Soft Skills are the Hard Skills too!

In life, including at the workplace, knowing is good, and spreading that knowledge is even better, however, being able to support/ help someone so that the learning sticks and they benefit from knowing how to apply it, and applying it...that is the elusive hard part of the soft skills usually viewed under a microscope. The hard skills - technical prowess, functional expertise or just plain market smarts, are the wellspring of excellence, however, this article is making the case for, and suggestions regarding the culture and mindset shift, for the intangible, difficult to measure, mostly long term investment of "soft" aka behavioral and non- technical skills, including going back to the basics (needed more today than ever), esp in the light result of recent furore on Future readiness, and most things AI, digital, automation and the like!

For all the bad rap soft skills and the "soft stuff" gets, be it (and especially) communication, effective presentations, listening, empathy and trust and other such supposedly mushy stuff, and many asking do we still need them, or drop them along the way to make way for hard skills...let's all please remember, not everyone has had the privilege to get a sturdy language classes education (thus challenges with articulation), not everyone is innately self-assured of their place in the sun yet (they should be, but we don't know their stories, thus some lacking in confidence), not everyone had strong anchors or shoulders through tough years (wish for everyone to have that blessing, but if not, issues with trust and empathy), and honestly, hard skills one can teach, soft skills...that's litmus for you!

In a world that's accustomed to thumping the table for foreseeable ROIs in near future, believes speed is King, and "let's not talk effort but output metrics" conversations (and nothing wrong with that), soft skills aren't buzzy or fancy enough! However, investing into the character and culture building skills, upskilling and reskilling on going back to having a strong foundation, and giving time to raise the soft skills bar is an investment worth its weight in gold! Time consuming and effort heavy yes, but oh so amazing, just as families and societies with strong cores are built! So what could be the simple steps to begin, whether as an individual, collectively as a team, or as an organization:

1. Embrace kindness, drop the facade: Being vulnerable and authentic is a mark of strength, and should be acknowledged, ideally celebrated. Learning that supports people feeling secure and confident in being who they are, and their contributions. A robust, relevant and very “real” learning and growth charter is unlikely to ever go out of style.
2. Let Learning Flow: Have the credo, “All Learning is good learning”. Learning that doesn’t discriminate. Have the will, will learn. Learning that supports openness to new perspectives, openness to new ideas, openness to learn for a stronger fitter more accommodating mind. Let it not become a matter of ego and self-esteem that while some of need support on comms, many on building trust or pick any soft skill, it a call for help, and support we must!
3. Soft skills bias: In the mad rush to clock the 10000 hours of practice, esp on hard skills, have learning that lets people soften up, can reflect on, and pace it the way they want. Everyone has their own clock and their own cycles. Don’t push people to learn, have learning that draws learners to make the deep shift within, results will flow.

And yes, to answer the evergreen question on how do we measure the returns of the same, of course it can and should be done (Kirk Patrick plus plus…just a matter of sticking our necks out, everyone included). The question is, some results take time, show up in small but powerful ways, and investing into the skills mentioned above, is one such area.

In future, while we definitely need to build comfort with future fit hard skills, with information and knowledge available even more easily than today, and machines even more capable of taking on the hard stuff, what'll we bet on? What'll take things to the next level? What'll bring the best out of products, services and delivery? What'll be the differentiator of tomorrow? 

Everyone is on their own journey towards being better versions of themselves, here's a shout out to all those who support learning in all its beautiful shapes and forms and colours, whether for themselves (you go champ.. acknowledging the gap and asking for help, very classy) or supporting others with the skills that are life skills, industry agnostic, present and future fit, this is just the right thing to do!

#softskills #fitforfuture #learningforall #LearningAndDevelopment #culture #Reflections #Management #TalentDevelopment