How Much Are Soft Skills Worth?
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By Lynda Bourne
The project management world and the wider business community are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of soft skills. However, as I know only too well from working with clients through my project management consultancy, there’s a big difference between managers being aware of their importance and actually investing in developing the capabilities.
Before most organizations (and individuals) will invest in improving soft-skill capabilities, their value needs to be demonstrated.
A recent report prepared for McDonald’s UK provides a solid foundation for understanding the importance of soft skills to the U.K. economy. It’s likely indicative of the situation in similar economies such as the United States, Canada and Australia.
Soft skills fall into six interlinked sets of competencies, according to a Michigan State University study, “Comparative Analysis of Skills: What Is Important for New Graduates”:
· Communication skills
· Decision-making/problem-solving skills
· Self-management skills
· Teamwork skills
· Professionalism skills
· Leadership skills
To value these skills within the overall economy required some extensive analysis. The overall productivity in the economy was disaggregated into the five drivers of productivity: investment, skills, innovation, entrepreneurship and competition.
The skills driver was then further disaggregated into parts: technical skills, technology skills, literacy, numeracy and soft skills. Soft skills covered the range of capabilities outlined above.
Based on this analysis, soft skills were found to underpin around 6.5 percent of the U.K. economy, and this contribution was expected to grow strongly over the next five years.
The research highlighted that employers rated soft skills above academic qualifications, with 97 percent believing these skills are important to current business success. Worryingly, 75 percent of employers say there is a soft skills deficit within the U.K. workforce.
The report also quotes a range of surveys from the U.S. showing soft skills were ranked ahead of or equal to other competencies, but many job applicants don’t list soft skills in their résumés.
In the U.K., 54 percent of employees have never included soft skills on their CV, and one in five felt they would be uncomfortable discussing their soft skills with an employer.
Deficiencies in the U.K.’s current stock of soft skills were found to impose severe penalties on the economy, causing major problems for business and resulting in diminished productivity, competitiveness and profitability. And over half a million U.K. workers will be significantly held back by soft skills deficits by 2020, according to the research.
Soft skills matter and contribute significantly to productivity. But there is a measurable—and widening—skills gap, and soft skills are underrepresented in skills development initiatives probably because results are hard to measure. Changing this attitude is a major challenge for organizations, business and individuals seeking career development.
How do you think soft skills can be developed?
Posted
by
Lynda Bourne
on: March 04, 2015 07:56 PM |
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Comments (12)
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Abu Bakar Usman
An Independent Certified Coach, Teacher and Speaker| John Maxwell Team
Islamabad, Punjab, Pakistan
Soft skills have proven utility for business development. Most of the mature organisations have soft skills trainings arranged for their top managers at regular intervals. Mature organisations always invest heavily in these skills to develop competent managers and decision makers at critical point of time.
Lynda Bourne
Director, Professional Development| Mosaic Project Services Pty Ltd
South Melbourne, Vic, Australia
I agree Irfan, but soft skills are important at every level - not just senior management - they are needed by project managers and team members as well. Which was the key finding in the McDonald's report.
Andy Kaufman
Host| People and Projects Podcast
Lake Zurich, Il, United States
Great post, Lynda. I often learn best by seeing it modeled and by trying something myself (and failing!). Nearly everything we teach in our workshops is a result of a past mistake! :)
But it is a gift to have a leader that models great soft skills. Perhaps the biggest hurdle for me was the mental model that says you either have these sorts of skills or not. Certainly there may be some genetic pre-dispositions, and I suppose we can learn by negative examples. But once we see that anyone can make some improvements in our soft skills, it opens the door to progress.
Thanks for spurring on an interesting discussion!
Cheers,
Andy
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Great post, Lynda. I believe that soft skills development is a combination of theory and practice. It is more like a deliberate practice (Gladwell, 2011). From my point of view, it is very important to learn tools and techniques, theoretical knowledge in different areas (communication, leadership, emotional intelligence etc). The second step is to practice, observe and evaluate our behavior and the results we are getting. In summary, I believe there is a "hard" side (technical knowledge) in soft skills. We have to master both knowledge and experience (ability plus attitude).
Sam Moran
Coach/Educator/Trainer| MindWorks
Canby, Or, United States
There is a basic fallacy in trying to make people perform at all levels, similar to the belief that we can multitask. Because an individual is a good or even extraordinary technical person or developer, does not mean that he is a good communicator or has the temperament to deal with people.
