That feeling when everyone around you is talking about emotional intelligence, and you are still not in the subject. When a neighbor negotiates a raise over a cup of coffee, and you are still an outsider. When colleagues are going to conquer Everest together on the weekend, and you have not received an invitation. You know, it looks like guys have strong soft skills. This is everything that is not related to the professional requirements for you as a programmer, but closely related to you as a human: communication, empathy, team activity, and even boring creativity. Soft skills support not only the ordinary world, but the entire IT universe. Especially for you we have compiled a step-by-step fighter course – Soft Wars. This is a weekly challenge in which you will complete an assignment every day to develop different qualities. In a week, you will better understand your weaknesses, develop important skills, learn to hear and listen, and become the hero of the best version of yourself.
So let’s get started.
Monday with clean code
Ask colleagues with whom you work on the same team and whom you trust about their weaknesses. Explain why this is important to you. Let them know you are exploring your flexible skills. Be impartial and listen carefully without interrupting. Gather all the information and analyze it carefully.
If you get a few general answers, please clarify and disassemble everything in detail. Do your colleagues call you impulsive and unrestrained? Find out from them more specifically how this manifests itself and what specifically does not suit them.
Ideally, by the end of the day, you will have a list of poorly trained skills. It can be taken as a basis.
Tuesday for self-management and against stress
On Tuesday, start a checklist or diary where you will record everything that annoys, causes strong negative emotions, and brings you to a stressful state.
After spending an hour after work, analyze what you have written. Next to each factor, write down what can be done / changed / delegated tomorrow. The American Psychological Association names overwork, low pay, ambiguous demands, and unclear expectations as the main sources of stress. Most likely, these factors affect you as well. Don’t worry, everything is fixable.
After identifying the inevitable stress points, come up with a healthy response to them: for example, do a physical exercise, a yoga asana, or a walk. “Shaken” by excessive stress, unnecessary information, the availability of social networks, sleepless nights, the body succumbs to stress more easily. Your main task is to create a healthy environment for yourself. Protect yourself from information overdose, set boundaries for your personal life and work, introduce digital diets, disconnect from all connections on weekends.
