What kind of soft skills do we need as leaders in tourism? The other day I was asked to present on important „skills in tourism“. My mind went all over and for a bit I thought I have absolutely no idea what you mean by „skills in tourism“ as it is such a wide subject in that sense – as are you talking about the skills of people in service, driving, guiding, sales, marketing etc.? Well they all need different skills to fulfill their job description.
Trying to narrowing this down, I started looking into the soft skills of leaders in tourism. As you know we can devide skills into two hard skills and soft skills. As hard skills are measureable job specific skills and technical knowledge and soft skills are abilities on how you work and interact with others.
If you want to be a leader you need to have some specific leadership skills to stand out. In general tourism is personal and we need to engage with our team and customers in a uniqe way to stand out.
According to the EHL group the top ten hospitality and tourism soft skills are:
· Customer service skills
· Networking skills
· Communication skills
· Flexibility skills
· Organizational skills
· Language skills
· Commitment
· Can-do attitude
· Multitasking skills
· Cultural awareness
I also had a look what another Les Roches said about Leadership in the hospitality industry and the most important leadership skills:
· Communication
· Attention to detail
· People skills
· Establishing shared beliefs, values, and goals
· Balancing accountability and autonomy
· Adaptability
· Creativity breeds adaptability
These are all so important skills but I got a bit overwhelmed when I was reading this – as we basically need to be perfect to work in the industry...? I have always said that if you want to work in the industry you need to have resilience, adaptability, patience and a dash of joy. Well according to this we need a lot more skills😊 It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this?
