We are living in an era of constant change.

Because businesses are becoming less dictatorial and more social, the understanding and value of soft skills to an organization are growing daily. In Top 10 Soft Skills to Master, I touched on a couple reasons why soft skills are important, but those were just the tip of the iceberg. The more I look at the distinguishing traits of people who are advancing their careers, the more convinced I am that soft skills are more important today than ever before. Soft Skills versus Hard Skills Soft skills is a term relating to a collection of personal, positive attributes and competencies that enhance your relationships, job performance, and value to the market. Soft skills include your ability to listen well, communicate effectively, be positive, handle conflict, accept responsibility, show respect, build trust, work well with others, manage time effectively, accept criticism, work under pressure, be likable, and demonstrate good manners. Hard skills are specific, trainable abilities necessary to carry out the professional or technical requirements of a job or occupation. Hard skills would include knowledge, machine operation, computer procedures, safety standards, financial systems, technical analysis, and sales administration. Unlike soft skills, hard skills are typically easy to observe, quantify, and measure. Let me give you an example of the two kinds of skills. If you listened to the Super Bowl on Sunday, you would have heard comments made about Walter Payton and the award given in his honor. Payton is remembered as the most prolific running back in the history of American football, but he was also known for his kind, compassionate, and humorous character. Sweetness became Paytons nickname early in his career, and the announcers mentioned it on Sunday. In addition to his hard football skills, his soft personality skills won him an enduring reputation. Soft Skills in the Work Place More and more corporations around the world recognize that, in order to gain a competitive advantage, they need to make sure their people know how to handle themselves at work and how to relate with their customers and peers. Its often said that hard skills will get you an interview but you need soft skills to get and keep the job. Its no longer enough to be an expert in a field of knowledge. Competition is fierce; its your soft skills that make you stand out. If youre in sales, soft skills are critical for survival. As a Realtor, 92% of all sellers to whom I presented my services selected me over my competitors. It was my soft skills that were responsible for this success. Soft skills arent just important in the obvious positions that deal with customers. They are important for every person in an organization. Take IT professionals as an example. When they

acquire soft skills, better relationships are built between other business units resulting in increased productivity. Look at the people at the top in your profession and ask yourself, Is it their hard skills or soft skills that got them to the top? If you define their personal brand, you will quickly realize that the people at the top of the pay scale are those who excel in their soft skills. Soft Skills Have Broad Application Developing interpersonal skills affects all of your lifefar beyond your career. Your relationship with your spouse, children, and friends will deepen. You will attract like-minded people into your life. You will gain peoples respect and admiration. Your example will teach others how they can be more successful. You will feel that you have more control of your life.

In addition to the long list of ways your life will be enhanced, you will be making this world a better place. Never under estimate the impact your positive example can have on peoples lives, both directly and indirectly. Building Soft Skills The time you spend developing your soft skills will never be wasted. Even if you change careers five times, the soft skills you learn today can always be used to set you apart in whatever you do with your life. I want to challenge each of you to start focusing on your soft skills. Here are some simple ways to get started. 1. Start doing the little things you already know you should do. You know many of the things you should be doing to develop better relationships, increase your productivity, and be more responsible. So do them. 2. Become a keen observer of others. If Joe got the promotion over Pete, identify the reasons. When you are drawn to someone, ask yourself why. When you begin to trust someone, pinpoint the reasons. If you received excellent service from someone, think about what this person did that impressed you. There is a lot you can learn by watching others. 3. Start living in a state of awareness. Turn off autopilot and start making conscious decisions as you move through your day, especially when interacting with other people. Positive change begins with awareness. 4. Become a student of personal and professional success. If you have a genuine desire to improve your soft skills, start consuming content on the subject. Most of the content in my book and this blog pertains to your soft skills. Start by reading Top 10 Soft Skills to Master in 2011. Check out my favorite resourceSuccess Magazine. 5. Be intentional every day. Getting better wont come without effort. While some of the things will come naturally to you, others will require an intentional effort. The great thing about building your soft skills is that you can acquire them on your own. Regardless of your background, gender or education, developing your soft skills will make you stand out from the crowd in whatever you choose to do. What are soft skills? Soft skills refer to a very diverse range of abilities such as:

