The hard truth about ‘soft’ skills
The workplace obsession with hard skills is (still) killing potential.
Most organisations still hire for technical skills first, promote based on expertise, and measure success through productivity. Yet, in my 40-years of experience, the teams that consistently outperform aren't necessarily the most technically gifted, they're the ones with emotional intelligence, empathy, compassion, kindness and collaboration skills.
Hard skills should get you an interview, but it should always be soft skills that determine how far you'll go.
Technical expertise without communication skills creates silos. Brilliant analysts who can't influence others struggle to implement their recommendations. Project managers with perfect Gantt charts but poor emotional intelligence create toxic environments that destroy any hope of progress. I’ve seen it all too often.
The most successful organisations understand this balance. They recruit for attitude and train for skill. They recognise that whilst you can teach someone how to code or architect perfect documents, building empathy, resilience, and authenticity takes considerably longer.
Smart leaders invest equally in both. They provide technical training alongside emotional intelligence development. It’s not one or the other. They create psychologically safe environments where people can learn hard skills without fear of judgment.
People respond by learning to become more emotionally intelligent, which leads to an improvement in all round human and technical capabilities and so on.
The truth is simple, those with strong soft skills will always be able to learn the hard skills, but the reverse rarely proves to be true.
