused--or worse yet, defensive--the moment you start saying acronyms like DHCP, SQL, DNS, and OBDC. Choosing common terms, analogies, and illustrations to demonstrate your point will facilitate communication.


• Develop the habit of consistent follow-through. IT departments are full of hard-working tech professionals who plan and launch initiatives or take on particular tasks... and then move on to something else without completing the work. Successful IT pros learn early that finishing what you start--even if that means handing a job off to another team or escalating a help desk ticket--is essential to a smooth-running IT operation.

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