Self-awareness Analytical thinking Leadership skills Team-building skills Flexibility Ability to communicate effectively Creativity Problem-solving skills Listening skills Diplomacy Change-readiness

Many people often refer to 'soft skills' as 'people skills' or 'emotional intelligence'. Hard skills are the technical abilities required to do a job or perform a task: essentially they are acquired through training and education programs. Importance of Soft Skills According to psychologist Daniel Coleman, a combination of competencies that contribute to a person's ability to manage his or herself and relate to other people-matters twice as much as IQ or technical skills in job success. Results of a recent studies on the importance of soft skills indicated that the single most important soft skill for a job candidate to possess was interpersonal skills, followed by written or verbal communication skills and the ability to work under pressure. A constantly changing work environment - due to technology, customer-driven markets, an information-based economy and globalisation that are currently impacting on the structure of the workplace and leading to an increased reliance on, and demand for, soft skills. Soft skills are not a replacement for hard- or technical-skills. They are, in many instances, complementary, and serve to unlock the potential for highly effective performance in people qualified with the requisite hard skills.

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills Difference and Importance

offered detailed definitions of soft skills. Here I want to highlight three key differences between hard skills and soft skills and how their importance depends highly on the career you are in. Three Key Differences between Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

To be good at hard skills usually takes smarts or IQ (also known as your left brain-the logical center). To be good at soft skills usually takes Emotonal Intelligence or EQ (also known as your right brain- the emotional center). Examples of hard skills include math, physics, accounting, programming, finance, biology, chemistry, statistics, etc For a list of 28 soft skills, click here. Hard skills are skills where the rules stay the same regardless of which company, circumstance or people you work with. In contrast, soft skills are self management skills and people skills where the rules changes depending on the company culture and people you work with. For example, programming is a hard skill. The rules for how you can be good at creating the best code to do a function is the same regardless of where you work. Communication skills are a set of soft skills. The rules for how to be effective at communication changes and depend on your audience or the content you are communicating. You may communicate well to fellow programmers about technical details while struggle significant to communicate clearly to senior manager about your project progress and support needed. Hard skills can be learned in school and from books. There are usually designated level of competency and a direct path as to how to excel with each hard skill. For example, accounting is a hard skill. You can take basic accounting and then advanced accounting courses. You can then work to get experience and then take an exam and be certified as a CPA, etc.. In contrast, there is no simple path to learn soft skills. Most soft skills are not taught well in school and have to be learned on the job by trial and error. There are many books and guides on soft skills. I also recently wrote an article on How to Improve Your Soft Skills as a starting point. They help to an extent. Unless you can apply the tips you learn and be adaptable, there arent any easy step-by-step instructions on how to master a soft skill.

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills Which is more important? It depends highly on the career you choose. Here is why.

Careers can be put into 3 kind of categories. It is up to you to figure out which category your career is in. 1) Careers that need hard skills and little soft skills (example: Physicists); This is where you see brilliant people who cannot deal well with people. They can still be very successful in their career look at Albert Einstein 2) Careers that need both hard and soft skills many careers are in this category (example: Accountants, Lawyers they need to know the rules of accounting or law well but they also depend on selling to clients to build a successful career. Dealing well with clients require excellent soft skills like communication skills, relationship skills etc) 3) Careers that need mostly soft skills and little hard skills (example: sales. A car salesman dont really need to know that much about cars, just a little more than the consumer. His job is more dependent on his ability to read his customers, communicate his sales pitch, persuasion skills, and skills to close to deal. These are all soft skills) Another way to assess how important are soft skills in your career is to ask yourself three questions 1) Does how well I work and communicate with others critical in my performance review

and the decision for my promotion? 2) Are people in the same position as me who are well liked in the company seem to be promoted faster? 3) Does my ability to control my temperament at work affect my performance review? If all three is yes, soft skills are very important to develop if you want to advance in your career

I would say in general, soft skills are more important in most business careers than hard skills. We all know or have worked for senior people that doesnt seem that smart (limited hard skills). The fact remains that they are in senior positions because they have exceptional soft skills (e.g., know how to leverage politics to further their careers, leadership skills, management skills, self promotion skills etc).

