Answer: Creativity

The most in-demand soft skills

1. Creativity
2. Persuasion
3. Collaboration
4. Adaptability
5. Emotional Intelligence

Questions:

• In your own words, what is creativity?
• What jobs do you think think require creativity? Explain what parts of those jobs require creative thinking. 
• What's an example of a time that you demonstrated creativity either in school or on the job? 
• Which of the five soft skills would you consider strengths? Weaknesses? 
• What are examples of jobs that require persuasion (#2 on the list)?

Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (LinkedIn):

Topping the list of desirable soft skills is creativity. And that isn’t surprising – organizations everywhere need people who can innovate and conceive fresh ideas and solutions.

Soft skills can be harder to assess than technical abilities, but there are still dozens of tactics to suss out a candidate’s communication skills and emotional intelligence.

--------------------

Employers are increasingly valuing these "soft skills." NGPF has a bunch of activities to give your students a leg up in workplace of the future. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

More posts by Tim