We hear about “soft skills” often, which basically describe how we play well, or do not play well, with others.  So we are talking about listening, speaking, negotiating, collaborating, trust, influence, customer experience, team development, etc. Some use a framework, such as Emotional Intelligence Quotient, to provide something of a roadmap for acquiring soft skills.

But people often do not equate building soft skills with the nuts and bolts of getting the business of the organization done. “We will get to that soft skill stuff when we have a bigger training budget, or more time, or have met X financial goal…”

This is short-sighted thinking, because “soft skills” are the most important factor in meeting hard targets.

What if we think of “soft” as meaning the following?

Speed

Outcomes

Focused

Teams

And among the outcomes of applying “soft skills” are competitive advantage, as well as cost and waste reduction.