Soft Skills

Are Soft Skills More Important Than Technical Skills? - Introduction

(Published: May 4, 2022)

There has always been debate on whether soft skills are more important than technical skills. This is the introduction to my series on soft skills. The idea for this series came about because one of my LinkedIn connections from Brisbane (I now regard as my friend), suggested that I write on soft skills instead of technical topics, based on my many years of experience.

I do not intend to write a thesis on this subject but instead wish to share some insights that I have personally gathered on various soft skills and their impact on my 40 years working experience as a professional accountant, auditor, consultant, risk management advisor, head of audit and interacting with executives and Boards. At this stage, I do not plan to write on how to acquire and improve on one’s soft skills. This may be material for a separate article if there is enough interest.

The Current Work Landscape

The workplace is changing fast, and we need fresh skills for this new world. The buzz word these days is upskilling. Workers know that they need to upskill, acquire new skills to future-proof themselves and remain relevant in a competitive job market. However, when thinking of upskilling, most workers immediately turn towards improving themselves in terms of hard skills i.e., technical skills. For example, taking extra courses in certain software that may help them in the future. But do workers also think about improving themselves in their soft skills? Soft skills are often neglected or downplayed in importance. I believe soft skills are equally if not more important than technical skills especially in this new world, where people are increasingly working remotely or by themselves away from physical interaction with colleagues or clients. Those who pay attention to and invest in enhancing their soft skills will stand out and differentiate themselves from other workers.

What Are Soft Skills?

Soft skills have been defined as personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. Another definition which I like is, soft skills are character traits and interpersonal skills that characterize a person's relationships with other people. In essence, soft skills are non-technical skills, not seniority or job specific, are transferable and relate to how one works.

There are many different types of soft skills which include Communication, Adaptability, Problem-solving, Teamwork etc. In this series, I do not intend to write about every soft skill, just those that have left strong impressions on me as a hirer, manager of staff and serving front-line customers and clients over the years. In my experience, it is often much easier to find workers with the right technical skills, through identification through CVs of relevant qualifications and technical skills assessments and cognitive tests. While pre-employment aptitude tests can measure personal traits, potential, natural abilities, and soft skills, these are not always used. Typically, soft skills are often assessed during the interview process. It depends very much on the skills and techniques used by the interviewers to glean the necessary information from the answers provided by the interviewee. Thoughtful interview questions are needed for interviewees to pull from their personal experiences in the workplace.

Why are Soft Skills Important?

Why do employers look for workers with good soft skills? Workers with good soft skills are generally more successful in the workplace. A worker may have excellent technical, job-specific skills, but if they can't manage themselves or work within a team, they may not be successful in the workplace. Nearly every job requires employees to engage with others in some way. As soft skills are transferable and not job specific, workers with soft skills naturally become very adaptable and flexible employees. Organizations like the flexibility as it allows the worker to fit into multiple and different roles if required. From the employee’s perspective, this provides flexibility and better career prospects as job opportunities open across the organization. This also helps to future-proof oneself and to remain relevant in a fast-changing work landscape.

Many people may think that soft skills are more relevant for workers in customer service type jobs as it requires several soft skills to be able to serve, listen to a customer and provide the customer with helpful and courteous service. However, a worker not in a customer facing role will still need to interact with their colleagues, managers, vendors, and other stakeholders at work.

As a leader, manager, and mentor, I have worked with many people over the years in different industries and countries. Some struggled with their careers and were adamant and convinced in their own mind of their superior qualification, experience, and capabilities. Yet they were puzzled why they could not get their dream job or long overdue promotion. They blamed others for not recognizing their value and worth to the organization. The answer was in most cases, down to deficiencies in some core soft skills that the job and organization required.

In this series, I shall focus on and write about what in my opinion, are the core soft skills that are important for workers to remain competitive, relevant, and to even shine in this fast-changing work landscape.

Look out for the next instalment #1.

Please drop me your comments, like and share…

Are Soft Skills More Important Than Technical Skills? - #1 Communication

(Published: July 19, 2022)

As mentioned in my introduction to this series, I will be focusing and writing on what in my opinion, are the core soft skills that are important for workers to remain competitive, relevant, and to even shine in this fast-changing work landscape.

The first soft skill I would like to kick off with is Communication. I was hesitant to write on this as I have often felt it as a given attribute essential for anyone to even survive these days. However, on second thought, there are certain important aspects that I feel should be highlighted for workers to excel in this competitive work landscape.