Food for thought most of us have spent at least 16 years in school focused mainly on building our hard skills full time and a little on our soft skills through team projects, sports, and social activities. To succeed in our career, shouldnt we spend at least another 16 years or more to proactively master thAmit Kumar did his M Tech from IIT, New Delhi [ Images ]. He has an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad [ Images ]. But he still could not get the job of his choice during campus recruitment. ImagesImages

Reason: Blame it on his soft skills. Or rather the lack of them. These include communication, listening, negotiation, etiquette, language skills etc. Hence, he could not compete with his fellow students who got better jobs.

Part II: How to improve your soft skillsHow to improve your soft skills

Soft skills play a vital role for professional success; they help one to excel in the workplace and their importance cannot be denied in this age of information and knowledge. Good soft skills -- which are in fact scarce -- in the highly competitive corporate world will help you stand out in a milieu of routine job seekers with mediocre skills and talent. The Smyth County Industry Council, a governing body based in the US, conducted a survey recently. The results of the survey was called the Workforce Profile which found "an across-the-board unanimous profile of skills and characteristics needed to make a good employee." The people most likely to be hired for available jobs have what employers call "soft skills". Here were some of the findings according to the workforce study: The most common traits, mentioned by virtually every employer, were: ~ Positive work ethic. ~ Good attitude. ~ Desire to learn and be trained. Mohan Rao, a technical director with Emmellen Biotech Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mumbai [ Images ] defines a 'good attitude: "It is a behavioural skill, which cannot be taught. However it can be developed through continuous training. It represents the reactive nature of the individual and is about looking at things with the right perspective. You must be ready to solve problems proactively and create win-win situations. And

you must be able to take ownership ie responsibility for your actions and lead from the front without calling it quits at the most critical moment." Most of the business leaders observed that they could find workers who have "hard skills" ie the capability to operate machinery or fulfill other tasks, but many potential hires lack the "soft skills" that a company needs. CEOs and human resource managers said they are ready to hire workers who demonstrate a high level of "soft skills" and then train them for the specific jobs available. The ever-changing impact of technology has given hard-skills-only workers a short shelf life. Images According to results of the Workforce Profile, (source: www.workforce.com) the more valuable employee is one who can grow and learn as the business changes.www.workforce.com Soft skills "are as important, if not more important, than traditional hard skills to an employer looking to hire -- regardless of industry or job type. This could offer a major breakthrough as educators and training providers seek to develop and cluster training courses to fit business and industry needs." Top 60 soft skills The Workforce Profile defined about 60 "soft skills", which employers seek. They are applicable to any field of work, according to the study, and are the "personal traits and skills that employers state are the most important when selecting employees for jobs of any type." 1. Math. 2. Safety. 3. Courtesy. 4. Honesty. 5. Grammar. 6. Reliability. 7. Flexibility. 8. Team skills. 9. Eye contact. 10. Cooperation. 11. Adaptability. 12. Follow rules. 13. Self-directed. 14 Good attitude. 15. Writing skills. 16. Driver's license. 17. Dependability. 18. Advanced math. 19. Self-supervising. 20. Good references. 21. Being drug free. 22. Good attendance. 23. Personal energy. 24. Work experience. 25. Ability to measure. 26. Personal integrity. 27. Good work history. 28. Positive work ethic. 29. Interpersonal skills. 30. Motivational skills. 31. Valuing education. 32. Personal chemistry. 33. Willingness to learn. 34. Common sense. 35. Critical thinking skills.

