What do you call HARD SKILLS? Accounting (my fave), copywriting, inventory control, employee relations, sales, collections, purchasing, etc. These are acknowledged to be essential for business success.
Then there are the SOFT SKILLS: listening, empathizing, being optimistic, problem solving, showing compassion. They are much more difficult to measure. They are not the focus of the curricula of business schools – maybe because they are so hard to mark.
What is it that makes you go to one store and not another; to get your haircut at the same place or use the accountant you do? Skill is a factor, but customers and employees want more than that.
The factors that make for the most successful businesses and the “best places to work” are more in the realm of soft skills.
Hard skills are essential – and so are soft skills.
What soft skills do you see missing? Which ones do you think are the most important?