Objective: To evaluate your non-cognitive or soft skills that are critical to personal and professional development.
Directions: For each of the following soft skills, ask yourself “How frequently have I practiced this trait during the last month?”
Never (0); Rarely (1); Sometimes (3); Often (4); Always (5)
1. Comprehension: When introduced to a new project or task, a student is able to comprehend and analyze information and expectations provided by the teacher and ask the right questions to complete the task beyond expectations and on time.
2. Independent learning: A student takes the personal initiative to seek out and make use of new resources and inspirations to include them in learning independently beyond the classroom.
3. Problem solving: A student routinely solves problems and works toward answering questions.
4. Progressive learning: The student is able to apply principles, facts, and feedback to improve upon what they are responsible for having learned.
5. Process: A student understands, enjoys, and respects the process by which work is completed.
6. Initiative/Motivation: A student exhibits a love, drives for what he or she does, and seeks opportunities to continue and expand his or her personal growth.
7. Self-evaluation: A student takes a critical eye to the details of his or her work, carefully checking assignment requirements prior to presenting his or her finished product.
8. Improvement: A student continually works to improve his or her knowledge, skills, and craft.
9. Professionalism: A student conducts himself or herself in a professional manner, presenting his or her work in its best light.
10. Respects opinions: A student understands the value of other’s opinions and insights.
11. Verbal interaction: A student uses professional, nonabusive, socially appropriate, and grammatically correct language when interacting with coworkers, clients, and service providers, both in person and online communication.
12. Express concepts: A student effectively expresses his or her process, thoughts, ideas, and solutions verbally.
13. Participation: A student contributes to the creative collective by joining in activities, discussions, and critiques. A student is attentive while others are speaking (lectures, presentations, and critiques) and enthusiastically and actively participates in class discussion or activities.
14. In-class conduct: A student maintains thoughtful and professional conduct when interacting with coworkers, clients, and service providers. A student follows stated rules of classroom conduct as defined in syllabus and student handbook—including appropriate use of lab facilities, cell phone, or computer when prohibited (i.e., during lecture and demonstrations) and uses class time appropriately.
15. Preparation: A student demonstrates the ability to manage time, supplies, and resources, and comes to each class prepared to accomplish requirements of scheduled activities in order to deliver the job on time and meet job expectations.
16. Out of class work: A student is expected to spend at least the minimum required hours outside of class for each credit hour doing homework or computer time to accomplish course objectives. The student understands that to exceed expectations often requires much more time and energy than the minimum time requirements.
17. Meeting deadlines: A student meets intermediate and final deadlines throughout the process of a job, as established by the client’s needs.
18. Time management: A student plans the workload of a job wisely to manage all stages of the job and to allow proper attention to details in the process. A student worker demonstrates the ability to prioritize school work or other demands in order to successfully manage his or her time to accomplish learning objectives.
19. Attendance: A student understands how missing work affects one’s ability to complete a job well and on time and communicates necessary lapses in attendance.
20. Responsibility: A student takes responsibility for his or her actions or in-actions rather than making excuses.
Scores:
• 80 to 100: You practice soft skills frequently and have a good sense of what they are. Moving forward you will need to maintain this high level of practice. Please note that anyone rarely scores over 90 as it is very difficult to practice so many soft skills at a high level of frequency.
• 60 to 79: You practice some soft skills frequently and could certainly increase your practice of others. Make a decision to increase the level in which you practice some soft skills and be sure to work on those you seldom use.
• 40 to 59: You seldom practice most soft skills and there is plenty of room for you to grow both personally and professional. Remember, this is not about strengths and weaknesses but instead, about the frequency in which you practice each soft skill. Now that you have increased your self-awareness you can make a commitment moving forward to identify those soft skills you would like to practice more often.
Next Steps
1. Which two or three soft skills can you rely on during the next month?
2. Which two or three soft skills would you like to practice more often during the next month?