3 soft skills every geospatial professional should improve 📇

Last week I was occupied with some pretty repetitive projects at work. When work has a lot to power though, I usually like to plug into a podcast or an audio book.

I had the chance to do both this week, and the idea of soft skills came up quite a bit. I began thinking about how these "soft skills" or "power skills" apply to geospatial professionals.

What are soft skills?  

Put simply, soft skills are the skills that bridge the gap between the hard skills (programming, cartography, software knowledge, ect.) and everyday roadblocks encountered in the work (budgets, communication, organization, ect.)

Time Management

One of the biggest pitfalls in the geospatial world is learning how to work with large teams to complete complex projects. Keeping track of time, but also being able to communicate timelines helps both up and down the chain of command. Learning to manage time can be as simple as tracking tasks with a spreadsheet, or as complete as creating a task workflow with Notion.

Understanding the Business Side

Part of soft skill application means you have to be able to read the room. What I mean by that is, you'll go a lot farther if you can understand what your company's goals are. In a good company, this should be known. However, some companies and managers are bad at communicating what you need to do or why.  

An understanding of business, what drives it, or the business side of your organization. A great way to learn more about what drives your organization is to study your industry. Blogs, publications, and Stack Exchanges are a great places to get started, but books, books are my favorite place to learn new things

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Effective Communication

Communication will get your farther than any other skill I can imagine. I made a point to get better with my communication. While I am no expert, applying 3 simple rules helped me immensely:

1. Use precise language  - Say what you mean, directly and get to the point.
2. Build relationships - no man is an island so use your team and your contacts to leverage a network where you can ask questions, get information and support them with your skills.
3. Get on the phone - There's a sigma around using the phone. I am a victim of it as well. But when I need to get something done, there's no substitute for a phone call. Sure you'll need to communicate in real time, but the more you practice the more you'll get to the root of issues quickly on the phone.

A Real world Example

Extreme Ownership is a great look at what soft skills look like in a very different environment. One of the quotes that stood out to me the most showed the utility of soft skills regardless of the environment.

“Of the many exceptional leaders we served alongside throughout our military careers, the consistent attribute that made them great was that they took absolute ownership—Extreme Ownership—not just of those things for which they were responsible, but for everything that impacted their mission. These leaders cast no blame. They made no excuses. Instead of complaining about challenges or setbacks, they developed solutions and solved problems. They leveraged assets, relationships, and resources to get the job done. Their own egos took a back seat to the mission and their troops. These leaders truly led.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win