Why Are Soft Skills Important in PR?

Soft skills are intangible qualities that are not just learned in a classroom, but usually come with time and experience as you begin to build more relationships. Recently on PR Daily, I read an interesting article on the soft skills that are often overlooked for communicators. This allowed me to see the importance of these soft skills not just for me personally, but for the PR profession in general.

In PR, as we are a “people business,” our industry is centered around relationship building, which makes soft skills like empathy, authenticity and problem solving incredibly important for the work that we do every day. These skills benefit our interactions with others by allowing us to hear their stories, listen to their problems and seek out solutions.

Since jumping into the PR world, I am always looking to brush up on my soft skills, improve any that may be lacking and learn new ones that I may have been unaware of. After a year like 2020 that was filled with isolation and less face-to-face communication, it can be difficult to return to communicating like we did before and excelling at having memorable conversations. Allowing yourself to learn these new soft skills can cut through awkwardness, introduce new opportunities and build beneficial relationships – this is something I am finding out each day.

Whether you are looking to become more resilient after hearing “no” on your recent story pitch or you are like me and developing the skill of curiosity to improve your story mining skills, we are all growing our soft skills together and improving each day.