Business With an Attitude Brief: Stop Calling People Skills 'Soft Skills'

😎 It's time for Business with an Attitude! This week, I'm copping an attitude about the term "Soft Skills". Can we please stop calling people skills 'soft skills'?

🤝 In business, skills involving how people interact, also known as interpersonal skills, are referred to as ‘soft skills’. Is this meant to imply that they are either optional or easy to acquire? If so, I beg to differ.

❓ Name one profession where working well with others isn’t necessary? And please, if you easily mastered the arts of communication, problem solving, creativity, and collaboration, do share your methods with the rest of us.

✏ For most, it’s easier to master a technical skill or learn process steps than to become adept at interacting gracefully with all types of colleagues. Without intentional efforts to cultivate interpersonal skills, we’re left with trial and error, a long slog that comes as we mature over many years.

😱 So-called ‘soft skills,’ like communication, collaboration, problem solving, and creativity, are critical to achieving desired outcomes. For example, If a doctor can’t communicate well, a nurse or the patient may misunderstand their instructions. This could lead to severe consequences.

🤬 And anyone on the receiving end of a poorly functioning software application might guess there was a breakdown in team collaboration somewhere along the line.

🏅 Yet, many corporations hesitate to invest in soft-skills training for their talent, instead prioritizing technical certifications and professional designations.

🎓 Let’s get real. It doesn’t matter how many letters you have behind your name. It doesn’t say a thing about your people skills or if you can produce results. You could be really good or really bad technically, and still be a M.D., Ph. D, JD, CPA, PMP or whatever. The letters prove you can complete a course of study and test well. They say nothing of the quality of your work when applied to real-world situations.

💲 Given this fact, shouldn’t your firm be investing the most dollars in ‘soft skills’ training? What is your company doing?