Thursday's Leadership Insight.Leadership Content Skills: Hard Skills Vs Soft Skills or Hard Skills and Soft Skills?

The Illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read or Write. The illiterate of the 21st century will be those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Alivin Toefler Future shock

In today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (V.U.C.A.)? world, market environments are everchanging and require leaders to learn new skills and refine other skills. Excellent leaders need to be smart and healthy, having skills guided by their Core of leadership (Values, Purpose, Motive, and Mindset) to be successful in the context of the times; these skills are content leadership skills. In leadership practice, specific content skills are needed to lead effectively. These skills are informed, influenced, and required by the sectors one leads and works in. There are two broad categories of content leadership skills, which are referred to as "hard" or "soft" skills. In the realm of leadership, the debate about which is more important, soft skills or hard skills, has long been a topic of discussion. Both types of skills play crucial roles in effective leadership, but their origins, definitions, and impacts differ significantly.

"Leadership is building people up to get things done.

Mark Miller Smart Choices

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This Thursday's leadership insight asks the question about leadership content skills: is it either soft skills or hard skills, or is it both? The origin and mythology surrounding this discussion will shared. Hard skills and soft skills will be defined the need for leaders to enhance their soft skills to lead a diverse, multigenerational workforce will be discussed.

"those job functions about which we know a great deal are 'hard skills,' and those about which we know very little are 'soft skills.'" ?Dr Paul G. Whitmore

The distinction between soft skills and hard skills originated in the 1960s with the U.S. Army's research to improve leadership. The military recognized that while technical expertise (hard skills) was crucial, there were other intangible skills (soft skills) that were equally important for successful leadership and mission execution. This differentiation was sparked by research in the 1960s. In a LinkedIn article, A Short History of the "Soft Skill" vs. "Hard Skill" Divide (and Why It's a Farce ), Andrea Goulet writes that ?Army Psychologist Paul G. Whitmore focused his research on using systems engineering to develop procedures for what he coined "soft skills," in contrast with the term "hard," was applied to concrete and tactical skills. Whitmore worked with the U.S. Army to develop regulations for "job-related skills involving actions affecting primarily people and paper." These included leadership, administration, communication, and strategic thinking. "In other words," Whitmore explained, "those job functions about which we know a great deal are 'hard skills' and those about which we know very little are 'soft skills.'" These skills are often referred to using the ?1960s Department of Defense term "hard skills." Hard skills are specific, teachable abilities that can be defined and measured.?These hard skills are the technical skills required to perform particular tasks or jobs. They involve complex objects like tanks and guns or information such as technology and strategic planning, inventory control and logistics, etc. These Hard skills are the subject matter skills that are crucial to leadership. They are easily measured, conceptualized, and favored in most leadership practices. The reason for this is twofold: they are easier to understand and fit into the strong know-it-all-all "Answer person" boss mythology calling for command and control.." These hard skills vary greatly based on the sector, market, and context of one's leadership. Abraham Lincoln, for example, had to know the technology of the 1860s, the telegraph, to monitor the happenings in the Civil War. and he was the first president to use it. Franklin Roosevelt used the radio to communicate during the great depression and World War II. Both are hardly useful technologies to a leader in 2024.

The second broad category of content skills differentiated by the U.S. Army studies are termed "soft skills."Soft skills are more challenging for many leaders to understand and critical for success. The unfortunate part of the 1960s study on leadership was that interpersonal skills were labeled "Soft Skills. "These soft skills tended to be considered secondary because there was no research basis for the importance of people skills today. These soft skills can not be touched, inventoried, or systematized. Another deterrent for leaders is that "Soft Skills "are often considered secondary and unnecessary to organizational leadership and success. The reason is, well, they are soft, and as one of my mentors, Dr.William Glasser, used to say, everything is relationships, and people are "messy."Few leaders are trained or confident in using soft skills, and sadly, some leaders don't care. They don't see it as their job.