36. Knowledge of fractions. 37. Reporting to work on time. 38. Use of rulers and calculators. 39. Good personal appearance. 40. Wanting to do a good job. 41. Basic spelling and grammar. 42. Reading and comprehension. 43. Ability to follow regulations. 44. Willingness to be accountable. 45. Ability to fill out a job application. 46. Ability to make production quotas. 47. Basic manufacturing skills training. 48. Awareness of how business works. 49. Staying on the job until it is finished. 50. Ability to read and follow instructions. 51. Willingness to work second and third shifts. 52. Caring about seeing the company succeed. 53. Understanding what the world is all about. 54. Ability to listen and document what you have heard. 55. Commitment to continued training and learning. 56. Willingness to take instruction and responsibility. 57. Ability to relate to coworkers in a close environment. 58. Not expecting to become a supervisor in the first six months. 59. Willingness to be a good worker and go beyond the traditional eight-hour day. 60. Communication skills with public, fellow employees, supervisors, and customers.

e soft skills necessary to advance our careers? reputed software company in India [ Images ] is all geared up for a client visit. The clients have indicated that, after inspecting the progress of the project they have outsourced, they would like to meet the team members working on it. Why? To select one team member for a stint onsite -- something almost every software engineer aspires for. Ravi has been one of the most active members in the project and has done a wonderful job. He is technically brilliant, but has some concerns: Will he able to communicate his performance to the client in an impressive manner so that he is chosen? Why do his team mates not prefer to come to him for solutions and go to less capable people instead? His project manager doesn't seem to be very warm towards him either, although he does drop in those occasional mails appreciating his work. Here is a typical scenario in an IT company; or for that matter, any organisation where interpersonal communication is involved. Or, like in Ravi's case, where an employee suffers from a lack of interpersonal skills. Are technical/ job-related skills enough? Technical and job-related skills are a must, but they are NOT sufficient when it comes to progressing up the ladder.

With the traditional paternalistic style of leadership becoming pass, professional managers expect their teams to be proactive and communicate openly. "Soft skills are very important in business. It is essential to be technically sound, but one should also have the ability to convey the idea to the masses in the simplest possible manner," says Mayurkumar Gadewar, an ERP consultant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. With the boom in outsourcing taking root across industries, many professionals and subject matter experts directly deal with their clients on a regular basis. Their approachability and people skills are what ultimately sustain the contract their employers have bagged. "Planning is necessary but execution is also equally important. And it takes soft skills to execute any idea because it involves dealing with people directly," says Gadewar. 6 soft skills for every hard-nosed professional Behavioural training experts say there are several soft skills are required in these circumstances. Some of them include: i. Interpersonal skills ii. Team spirit iii. Social grace iv. Business etiquette v. Negotiation skills vi. Behavioural traits such as attitude, motivation and time management Do you have these? If your answer is yes, good for you. But if your answer is no, then you know it is time to approach either a training organisation or a training consultant. Will formal training enhance your soft skills? There is a lot of argument in the industry as to whether it is possible to enhance soft skills in a few hours of training, especially when one considers the fact that a person has lived with those traits all his life. To this, the answer is harsh but real -- a professional who wants to do well in his/ her career does not really have a choice. In the initial years of your career, your technical abilities are important to get good assignments. However, when it comes to growing in an organisation, it is your personality that matters, more so in large organisations where several people with similar technical expertise will compete for a promotion. Training on soft skills becomes all the more relevant in a country like India where the education system does not delve into personality development. "Soft skills training is essential because we do not have it in our academic curricula. Therefore, corporate houses have to take up the task of grooming employees who are the link between the company and the external world, so that they are able to present themselves better, " says Sumeet Mehta, an equity research analyst with Fortis Securities Ltd. Be your own trainer!

While organisations are definitely investing in augmenting their staff's people skills, here are some inputs for professionals and students who would like to initiate the process themselves: i. Be a part of team activities It could be either as a part of your church choir, or an NGO, or your local youth circle. Observe your own behaviour in the group and how you relate to others. ii. Ask family members or close friends to write down your best and worst traits. Ideally, have at least four to five people do this for you. Evaluate the common traits all of them have mentioned. Thus, you can be aware of your strengths and work improving your weaknesses. iii. How well do you manage your time? Think. Can you do more in life? Or is your day too crammed with activities? Effective time management is very essential in the corporate world. iv. Introspect on how you react to feedback. In organisations, people skills mostly come into the picture when there is feedback given -- be it for an idea, an executed project or a presentation. You are judged by the way you respond to feedback. Do you get defensive? Do you insist you were right? Do you meekly accept criticism? Remember, people tend to be judged and stereotyped according to their responses. You will, too. v. How good are you at critiquing? While responding to feedback is one side of the coin, giving feedback is the other side. Are you aggressive? Pessimistic? Do you believe in constructive criticism? Or prefer to be the yes-man? vi. Live consciously Any organisation is manned by people, therefore soft skills are all about how you deal with people and present yourself. Though it may be easier said than done, soft skills can be enhanced simply by being aware of oneself and living consciously.

