Why soft skills are actually the hardest skills of all (and

As business leaders, when it comes to hiring and success, we often think of capability. Can a person do the day-to-day tasks needed for that role? But when we limit our thinking to technical skills, we’re missing the point.

It’s soft skills which determine success. The higher you rise through the ranks, the more important they become. But it’s soft skills which are often overlooked during the hiring process.

It’s up to the individual to say how good they are at communicating, how well they work in a team and there are limited development opportunities available to help those who struggle.

With Generation Z entering the workforce it’s becoming apparent that we need to do something about soft skills. As leaders, we need to be proactive and develop all our employees.

It’s those analytical, empathetic skills which set humans apart from artificial intelligence, and it’s those soft skills which will determine success on both a business and personal level.

Soft skills vs technical skills

Think of the last job advert you put together. It probably led with a bit about the role before listing the technical skills necessary. 2 years’ experience in this industry. Experience with this software. The soft skills were probably buried in a quick list near the bottom.

When it comes to the focus on skills, we need to be prioritizing soft skills.

Even the term soft skills, which was coined by the US Army to refer to any skill that doesn’t use machinery, implies something warm and fluffy. A nice-to-have. When the reality is very different.

Soft skills are the more influential ones in the workplace. They’re the ones that help you build relationships, make an impact, work with other people, because of their subjective nature they’re the harder ones to evaluate and master.

That means that training budgets are often focused on technical skills, skills that can be evaluated and ticked off as achieved. In doing so, we’re doing our employees a disservice. Business success is defined by what’s underneath the specific job knowledge needed to perform a role. Research by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford Research Centre found that 85% of career success comes from soft skills.

If we neglect those 85% of skills, then as leaders, we’re holding our teams back, we’re holding our businesses back and we’re holding ourselves back.

Leadership and soft skills

When it comes to leadership, soft skills become even more important.

Of course, leaders need an understanding of technical skills. But most leaders won’t spend the day coding or running financial reports. They’ll spend the day problem-solving, communicating, analyzing information, and managing people.

76% of employees say they’re more engaged with highly empathetic leaders. Empathy is the epitome of a soft skill, which is often overlooked or even in some cases seen as a weakness in a leader.

The reality is for leaders to be effective, there needs to be a recognition of the importance and a focus on developing soft skills.

The rise of artificial intelligence

It’s estimated that 44% of employee skills will be disrupted over the next five years. With the workplace changing so dramatically the ability to cope with change, to adapt, to communicate change will come to the fore more than ever.

That means those employees who can’t do that will struggle and possibly become disengaged with the workplace. That’s a challenge for businesses at a skills transition level and a challenge for leaders in terms of workforce management.

When you look at the rise of artificial intelligence and the role it will play in the workplace, the differentiator between AI and people are soft skills. AI might be able to automate jobs and reduce processes but it can’t empathise with colleagues, it can’t critically evaluate a decision.

In order to future proof the workplace, we need to be future-proofing our skills and that comes back to soft skills.

Generation Z

Gen Z might be tech-savvy but when it comes to soft skills, it’s clear they’re lacking. Anyone who works with new entry-level recruits can attest to their lack of soft skills and work etiquette. For businesses this can be really damaging.

Younger workers without the necessary level of soft skills to conduct themselves in meetings, communicate with clients, or work as part of a larger team are only going to be able to progress so far in their careers before they hit rocky waters.

There’s an assumption that people know how to behave in the workplace, or that people have good problem-solving or communication skills.

The reality is that as leaders, we aren’t teaching young people the soft skills they need to succeed in the workplace. Combine that lack of education with a disrupted, and isolated, education where for the most part they sat behind a screen on their own at home, and it’s not surprising that they’re lacking the necessary soft skills.

For those coming from more disadvantaged backgrounds, they’re also less likely to have seen parents or family members in roles that require advanced soft skills. Put them in a professional setting and they are going to sink.

The future: a soft skills gap

The importance of soft skills is clear. Over time, they’re going to become more influential in the workplace and those that have them will succeed.

But what’s not clear is how we change that.

Soft skills are hard to master because they’re subjective, they’re emotive, they’re hard to define. Shifting the focus from technical skills to soft skills also requires a change in thinking across the business.

Leaders need to decide to prioritize soft skills across all areas of the business. From hiring to learning and development, soft skills must come first.

When it comes to training it takes more than 10 times as long to close a skills gap through traditional training, and when it comes to soft skills, it’s a far longer process.

Let’s face it, it’s easier to train technical skills, it’s easier to see that gap, and as a leader it’s a far more comfortable conversation to say to an employee that they need training in this piece of software, than to say they need to work on their communication skills. Comfort shouldn’t be a reason to avoid necessary training.

When we think about the importance of soft skills, and the gap they leave, we need to look across all levels, all positions and all seniorities, not just focusing on entry-level positions.

Contrary to their name, soft skills are anything but soft. They’re the backbone of the working world, and something that everyone from your graduates to your CEO needs to have. With the digitization of work, soft skills are only going to become more important which means we have to start adapting now.

Training has to focus on building and developing soft skills. Hiring needs to evaluate soft skills. Leaders need to look at their own soft skills.

We can’t keep on ignoring their impact on the workplace. If we continue to live in denial then we’ll soon end up being left behind. To continue to succeed in the future, workplaces need leaders and employees who are willing to push boundaries, forge new paths and navigate change. You only have to look at what we’ve faced the past 5 years to understand how essential those skills are.

It’s time we admitted how difficult it is to identify and develop soft skills, and instead of using that as an excuse, we used it as a reason to get working on it now.