The debate between soft skills vs technical skills has been going on for some time now. But the latest development in this arena is quite interesting. It is not so much about which skill set is more effective, or which one is considered to be more important for productivity. Rather, it is about how to harness the effectiveness of both soft skills and technical skills in order to get the most productivity, output, and efficiency out of an organization.
You may have already heard this before: When there are problems, you need both hard and soft skills. One does not have to supersede the other, or work without using either. Both can and should be used together to increase productivity and quality of output. But that is not the focus of this article. Rather, I want to look at how using soft skills and technical skills together can improve organizational performance. I will then show you how using these two sets of skills can increase the effectiveness of any workplace.
Hard skills are those that you learn through years of experience. You gain a thorough understanding of how things work, and you are well-versed in all of the nitty-gritty details. That is part of the problem; most organizations only briefly address soft skills, if at all. Instead, they spend their time focusing on more practical matters, such as leadership, supervision, and management.
On the other hand, using soft skills is not only practical. In most cases, it is also logical. After all, leaders and managers know how to deal with issues in the workplace. And even those who are not experts in the field, can usually work out ways to resolve conflict. All of this means that soft skills are being applied every day, even by the people who are technically familiar and trained to use them.
How can this be? In many cases, soft skills are learned through interaction. If the project is organized well, teams are able to work together to complete the task. It’s not that the technical aspects of the project aren’t important. The key is that managers and supervisors are able to strike a fine balance between being too strict in applying deadline pressures, and not allowing creative ideas and suggestions to die down because they are not included in the team’s plans.
In addition, many projects have short-term goals that are easily attained. As long as the team works together, they can easily meet those goals, providing soft skills that can easily be translated into the real world. For example, what if the main goal of the team was to develop a website for a local business? Well, they wouldn’t set out to write the best website in the world in an hour; they would set the site up in a way that allows it to be used by customers within a few weeks.
When you are looking at soft skills vs technical skills, there is also the issue of trust. If people feel like they can trust you, they will likely follow your lead. If you are authoritative and know what you are doing, you won’t need to rely on someone else to get things done. You will be able to lead from the front, because you took the time to learn the skills needed to do so. When you have a team where everyone trusts each other, problems are more easily avoided. Instead of a manager or supervisor micromanaging, the team works together and effectively implements your plans without unnecessary delays.
Learning how to communicate with others using soft skills takes time and effort. However, once you’ve mastered the techniques, it will make a big difference in your ability to lead and get things done. Even if you are dealing with teams of individuals who don’t all speak the same language, you can communicate clearly with ease. When you master the skills, you’ll find that you can communicate with confidence with any team member, which helps everyone stay on track and working productively.