Your Best Engineer is Your Biggest Liability

I recently hosted a soft skills masterclass for technical project leads focused on communication and agility, where a surprising consensus emerged: an organisation’s biggest threat is the tendency of engineers and scientists to hyper-focus on technical perfection, blinding them to broader commercial realities.

It's like having a chess grandmaster as your team captain in a soccer match. Their strategic mind is unparalleled and they can plot moves ten steps ahead. But when the whistle blows and the game begins, all that deep thinking becomes a liability if they can't kick the ball or coordinate with the team.

I see this pattern repeatedly across various technical fields – teams delivering innovative solutions to the wrong problems, over-engineered products missing market windows, burned budgets, and the biggest risk of all – solving issues customers don't actually have.

Is your technical genius dragging your projects into the abyss of irrelevance?

The Project Management Institute paints a stark picture of this phenomenon. A recent study found that 42% of project failures are attributed to poor communication—not technical incompetence. The same research revealed organisations waste an average of $97 million for every $1 billion invested in projects and programs due to poor project performance.

Importantly, the study highlighted that projects with soft skilled teams meet their goals 2.5 times more often and waste 21 times less money than traditionally skilled teams, emphasising the crucial role of soft skills in risk mitigation and flawless delivery of technical initiatives.

When was the last time your team solved a problem the market didn't even know it had?

In the end, technical brilliance without soft skills and market understanding is a massive liability. It's time to redefine what 'high performance' means for your team. True stars aren't just technically proficient; they're soft-skilled ‘samurai’ who can bridge the gap between complex problems and real-world solutions.

Want to win clients, close deals, and drive better business performance?

Gain real-time insight into what powers your leadership. Comment or message 'POWERSKILLS' and I'll send you a complimentary soft skill diagnostic for technical experts.