What is so soft about "soft skills"?

"Soft skills", normally counterpointed against "hard skills" - with the latter defined as "occupational requirements".  There are other versions.

Jimmy Carr, speaking on Radio 4's "Museum of Curiosities" this week said [sic] "words are magic, and I'm like a drug pusher except the drugs are endorphins and they are in you - I just know the words that unlock them.  I say a series of words, and you get a dose of pleasure!"  Perhaps a typically "Carr" way of putting things, but all the same, rather a nice explanation.

Words are magic, in that they bring with them memories and meanings of great complexity.  I object therefore to the use of the word "soft"!  It can imply lots of things, which perhaps are not intended to be negative, however negative implications are included.  It can imply "easier", "unprofessional", "non-essential", "weak", "woolly", "undefined".  Etc.  You get my drift.

And yet, in my own business, the so called "hard skills" only take you to qualification.  As a general rule "occupational requirements" are about 20% of what the team need to gain real ability and impact.

Many firms will adopt a thoroughly strict attitude to the "hard" training provision.  It will certainly be done professionally and there is rarely hesitation in investing in anything seen as "hard".  How easy it is to be the "hard men" of training - with repetition, practice, assessment, and qualification; it echo's the successful models of our schooling.

Use of the word "soft" is a problem because for many, I believe, it primes the mind to think differently.  Typically, soft skills training is done in a very different way (suggested by the soft adjective?) in workshops, in one day sessions, with limited objectives, with limited practical application, without a course, without a test, without a measured outcome or qualification.

In my own firm (and I hope in many others - certainly in my clients) when we have overcome this attitude it has paid off big.  I like to ban the word "soft".  Training is training and I want to see it done professionally.

I am not really interested in buying a one day "people skills" training session, because I know from my own professional training skills that in order to create applied learning any programme needs the seven learning principles:

Feedback
Active learning
Repetition
Meaningful material
Multi-sense approaches
Over-learning
Primacy and recency

(E-mail me for expansion on any of this)

There are plenty of studies that show that skills practice, and moving from learning to teaching, rapidly increase the uptake of learning, and its move into long term recall.   This is what leads to changes in behaviour and real changes in approach.  In my own experience, the jeopardy of assessment  and qualification really heighten attention.  There are other ways to get high attention and learning - for example presentation to the group at the end of a learning process forces the learning to be used and demonstrated, even if no exam is present.

We did it at school!  Why should it stop for work?

Managing people for performance, selling, mentoring, coaching skills, presenting, leading, delegating, prioritising, planning, creative thinking, product development, managing a large workload, commercialism, working in a big team,  being a effective executive (director, partner, ceo), coping with major and difficult decisions and high levels of stress, managing the internal state for effect rather than being bowled along by life and emotion, writing and communication.  These are essential skills for life and for business.

The people who move to high levels of impact in an organisation are a long way ahead of their core technical skills, and most get there through the training of real life and experience.  They are largely unsupported by the wealth of highly professional experience and best practice material out there to get the improvements more quickly and more professionally.  There is a tendency to grab bits of insight from here and there in a haphazard way.  This is especially true of the small business sector.

A final reference to "soft".  If "soft" primes the mind to respond in a certain way, and the focus, motivation and goals of your team at the outset are an essential preparation component for successful trainings, why would you tell them to prepare for a "soft" day's work?

Run back over your training programmes.  Which skills are essential to your success?  Identify the top three and put serious and assessed programmes in place to develop your essential skills programme.   Put the soft stuff in the bin!

I hope this post inspires you to rethink the process you are running to develop yourselves and your teams.  If you are already there, post up a note and let us know what you do.