A successful business requires a wide variety of hard and soft skills. For example, strong verbal communication is essential for explaining a program or product to staff members, while effective customer service is important for patching up dissatisfied customers.

Developing quantitative and qualitative business skills is often part of earning a Texas A&M online business degree. Here are five business skills you’ll develop with an online business degree:

Communication

The ability to communicate clearly and concisely is essential for business professionals. They must share their vision and goals with colleagues, employees, clients, suppliers, and investors. They also need to listen attentively and understand what others are saying.

Critical thinking is a key business skill that involves analyzing information and making objective decisions based on facts. It also involves interpreting data and using creative thinking to generate informed solutions.

Being a good negotiator is important for business professionals, whether negotiating with vendors or trying to negotiate discounts on products for their company. This skill set includes identifying potential issues, preparing for negotiations, and establishing effective relationships with business partners. It also requires listening, compromising, and cooperating.

Leadership

While business degrees often focus on quantitative skills like management and finance, they also develop students’ qualitative skills. These can include leadership and teamwork skills, which are essential to being a successful business professional.

Leaders can motivate and engage their teams and achieve company goals. They are empathetic and take the time to understand staff members’ concerns. They can visualize the future of their companies and implement strategies to reach new levels of success.

Leaders also set a strong tone for the corporate culture. This is why people with strong leadership skills often rise to executive positions, including CEO, COO, CFO, and president.

Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is a key skill that employers look for in candidates. It requires creativity, information processing, and critical thinking skills. In addition, it involves identifying and analyzing the root cause of an issue and finding an effective solution.

To solve a problem, it’s important to be open-minded and to try different approaches. It’s also helpful to have a toolbox of problem-solving strategies, such as mnemonics or algorithms.

Employers may ask you to solve a problem on the spot during an interview as a way to assess your problem-solving abilities. Be prepared to provide detailed explanations and examples of your problem-solving strategies, including data if possible.

Decision-Making

Whether deciding which projects to pursue, who should work on certain initiatives, or how to allocate resources, decision-making is integral to running a business. Developing this skill can help you become an effective manager.

Critical thinking is the ability to analyze a business situation quickly, rapidly develop a set of alternatives to address that situation or problem, select the best alternative and implement it successfully. This skill will make you a strong candidate for a leadership role in any organization.

Negotiation skills are necessary in business, as companies often deal with vendors, suppliers, and customers. Trainability is another important business skill that helps you be a quick learner and adjust to changes in the workplace.

Time Management

Managing time is an important skill that will help you stay on top of your work and achieve your goals. Prioritizing tasks, delegating responsibilities, and planning are essential to time management.

You’ll likely be taking classes with other students, so you must know how to communicate and collaborate effectively. This will come in handy when you’re in a business role, working with colleagues and customers.

It’s important to be a quick study and learn new skills quickly. Being a fast learner can help you advance in your career as it shows that you’re adaptable and capable of learning new processes. This is especially true in a business environment where changes are always made to systems and procedures.