Two beautiful examples of soft skills from two Indian b-schools

Much of the criticism of the MBA degree in its current form revolves around soft skills, and how b-schools have failed to teach them to MBA students successfully. In that light, here are two examples of thoughtful communication from two b-schools, one from SIMS Pune and another from ISB Hyderabad that really caught my eye and begged to be featured here.

A recent Economist article termed MBAs as jargon-spewing economic vandals and behaviour to that effect has been captured in folklore too. Much has also been written about how MBA students are poor at keeping commitments, turning up on time at appointments, not great at holding phone conversations; whether in tier-1 or in tier-2 schools. One might attribute that to pre-existent cultural quirks, but werent b-school admission processes supposed to filter in the better of the lot? Anyway, here are two examples that buck the trend that we have become used to. What four ISB Hyderabad students did after they completed a project about PaGaLGuY Every year, MBA students from dozens of b-schools get in touch with us to base an assignment, case study or project on PaGaLGuY.com and its business model for their entrepreneurship/product development/marketing/strategy courses. Swell, because nothing makes us more happy than the knowledge of our company contributing to someones business learning, even if in a small way. While researching our company, the students make to us commitments of sending us the completed case study once they complete and present it to their professors. However, to this date, we havent seen a single assignment turn up in our mailboxes. Whats more, the students behind the project suddenly become incommunicado and stop replying to emails. We shrug it away, moving on to the next student request, resigning to the mediocre standard of communication that we have gotten so used to expecting. When a group of ISB Hyderabad students contacted us about a similar project on PaGaLGuY a few months ago, we had no reason to think theyd be any different. But this is what we received in the morning snail-mail today.

A keychain like the above was sent to everyone that the ISB team interviewed in the PaGaLGuY HQ for the case study. Its a smart way of maintaining industry interface at a student level and making our interaction with the students memorable. I am not sure if the above keychains are being sent by all ISB students to the companies they have interacted with for their projects, or whether this idea is institute-driven, or whether we were the only ones to be sent something like this on a personal equation. But whoever thought of it, has tried an innovative way of solving the industry-interface problem that b-schools constantly grapple with. The SIMS, Pune placement brochure Ever since we started recruiting from b-schools, we started receiving large amount of placementbrochures seeking to convert us into a participating company at the placements. Most of these brochures look more or less the same, are printed on art-paper and have 30% devoted to information about the school and 70% comprising of photo-profiles of students page after page. So similar are the brochures in their content and presentation, that they have ceased to be of utility to us while deciding whether to recruit from that b-school. We can almost predict what were going to see in the next brochure and have become numb to the experience. However, we were surprised to receive the following placement brochure from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Pune.

(The yellow-coloured annotation in the above image is our own) Shaped like a smart-card, it has a detachable USB drive which when plugged into a computer launched an Adobe Flash application that is the b-schools placement brochure in an interactive format. However, it doesnt just stop at that. In the user-interface, one can shortlist students profiles based on their past education and work experience using a search-filter. It has real utility and isnt just token eye-candy. Very usable and tastefully designed, it tells me something about the stress the school lays on thoughtful communication. Though its been executed by an agency (SIMS students dont seem to have coded the app themselves), but that a school should choose to try something that is innovative and a definite improvement over the jaded landscape of the same-old-same-old ought to be applauded. One might say, that the above examples are merely cosmetic and miss the deeper aspects of communication and I agree. But then, its not as if the industry is spoilt for choice when it comes to good communication from MBA students right now. Also, this article is not meant to be a case for MBA students to go on a gift-sending spree, nor is it a flat endorsement of SIMS Pune or ISB Hyderabad by PaGaLGuY. It is meant to showcase two beautiful and rare examples of what are popularly known as soft skills.