There are some basic personalities and psychological reason why we naturally gravitate to one profession or the other, and having companies trying to fit a square in a round by filing off the corners doesn''t make sense, you may force the square into the hole but there will be gaps, that in the end may prove to be catastrophic to the endeavor.
Yes there are exceptions to every rule, I know people who are ambidextrous can be left and right brain can be technical detail oriented and big picture, expert at doing researches and good explaining the results. And this are exceptions, and because you have one person in the team that can do both, you should not expect every one to be. Sometimes a hammer will be a hammer no matter the type of handle you put on it, yes a plastic handle will be softer… and you can believe is a softer hammer, but please dot hit your finger with it, because it will hurt the same.
Lynda Bourne
Director, Professional Development| Mosaic Project Services Pty Ltd
South Melbourne, Vic, Australia
Whilst agreeing with your basic premise Sam, your argument is an eloquent statement of the basic reason why being a 'brilliant technical person' should not be a prerequisite for appointment to a project management role. Project managers need 'brilliant technical people' in their team to deal with the technical challenges; but a managers job is to manage people (stakeholders) both inside and outside of the team, which requires a full complement of 'soft skills'. As the title of my latest book suggests, the art of 'Making Projects Work is 'Effective Stakeholder and Communication Management' - supported by access to people with the right technical skills.
Interesting article.
You mentioned that "In the U.K., 54 percent of employees have never included soft skills on their CV, and one in five felt they would be uncomfortable discussing their soft skills with an employer."
I think this makes sense, because employers these days want to see proof for everything. And it is much easier to show proof of your technical abilities, education and work experience, than proof of your soft skills. Soft skills might be hard to identify even during the interview process, as some individuals interview very well, but might not live up to their own descriptions of themselves. That's what makes this area so challenging - you can understand someone's soft skills only after you observe them in action for a while.
Shirley Thompson
Responsible (Project) Conversation Coach| Shirley Thompson
Ringwood, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Yes, interesting. I read a couple of research papers recently that each listed over 100 soft skills. Often they overlap and rarely seem to be aligned in consistent groupings. It would be hard to have objective measures in a CV. But that may be harsh; although certifications aim to be objective measures, humans often interpret their value differently. Years of experience can be of highest value and that may cover soft skill capability assessment too.
I would say that most jobs need soft skills of some sort, very few need an automaton in the style of an old-fashioned manufacturing line worker.
So, maybe soft skills are emerging in the 21st century as a cry for more objective ways to assess humans because our work lives are so complex and chaotic, and we need people who can cope.
Lynda Bourne
Director, Professional Development| Mosaic Project Services Pty Ltd
South Melbourne, Vic, Australia
I’m not sure how you can usefully distinguish 100 different aspects of being aware of the needs of others and engaging with them for mutual benefit. The two general measures are EQ and SQ (emotional and social quotients). These deal with the emotional aspects of personality and underpin specific skills such as motivation and communication - a good summary is at: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1008_Emotional_Intellegence.pdf
Shirley Thompson
Responsible (Project) Conversation Coach| Shirley Thompson
Ringwood, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Interesting report about EQ and SQ, thank you. I think you and I probably have a similar view about the importance for project managers of 'being aware of the needs of others and engaging with them for mutual benefit'. However, the broader challenge is a definition of soft skills. The MacDonalds report seems quite typical of taking a slice of soft skills that are relevant to their context. (I've not seen the Michigan report but I'd guess it is about the soft skills graduates should have.)
Peter Smith
CEO| Eagle Project Management Inc.
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
To understand the training of soft skills one must have the physical training to understand the complexity of soft skills.There is/are no simple classroom soft skills training which will substitute hands on involvement. True every manager should have them,a good natural manager who has worked from the ground up obtains soft skills over time from experience- what works, how to influence, how to communicate, to negotiate, to obtain workable budgets and schedules, etc. In some cases I have had the unpleasant experience of a senior owner/manager with office skills but no field experience and it is obvious. these people are extremely difficult to deal with and manager a project. The field experienced people understand the complexities of project management and delivery constraints and will work with you for mutual goal achievement.
Lynda Bourne
Director, Professional Development| Mosaic Project Services Pty Ltd
South Melbourne, Vic, Australia
Competency involves knowledge (obtained from coaching or training) capability and attitude (or behaviour). Relying on the organic acquisition of knowledge through experiencing failure is the slowest and least effective way to obtain the underpinning knowledge needed for any role (soft skills included). The other elements need practical experience.
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