The difficulty for a leader today is to learn and create learning systems that equip leaders with hard skills and develop soft skills. The challenge of these two broad categories of content skills is that hard skills are complex but can be figured out on a big scale. Soft Skills are complicated. The difficulty for a leader today is to learn and create learning systems that equip leaders with hard skills and develop soft skills. The challenge for any leader, then, is that the essential element in any organization is people. People are the major budget item, the most significant issue for leaders, and a primary source of success or failure. This is on display at any athletic championship. The winners are not always the most talented; they have the best organizations and are led well. This is why we often see the same teams over and over in most sports. If there is a new entrant, like, for example, the Detroit Lions, it is because they have revamped their organizations and how they handle relationships in the organization. As President Theodore Roosevelt noted years ago.: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." This quote emphasizes the importance of balancing technical expertise with interpersonal skills. What, then, are soft skills? Corey Biech, in the article noted above writes that Soft skills?are skills and abilities that are much harder to measure and a bit fuzzier to define. In general, these are interpersonal skills that help people get along with each other and communicate and collaborate effectively. They relate to how someone interacts with others, manages their time, and handles their emotions and actions.

"The challenge of these two broad categories of content leadership skills is that hard skills are complex but can be figured out to equip people on a big scale. Soft Skills are complicated and take persistence to develop because it is the people who leaders are striving to develop."

?Studies point to these top ten soft skills

1. Communication

2. Emotional Intelligence

3. Adaptability

4. Problem-solving

5. Teamwork

6. Creativity

7. Time Management

8. Critical Thinking

9. Conflict Resolution

10. Leadership

A study by LinkedIn found that 57% of leaders say soft skills are more important than hard skills.

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?The Impact of soft skills in organizations

Research by Gallup shows that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. Engaged employees are more productive and loyal. 53% of employees say they are looking for other positions because their leader doesn't demonstrate care for them.

McKinsey & Company reports that organizations that invest in developing their leaders' soft skills see a return on investment of 250% to 300%. This is an investment in the future that requires a commitment to continual learning. At a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting, a very successful business leader shared with me that the key to his company's growth would be bringing in a staff of adult learning specialists to enhance the teaching of soft skills to everyone in the organization, increasing staff engagement, customer service, and profitability.

Another factor driving an enhanced consideration of soft skills is the need for leadership development. Development Dimensions International stories show that organizations worldwide recognize the need to develop leaders. Yet, a small minority of these organizations have structured learning systems to equip and develop the "bench strength "of future leaders.

Also, leaders learn and practice soft skills to effectively equip and develop four to five different generations of workers. Dr. Tim Elmore, in?A New Kind of Diversity, and researchers such as Dr. David Yeager, in?10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People,?points out that learning soft skills builds connections that pave the way for trust and safety, creating the environment for engagement and learning for multiple generations of workers.

In today's complex organizational environment, successful leadership requires a balance of both hard and soft skills. While hard skills provide the technical foundation, soft skills enable leaders to connect with and engage, inspire, motivate, and guide their teams effectively

the interaction of hard skills is most effective when paired successfully with soft skills. This practical interaction defines excellent leadership practice. The U.S. Military today recognizes the importance of this interaction and implements this concept in the training of leaders, using the term SMEE. This acronym stands for subject area expertise and empathy. Connecting and engaging learning and eventual productivity have always depended on leaders who learned and applied "Soft Skills."In Truth, all great leaders understood and nurtured soft skills. Soft Skills are paradoxically the key to success in any organization. The "hard skills "will change. People are people, and relationships are key and crucial to any organization's future sustainability of success

?. Maxwell Corporate Facilitator Perry Holley notes, "Healthy ?Organizations must equip workers with everchanging hard skills and develop soft skills in those they lead ?." Patrick Lencioni, the author of 13 books on corporate health, reinforces this notion, stating, "Healthy organizations can always learn, and unhealthy organizations rarely learn or can adapt to complex skill changes."

In ?an article for Edgepoint Learning? Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: Definitions and 50+ Examples, Corey Bleich writes, "The importance of hard skills vs. soft skills should not be underestimated." While hard skills are essential, savvy companies know that excellent employees have another skill set that may be harder to cultivate: soft skills. Turns out, hard skills vs soft skills isn't an either/or proposition. It's a both/and package worth cultivating in potential and long-term employees alike."

The Leadership Question for you is;

1. What can you do to encourage a culture that embraces equipping and developing yourself and those you lead?

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