Soft Skills are crucial to success

Technical or financial skills have little value if you have poor soft skills. Of course, your expertise matters. But don’t be fooled by your technical skills or professional qualification. King of Linux, Champion of Oracle, Degree in Accounting?

You’ve got it made, right? Well, no; today, hard skills alone are no guarantee of success.

You have all the qualifications and certifications with solid work experience. You are the programming guru or the indispensable Master of Numbers. Therefore, you are on your way to becoming an outstanding achiever. Sadly no. Excellent technical activities, rapid knowledge acquisition and a collection of certificates are not the same thing as growth because technical skills alone do not lead to recognition, promotion, and most importantly: opportunity. Technical skills and expertise are important but even more so are your soft skills.

How well do you communicate with your colleagues, management, clients or your employer? How well do you interact in your team? Are you capable of solving problems that are not technical? Are you able to identify and recommend solutions that are soft and human? What is the readability index of your memos and reports? Are you able to stand up in a meeting and talk business without referring to the nuts and bolts of your profession?

In sum, are you perceived as a strategic contributor or just another techie?

So what are the soft skills that matter and how can you get them fast? More and more companies are taking project management more seriously. According to USA IT Industry research, 74% of all IT projects fail, come in over budget or are overdue. And 28% of projects fail all together. These statistics are alarming, especially in light of the current situation of the global economy. Companies are looking for qualified individuals that have the knowledge to successfully bring in projects on time and under budget. Technical competence was NOT the cause of failure.

So while technical skills absolutely matter, companies now need other core skills to succeed. Research by the European Union Leonardo de Vinci program across small and medium businesses in 79 regions provided a unanimous list of 5 core soft skills they say need most in recruits. None of these skills are taught in school and university, candidates rarely have them and the development burden often falls to companies. The core list from the EU research was:
• Oral presentation skills
• Written presentation skills
• Organization and planning
• Problem analysis and decision making
•Team working

To get started, it is a good idea to assess yourself using psychometric tools. This will help identify your personality type and the characteristics you already have that can be made to work to your advantage in “soft” situations. There are many such tools available covering aspects like Leadership styles, Team working styles, influencing styles and Leaning styles. Some can be found free on the internet. Many soft skills courses commence with such a diagnosis.

Then choose a course, Ideally in a workshop setting with other people with similar goals, and that helps you develop these new skills. We suggest that the course should be short, interactive and full of role playing exercises that give you lots of opportunities to try out your new skills in a safe environment. Even better is if you can find a soft skills course that combines all the core competencies listed above and has been designed for specialists and professionals who want to increase their productivity and effectiveness in the work place.

Finally, practice. Make a list of the 3 skills that you are weak on, and for the next 3 weeks, practice these skills every chance you get. You will very quickly see a difference in the way others react and respond to you, and this could be the first step to future success!

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