What’s wrong with “Soft Skills”?

The only thing wrong with “Soft Skills” is their name and the belief that goes with it. Soft skills are the most important tool we can possibly possess. These skills are the game changers in everything we do. Why? Because we are people first, and our lifetime of experience comes with us everywhere we go.

In both our private and our work lives, our personal history is right there with us all day every day. And we’re busy, so we operate on a sort of auto pilot almost all of the time. What is the guidance system for that auto pilot? It is our lifetime of experience. We call this our “gut” feeling, or our intuition, or our “natural” responses, and we don’t question them very much because we are focused on living the moment.

The bottom line is this. The only way to manage results is to become aware of our auto pilot and learn the skills to adjust the things that are not serving us in the pursuit of our goals. That, in a nutshell, is the power that “Soft Skills” give you. And that is why a better name for them would be “Essential Skills”.

Here is a link to the research publications page on nationalsoftskills.org where you will find many examples of research and resources to learn more about the impact and measurable value of these “Essential Skills”.

nationalsoftskills.org    – https://www.nationalsoftskills.org/research-publications/

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