Throughout my life, I have grown to improve in “all the ways”, because I look at what I have accomplished and look to see what I can improve, as well as what I can focus on. I’ve become someone who has worked to continuously improve on things that I do and things that I know, and one major thing that I can say in this blog post is that soft skills possess tremendous value. Often, we hear that people need to learn new skills to be competitive…go to school to learn [INSERT SKILL], go learn a trade…it’s not bad advice to teach people to learn things that people would deem “hard skills” (technical, measurable abilities needed to perform specific tasks in a job or field), but there is a heavy emphasis on hard skills, with soft skills getting glossed over. If a business is profitable now, think of all that could be accomplished by polishing poor soft skills. For example, high turnover within organizations is often contributed to poor leadership, with leadership being a great soft skill that, removing “authority” from the equation, involves soft skills like communication, empathy, and teamwork. Such qualities increase productivity, reduce bottlenecks/delays, and creates positivity which helps to reduce turnover greatly (even if pay isn’t the greatest). Furthermore, positive environments bolster employee confidence, which makes people more prone to growing and developing WITH an organization (and wanting to be a part of more and increase their skills), rather than growing TO LEAVE an organization (which often means that people are working their way out).
Talent Can Only Go So Far…
While my podcast episode discusses soft skills and hard skills and there are plenty of resources out there that cover both, as well as plenty of opinions on soft and hard skills, I want to say that I personally feel that being really good at a couple of hard skills, while great, only gets you so far…most of the time. I think it is easy to see some famous people and lose sight of the fact that famous people make up an extremely small percentage of people on the planet…and I don’t say that to discourage anyone, but more to state that if you are chasing success, you are more likely to get there by building on hard skills AND growing soft skills. Communication is a soft skill that costs organizations MILLIONS each year, so think of all the opportunities for improvement in just that area alone, that could save millions for organizations AND reduce confusion and frustration across the board. You also have people who work together when there is more care and empathy, which increases productivity as well as motivates and inspires others to grow their skills or gain new skills — you can also reward those efforts and still grow as a business…but we don’t just learn soft skills for the workplace.
Soft skills help us navigate our personal lives easier, help us with networking, problem solving, conflict mitigation, and a whole slew of major and minor things…whereas, for example, me knowing how to type at 70+ WPM with 99% accuracy, while helpful from a productivity standpoint, isn’t going to do too much to help me lead a team of people with different backgrounds and personalities. Having fast typing isn’t going to help me save a friendship worth keeping (generally speaking), nor will it build trust with others who can help me as I help them. While soft skills aren’t easy to measure, so to speak, the value of soft skills is obvious, which is why they are being researched, and more are trying to figure out how to use soft skills to increase their “bottom line”. Know that soft skills are highly transferable and can be used in different organizations or in different spaces outside of work, that can help you both in and out of work. Look to building both, and you can find opportunities that you didn’t realize you could!