A man maintaining eye contact while addressing a congregation [Photo/ star.co.ke]

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While a robust set of hard skills is necessary for a flourishing career, it’s your soft skills that bring your performance to life. 

Here are some of the skills you may want to work on for a successful 2018:

Make more eye contact

Maintaining an eye contact proves the amount of confidence you have and believe in yourself. People will trust you when you look them straight in the eye when you making agreements. Eye contact is also a sign of maturity.

Speak in sentences, not paragraphs

Hitting the nail on the end is all that is required in the professional environment. 

To allow for a great communication between you and all your partners, always speak in bullet point sentences, with pauses that allow your listeners time to internalize all you have said.

Stand up for your ideas effectively

With proven facts and ideas, always be confident in yourself in whatever you say. 

Standing up for your ideas effectively will help you in building your confidence, morale and even trust from all people around you. 

This makes them believe in you.

Give your voice an audit

The voice you were born with is natural and cannot be changed. 

However, you can audit your annunciation, rhythms, and volume to best serve your career.  

Making these corrections in the way you deliver speeches will definitely show improvements in the crowds you attract at your public speaking forums.

Practice being flexible

Being flexible is a must to have a soft skill that helps you flow with the inevitable in your life. 

Most a times things don’t come through as expected, but this shouldn’t be the end of it all. 

Make changes as required and keep on moving forward. Change with changes in life to suit in.