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The need for soft skills in the business world has been firmly established in the last few years. But during this time a number of soft skill myths have been voiced in many areas. In this article we are going to debunk the five most common falsehoods about soft skills. In a recent survey of 292 Learning & Development professionals, http://www.compasscayman.com/journal/2012/12/05/Hard-truths-about-soft-skills/ “63 per cent showed that it was a priority… to develop soft skills in all employees.” In addition to this push have come a number of false myths that we are going to now uncover. False Myth # 1 ~ The only way to professional success is using Soft skills No matter how good your soft skills are you still need education and experience to complete the “success” package. Hard skills are the basics needed to do the job but it is the soft skills that enable you to develop the relationships you need with your superiors, peers, and subordinates in the workplace. False Myth # 2 ~ Soft Skills cannot be taught Anyone who has training material in soft skills can teach it. The secret is that the students have to embrace the techniques and use them until they become habits. BOK Financial Corp. Bruzzese http://www.usatoday.com/topic/73286342-90B1-4E6D-8DAC-1A39E79D98D9/on-the-job-anita-bruzzese/? has a special training program that has reduced their turnover rate from the national average of 16.5% to 7.5%. False Myth # 3 ~ All college graduates know soft skills Unfortunately most colleges, universities and trade schools do not teach soft skills. Employers are taking on the task to train their staff in soft skills as they educate them about the corporate culture. Employers still complain to educational facilities that their students must have soft skills to survive in the business world today. False Myth #4 ~ Soft skills are the same as communications skills Adecco Staffing Company http://business.time.com/2013/11/10/the-real-reason-new-college-grads-cant-get-hired/ reported in a employer survey statement, “44% of respondents cited soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration, as the area with the biggest gap.” Soft skills also include such areas as phone etiquette, customer service, workplace relationships and business networking. False Myth #5 ~ Women have better soft skills and men have better hard skills. This is the biggest myth of all. Soft skills OR hard skills are never gender specific. Most soft skills either have to be acquired via instruction or through years of experience. To summarize, these are the top five false myths about soft skills that I continue to run into. There are many more being touted out there, but I have run out of space! Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSkillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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Soft skills myths, job readiness, people skills,
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