Soft skill the true necessity

Today, we’re going to diverge from our usual certification and technical discussions to talk about one of the lesser focused subjects not only in the cyber security industry, but in the workforce as a whole. In my experience, these are non-technical skills that align more with your character, mindset, and experiences, and they are not easily measurable on a resume. There is no universally defined set of soft skills; however, I want to touch on a few that I see and use in my day-to-day career.

Tact:

A keen sense of what to say or do to avoid giving offense; skill in dealing with difficult or delicate situations.

Tact, some may argue, falls under communication, yet I think communication is too broad for my taste. The reason I consider tact my starting soft skill is that in every career field, whether it be cyber or not, you will encounter situations where you need to understand how to communicate potentially undesirable information or outcomes to another party. This could be your boss, a C-suite executive, or even a client.

Having the ability to apply a bit of verbal judo to present information in a way that prevents a breakdown in communication is key as you move up the ladder. To give a clear example, imagine we are running a test and inadvertently take down a client’s production machine due to being unaware of its role. Most of us are not going to tell the client, "Oh, by the way, I took down your box, good luck with that." Instead, we would speak to the client in a professional manner, present the data that led to this outcome, identify the point of failure, and provide not only a prevention plan but also offer to support the fix within our scope.

Dependability:

The quality of being dependable or reliable

Dependability is another skill that some might place under the umbrella of teamwork, but again, I prefer to be precise with these skills. Dependability is one of those strong traits that is difficult to identify on paper but becomes very apparent when working with others. I think of it as a "fire-and-forget" quality, in that it builds confidence from colleagues and leadership, ultimately strengthening the team as a whole.

Being the person others can rely on in critical situations, knowing that you will deliver the required end result, can and will bolster your value to the team as a whole. Imagine, for a moment, that a critical vulnerability is identified and a manager is scrambling to contain the situation, assigning tasks to your plate before moving on. In this scenario, if you are not dependable, you end up pulling others away from their own critical tasks to ensure yours is completed.

Integrity:

Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.

Integrity is a trait that is surprisingly not discussed often, as the workforce as a whole may assume it is a given. However, I believe the level of personal integrity is diminishing in today’s environment. This is not necessarily because people are lying, but because we have become more flexible in taking ownership of unfavorable outcomes. Not every situation will present you in a perfect light, and that is normal; sometimes, we simply have to acknowledge that we made a mistake.

This article was just a brief touchpoint on my top three; I did not want to dive too deep into a soft-skill rabbit hole, as I am not an expert in every soft skill. However, I did want to present this because many times we focus on technical prowess and forget that we still need soft skills to match our abilities.