| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Teaching Soft Skills in Business Settings

Page history last edited by jjhamabata@csupomona.edu 11 years, 11 months ago Saved with comment

Introduction

 

          Most interviewees do not realize that soft skills are overpowering hard skills when it comes to hiring and potential growth within a company. “Hard skills are categorized as “job skills” which include typing, writing, math, reading, and the ability to use computer programs” (Investopedia). These hard skills are what we make our resumes out of; we constantly classify what great skills we have: proficient in Microsoft Office, can type 60 words per minute with 90 percent efficiency, etc. Soft skills are completely different. These skills include teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, and effective use of resources. Soft skills are more concerned with how you deal with people than how you deal with programs. So, could it really be true that soft skills are replacing hard skills in regards to importance? Of course!



         We learn about hard skills all our life: in school, extra curricular activities, sports, educational clubs, etc. Soft skills are a rather new concept for most people to understand. Through this wiki, I will define what soft skills are and why they are becoming so important. I will also discuss how to teach soft skills in a business setting. A comparison of hard skills versus soft skills can be read here.

 

What are soft skills?

 

            As previously noted, soft skills relate more to customer service and team work; overall, they can be described as your “people” skills. “Soft skills are one’s interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, including friendliness, effective communication, persuasiveness, etiquette and everything in-between” (Daniel). Soft skills relate to a person’s emotional intelligence (EI). EI is how well a person conducts themselves in business settings. This includes how they perceive, manage, use, and understand their emotions as well as how a person reacts to, perceives, and understands another person's emotions. 

 


 

For example, say Betty’s coworker took her stapler every day for a week and never put it back in her office. Betty could either get upset and yell at her coworker or she could simply explain that she doesn’t mind if her coworker uses her stapler as long as she makes an effort to put it back. Betty has a high emotional intelligence if she opts to handle the situation calmly. If she chose to scream and yell at her coworker, Betty would be considered to have a low emotional intelligence. The same kind of situation could play out for a customer service representative who deals with angry customers all day. How they deal with the customers defines how high their emotional intelligence is. For a customer service representative, it would be important to have a very high emotional intelligence level.

 


 

 

          One of the main questions that is asked is how could a trainer teach someone how to be nice to people and give good customer service? Personally, I always figured that a person is either great with people or they aren’t. However, now I am learning that there is a way to teach soft skills to employees and that it is very important! In the video below, Westminister College Associate Professor Michael J.D. Sutton discusses what soft skills are and addresses, if they can be learned or if it is simply intuitive, and why they are important in a business setting.

                                      

 

 

Why are soft skills important?

 

        "Organizations need to be ready to meet constantly shifting market demands, which are placing greater pressure on learning professionals to ensure that employees are equipped with the myriad soft skills that have taken over the workplace" (Ketter).  More and more corporations around the world recognize that, in order to gain a competitive advantage, they also need to make sure their people know how to handle themselves at work and how to relate with their customers and peers” (Nicolaides). Employers are looking to hire people that take the initiative and come to work with a happy attitude. The video below describes soft skills and how important they are in regards to business during a slow economy. Peggy Klaus is an author and career coach. Her complete video can be seen here.

 

 

 

 

As anyone can see after watching this video, soft skills are important! Soft skills contribute to an employee’s success within a company. This success can be driven from a positive attitude, initiative and great communication amongst many others. 

     Tim Hill (Blackboard Inc.) and Ronnie Ellen Kramer, president of Communication Dynamics, Inc. states that in order to have employees properly trained in soft skills, it must start with the college education, schools should continually update the course offerings to include goals and objectives which incorporate soft skills.  In today’s business environment, a lack of soft skills, could lead to profitability loss and client dissatisfaction.  In interviews, employers will be looking for graduates with both hard and soft skills.  (Soft Skills, 2011)


 

How can a company teach soft skills in a business setting?

 

          Now that we know what soft skills are, let’s get into how a company can teach these skills within a business setting. There are five steps when it comes to focusing on soft skills as a training tool to improve performance, leadership potential, and bottom line organizational success (Nicolaides).

 

          The following steps must be completed in order to complete a program that will yield optimum results:

 

  1.  Start slowly: The soft skills program should be designed to enhance soft skills that the employees already have. Getting everyone into one big room and preaching to them about how they can improve their own skill sets will NOT be effective. The best way to go about enhancing soft skills is to do small group or one-on-one workshops with employees. These workshops can be fun as well as informative. Practicing what is preached will help employees grasp the concept better and be able to stay successful in the future. It will also help to get employees excited about the overall program that will be created. 
  2.  Involve your people from the start: It is important to get employees on board with the creation of the soft skills program. They can help decide what to include in the program and how to maintain it. Employees get excited and want to be a part of programs that they help to create.
  3.  Hire expert help: In order for the information to be correct and presented in a efficient manner, you should hire professional help. Coaches and Organizational Consultants are experts in their fields and can really help to cultivate soft skills and improve upon them. Letting the experts help your employees is a great idea because they will be able to maximize positive results.
  4.  Recognize individual achievement: With all of the talk about the importance of teamwork today, individual praise is often over looked. Recognizing individual achievement is a great morale booster and will help the team overall. For example, if you notice someone really dealt with a situation well, praise him or her. They will be more likely to continue to be positive and deal well with situations in the future.
  5.  Discover the group’s soft skill identity: When working in team situations, every team member’s skills will be different. One employee might be a great communicator while another employee might always be upbeat and smiling. It is a great idea to harvest all of these strengths (and weaknesses) to create a new group identity. By showing your employee’s how they can leverage each other’s strengths, they will create their own group identity.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

