Hard skills are easy. “First you do this. Second you do that. Then you get this result.”
Soft skills? Not so much.
People are such complicated creatures!
There are so many contexts (professional / personal / semi-professional / business casual) and cultures (every man for himself / we’re all in this together / it’s who you know).
It’s nearly impossible to figure it all out on your own.
Now wonder people focus on the clear “cause and effect” clarity of technical skills.
But I haven’t ever seen a single business that buys or sells to another business without some kind of human-to-human interaction.
Your [project / business / relationships] will succeed or fail based on how skilled you are at navigating the world of soft skills.
Case in point: if you help your account managers increase their communication tempo without changing anything else, then you’re likely to reduce client churn because fewer clients will feel like they’re being ignored.
Yes, sometimes success really is that simple, but it’s tough for people to believe this stuff matters all this much.
And I’m over here on the other side of the fence shouting as loud as I can: LEARN SOME PEOPLE SKILLS! YOU’LL THANK ME LATER!
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan “people skills” Pritchard