The vital nature of soft skills
for an employee's effectiveness in an organization is
an established fact. Increasingly, companies aren't just assessing their
current staff and future recruits on the basis of their business skills, but
are assessing them on a whole set of soft skill competencies and how
well they relate and communicate to others. In the most progressive
companies, managers are looking for people's ability to
communicate clearly and openly, and to listen and respond empathetically. Many
significant business researches have identified social skills (read as
soft skills) as the singular factor in differentiating star performers
from mediocre performers. Further research will only confirm the
importance of SST to future managers in increasing productivity,
fostering innovation, ability to be a team player, persuasion of
organizational agendas, sensitivity to workplace diversity and successful
resolution of conflicts. Beyond this, we have special needs, such as
language learning, presentation skills, coaching and a host of other
organizational needs, which require a high degree of competence in
soft skills.
Now, that the `Why' of the soft skills has been firmly established, we
have to focus on the `How'. How we can effectively impart these vital
skills is a challenge before the corporate world.
The emphasis in our schools and universities is not on soft skills
or in skills in general. Our academic curriculum tends to ignore
these important life skills. The concentration in these early years of
our learning has been solely on gaining knowledge, and not acquiring
skills. It is, therefore, left to employers to improve their performance in
these areas. Daniel Goleman in the sequel to his influential best seller Emotional Intelligence, forcefully argues
for the `hard case of soft skills'. However, in practice, there is
nothing `soft' about soft skills. And it is evident from industry estimates,
where millions of Rupees and Dollars are spent on SST across the world. |