     "All of these skills are attainable. It is up to learning professionals to create cultures that support these skills and welcome new approaches to old processes" (Ketter). The essence of your business is your people. Employees are a direct reflection of what the company stands for and how it conducts business. If a bad tempered customer service representative takes a call from a disgruntled customer, bad things are bound to happen. Or say a sales clerk comes to work everyday frowning and acting like they are too good to help customers, then the customer’s will see the company in a negative light. All in all, it is important to enhance soft skills within your company. Providing workshops and establishing a program can help to encourage employees to remember to be mindful of their behavior good or bad. Really connecting with your employees one-on-one through praising and discussions is great to do. Also, REMEMBER, as a manager, boss, or leader, it is important to portray yourself in a positive light. If employees see you in a positive light, then they will be more likely to hold themselves to a higher level of courtesy. Teaching soft skills can simply begin with your own positive outlook and great communication!

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Daniel, D. (June 25, 2007). Soft Skills for CIOs and Aspiring CIOs: Four Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence. CIO. Retrieved April 16, 2012. From http://www.cio.com/article/121200/Soft_Skills_for_CIOs_and_Aspiring_CIOs_Four_Ways_to_Boost_Your_Emotional_Intelligence?page=2&taxonomyId=3127.

 

Ketter, P. (2011). Soft skills are must-haves in future workplace. T + D, 65(9), 10-10. Retrieved April 23, 2012. From http://search.proquest.com/docview/897131863?accountid=10357.

 

Klaus, P. (May 8, 2008). Office Politics: Soft Skills on the Job. Youtube. Retrieved April 16, 2012. From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcpxT9U9Ytk.

 

Nicolaides, C. (2002). Focus on Soft Skills: A Leadership Wake Up Call. Business Know-How. Retrieved April 15, 2012. From http://www.businessknowhow.com/growth/softskills.htm.

 

Soft Skills. Investopedia. Retrieved April 14, 2012. From http://www.investopedia.com/search/default.aspx?q=soft%20skills#axzz1sdP4H4bY.

 

“Soft Skills: A Case for Higher Education and Workplace Training”. American Society for Training & Development, November 2011.

Images

 

Emotional Intelligence Business Diagram. Retrieved April 16, 2012. From http://www.flickr.com/photos/wandereye/6917143831/

 

Important Soft Skills. Retrieved April 16, 2012. From http://www.flickr.com/photos/pork-chop/6937961106/

 

Group Discussion. Retrieved April 16, 2012. From http://www.flickr.com/photos/73894947@N05/6802328577/

 

Comments (4)

jjhamabata@csupomona.edu said

at 12:03 am on Apr 18, 2012

Kelly,
Overall good presentation of Teaching Soft Skills in business setting. I like your 5 steps to yield optimum results.
First paragraph: efficiency, etc. etc. (did you intend to have etc. twice?)
"group identity" link may need to be checked, the first thing I see is " HP Printer Ink"
"This includes how they perceive, manage, use, and understand their emotions. " ... This statement under What are Soft Skills? should this also include the emotions of others?
The Klaus YouTube video was very good, and very relevant to the subject material.
Current Information? Scholarly Journals (Peer reviewed) were not utilized.
Here is a journal article from the CPP library database that I found:
Brown, P. (2010). Having Their Backs: Improving Managers' Skills in Developing Others. T+D, 64(4), 60-64. I have the pdf that I can send you.

Soft Skills. Investopedia link doesn't work.

Kelly Fuston said

at 6:36 pm on Apr 20, 2012

Thanks for the great advice Janet! I will look through the CPP database to see if I can find some more up to date information to add. Also, I checked the group identity link and it opens for me. It is just a basic definition of what the term means to help others better understand the concept. I also went through and changed the investopedia link. =)

kmfuston@csupomona.edu said

at 10:03 am on Apr 22, 2012

I thought this was a well written article, and very informative. I actually had no idea what soft skills were, and you spelled it out clearly. Along the lines of what Jodie was saying, here are some scholarly articles I found for you. They are on the CPP library database.

Soft Skills Are Must-Haves in Future Workplace By: Paula Ketter
The Soft Skills Advantage By: Neil Karan (this one was interesting, but he cites wikipedia, so I'm not sure if it would count)
What Do Employers Mean by Mysterious 'Soft Skills'? By: Gill Plimmer
Evaluating the Demand for Soft Skills in Software Development By: Faheem Ahmed ; Luiz Fernando Capretz ; Piers Campbell

Kelly Fuston said

at 11:52 am on Apr 23, 2012

Great articles Kristen!! Thanks!!

You don't have permission to comment on this page.