In job advertisements, we often see one of the prerequisites as “excellent verbal and written communication skills”. But what does this really mean from an employer’s perspective? The job applicant will need to demonstrate the expected level of competency in communication skills depending on the position, the stakeholders, client, and work environment that the person will be operating in. Communication abilities are often displayed by the applicant’s professional employment history. Panel members can also assist in gleaning the relevant information from the application materials and from answers to specifically targeted questions during the interview on how exemplary communication skills had been previously demonstrated.

What Are Communication Skills?

Communication is a two-way process involving both the sending and receiving of information. It requires having a shared understanding of the information being transmitted and received. Communication can be complicated between people from different nationalities, culture and walks of life. Forms of communication have even changed through time and may even differ depending on the situation, setting or communication channels. A recent debate is the use of emojis in communication. Is that acceptable these days given its widespread popularity, proliferation, and acceptance in social media? Have you been misunderstood when you said or wrote something that was taken in the wrong way by the recipient? Every employer wants workers who can reach out and respond in the appropriate and correct manner to customers, colleagues, and stakeholders. For that reason, employers look for workers with excellent communication skills for practically every job being advertised.

What Are the Types of Communication Skills?

Written Communication

Writing well is an important prerequisite to convey accurate information and thoughts across to the reader. The expression of clear, readable text that is also well-organized, straightforward, and concise, conveys an image of intelligence, competency, and professionalism. Poor communication through bad grammar, language use, expression and sentence construction may impact the writer’s and the organisation’s reputation. Another consequence of poor written communication is that information can be inadvertently misrepresented and misunderstood which can lead to serious personal or organisational repercussions.

Good written communication involves sentence construction using good grammar and appropriate words that accurately convey the message to the reader. It is worthwhile to take time and carefully choose the right words (spelled correctly), and phrases to convey your message. Communication should be concise and succinct including need-to-know information and elimination of superfluous words.

The types of written communication have traditionally been letters, emails, memos, bulletins, announcements. Communication channels now include text messages and social media platforms, like Twitter. Communicating through these different formats have different conventions and content size. For example, written communication is different between letters, emails, text messages compared to using Twitter. Navigating and switching between these communication channels can be tricky as there are different conventions and formality involved. What is acceptable written in a message on WhatsApp with emojis etc will certainly not be acceptable in say, a business correspondence.

Verbal (Oral) Communication

This form of communication is essential in workplaces with tasks involving speaking either face-to-face or through telephony technology. Verbal communication refers to the use of language to convey information. These skills represent more than the ability to speak clearly, it includes demonstration of how information is conveyed and received by the recipient. Verbal communication allows for the use of intonation, inflection, and tone of voice to convey information. Verbal communication therefore offers the ability to convey subtle nuances and to portray a more personable image compared to written communication.

In my experience, the most important tip for effective verbal communication is (surprisingly) to talk less and listen more! This means allowing time for you to receive the required information from the speaker, and to think before replying. Remember that words once spoken, cannot be taken back. More problems may be created, if what is communicated is misunderstood or taken in the wrong context.

Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, body movement and posture, gestures, eye contact, tone, and voice. This is an important form of communication but in modern times have been impacted by using remote communication channels like Zoom, Teams etc. Subtle nuances and messaging are often missed out as compared to face-to-face meeting situations. Normal meeting decorum has changed using these modern communication delivery channels. Body movements, postures and gestures are also further limited.

Effective non-verbal communication includes paying attention to what the speaker is saying, maintaining of interest and eye contact, adopting a good open body posture and “mirroring”.

Visual Communication

Visual communication is the use of visual elements to convey information. These includes the use of pictures, graphs, images, videos to convey information. With time constraints and the increasing adoption of visuals to receive and convey information, I believe visual communication will become more prominent in the future. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings even truer these days with the popularity of images, visuals and informational videos in bite sized chunks delivered through communication channels like TikTok. Even a Google executive has recently admitted that younger users are now increasingly turning to apps like Instagram and TikTok instead of Google Search or Maps to discover new places or search for information. Is this the beginning of the end for written communication? I shall be interested to get your views on this.

Some Personal Thoughts…

I have used all the above forms of communication in my professional career. There are pros and cons for each type of communication skill. Written communication has been the traditional skill and can be effective in the correct context, like in formal legal documents and correspondences. Verbal communication I feel is more personable and if thoughtfully used, can come across as warmer and friendlier. I have often advocated that it is better to see and speak to a client rather than writing a message or email. Humans are after all relational beings. Visual communication skill is becoming increasingly popular and has its place in quickly capturing the attention of users. It can be highly effective for communicating in our current fast paced and time constrained work environment.

The various communication skills when used judiciously, enhances the ability of a worker to be more competitive, relevant, and shine in our fast-changing work landscape.

Please drop me your comments, like and share…