Soft Skills

by Angela Gallogly
Vice President of USA Operations, Advanced Team Concepts
http://www.atctraining.com

It’s interesting that some leaders seem to recognize the importance of soft skills but either can’t or won’t commit resources to developing them within their organizations. I think it’s because it can be challenging to measure the development of soft skills and really quantify the results of the training investment. You have to see the connection of the skills to the bottom line of the organization. For example, if a customer service representative can technically handle a customer complaint – document, answer questions, take the appropriate actions – that’s hugely important to the customer. But along with that, if the rep’s soft skills are lacking and they communicate in a negative or condescending way and display no empathy to the customer, it still might be a negative customer experience. An organization’s ability to retain that customer and gain other customers can be negatively impacted in this situation.

Another example: I’ve spoken to leaders with “problem” employees and this is what I’ve heard, “He (or she) is an awesome contributor, just brilliant. The problem is, no one can stand him (or her).” Even the most gifted employee can cost the organization by making the work environment so toxic that morale, productivity, team work, support, trust, etc. all suffer. When this happens, the contributions made by the “problem” employee are often outweighed by what is lost.

Another challenge is to really understand what soft skills are and how they can be developed. Soft skills are the interpersonal/relationship component of what we do. They are an important counterpart to the hard skills that are the occupational components of our work. It’s a broad range of skills we’re talking about. Examples include communication, attitude, teamwork, etc. If you are going to invest in the development of soft skills, it’s important to focus on the areas that really impact the work of your organization.

I’m excited that many of the organizations that I’ve recently been working with seem to understand the importance of soft skills. One of my favorite customers has been restructuring their hiring processes to find employees with a strong foundation in these skills. The managers have shared with me that even though the job will require a tremendous amount of hard skills/technical knowledge, it will be just as important to have skills like teamwork, communication, etc. In addition to the new hiring process, they are committed to creating a balanced training and development strategy that focuses on both hard and soft skills. This type of balanced training approach can be a critical enabler to any organization’s success.