We work hard and try to get into the best universities. We learn, do internships, and achieve high grade point averages. It is not enough so we continue to attend the certificate courses, acquire master’s, and doctorate degrees. The aim is to be more knowledgeable, to be better, more distinguishable, more successful, and better paid individuals.
By all means, while we go over the hills and far away on self-realization, we slip and fall due to small stones stuck on our feet on the straight road where we cannot manage to put our soles flat on the ground. We now have all the measurable and demonstrable capabilities we need to do our job. We have diplomas, trainings, degrees, certificates, experience, awards. We have the power to prove that we have mastered our subject in every arena.
Is real success a picture small enough to fit in this frame? Is it such a concrete, didactic and soulless phenomenon? Imagine a business life that lacks emotions and communication skills and is far from empathy. Imagine that companies in the expectation of increased productivity choose their managers and employees from people who lack social and sophisticated skills. Then place yourself in this picture. How did it make you feel? You’ve searched for the invisible, the intangible, right? The good news is that you are not alone.
A study by LinkedIn found that 80% of employers are willing to hire candidates with soft skills. When asked to identify the most important skills they look for in employees, most employers referred to soft skills, including reliability, collaboration, flexibility and problem-solving, according to The Future of Work 2021.
Work ethic, emotion management, working well under pressure, stress management, willingness to accept feedback, emotional intelligence, dealing with office politics, witty, friendly, and honest attitude, tolerance for change and uncertainty, time management, patience, empathy, creativity should all mean a lot. These are just some of the social skills we need to have in order to be truly successful.
The 2021 America Succeeds study analyzed data from 82 million job postings and found that the top five soft skills were nearly 4 times more in demand than the top five hard skills.
According to a LinkedIn report of 300 hiring managers, more than half of those surveyed think that the lack of soft skills among employees is limiting their company’s productivity.
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence at Work, conducted a survey of more than 500 senior executives. His research concluded that emotional intelligence, in other words soft skills, is a better predictor of top performance than previous experience or IQ.
Many recent studies explain why soft skills have become more in demand than hard skills, especially in the last three years. Companies that recruit by ignoring soft skills actually fail to include strong leaders in their organizations. Experts state that this approach should include the C-suite in particular because they are the most important parts of organizations and can create profound change.
