Analysis: Soft skills, often called 'people' or ‘interpersonal’ skills consist of a range of behaviours, attitudes and competencies
We hear a lot about the need for 'soft' skills in work and life, but what are they, where do they come from, and can they be taught? Irish employers federation IBEC recently said that "Soft skills are no longer optional. Instead, they are essential". According to research carried out by Harvard Business Review it is becoming more difficult to rely on traditional indicators in managerial and high-level recruitment and so employers are prioritising "one qualification above all others: strong social skills".
Soft skills, often called ‘people’ or ‘interpersonal’ skills consist of a range of behaviours, attitudes and competencies including communication, leadership, good judgment, creativity, resilience, and critical thinking. Possessing this, lets face it, quite remarkable set of skills will differentiate us, we are told, not only from our competitors on the career ladder but also from AI. These skills are "transversal" in the sense that they will apply across different industries and workplaces. They are ‘soft’ in the sense that they are not ‘hard’ technical or knowledge-based but rather more intangible, less quantifiable, and developed throughout the lifetime. If that is the case - if these behaviours can’t be measured – can they be acquired?
Indeed, it has been pointed out that soft skills are probably the most difficult to learn. After all, qualities like the ability to communicate effectively, make decisions or remain positive in the face of change are a highly complex combination of our innate traits, learned behaviours and experiences.
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From RTÉ 2FM's Jennifer Zamprarelli, Jane Downes, principal coach at Clearview Coaching Group on how people skills affect your job
Our childhood impacts our future intrapersonal functioning such as our self-esteem, communication patterns and ability to emotionally regulate and our experiences throughout our life will impact our attitudes, biases, and reactions. Adverse childhood experiences or trauma are known to negatively impact interpersonal skills in adulthood. Is there a risk that these competencies – confidence, self-management, knowing what to say, when to say it and who to say it to – are more likely to be innate to those of a certain privilege and what are the implications for diversity and inclusion?
Another issue that while our awareness of the importance of good communication skills is increasing, our reliance on technology is impacting how we interact with each other in the real world. Social media is making us less social, perhaps even less empathetic, and more inclined towards narcissistic behaviours as well as to ideological silos that inhibit relationships at work and in our personal lives. Smartphones are reducing our attention spans and contributing to a frantic, individualised culture that makes us bad at listening and more than a little self-obsessed. This is a challenge for educational institutions seeking to develop students’ soft skills in preparation for the workplace: what are we looking for? Who is the ‘good communicator’ in this technological age?
Read more: Do you have rude co-workers? Here's how to handle them
These are important questions with no easy answers. The good news is that we can develop our soft skills, but it requires self-awareness, an awareness of others, knowledge of psychological processes and – most importantly – continued practice in everyday life. Education at university level can play a part, with social science and ‘hard’ sciences such as STEM working together to ensure technical competencies go hand-in-hand with interpersonal awareness, teamwork and the development of critical thinking. The theories and ideas behind social science might be seen by some in the ‘hard’ disciplines to be superfluous or even self-indulgent but engagement with, and discussion of, complex ideas is crucial for developing those analytical and critical thinking skills so often touted as an imperative for the modern workplace.
Technology can be used positively in relation soft skills, with unprecedented opportunities to build empathy and better understand the lives and experiences of others whether through social media or through innovations in teaching and learning. Yet it is crucial that in this technological age we work hard to improve our focus and our real-world communication. For those seeking to improve their soft skills, the benefit of quality face-to-face interaction, teamwork, debate, and engagement with diverse viewpoints cannot be minimised. We might mistakenly think that communication skills can be learned in one snappy book or set of ‘rules’ when really it requires a re-evaluation of oneself in relation to others and an understanding of the depth and complexity of human life. Most importantly, it requires us to slow down, listen, come out of our own heads and look up from our phones.
Not an easy task, but it can be done.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
