My most recent book provides a primer on essential soft-skills for managing your career. During my own career of 30+ years, I focused on sharpening my soft-skills along with the hard-skills required to do my job. A lot of times I was told that it’s only the hard-skills that create a differentiator and learning about presentation, communication and other soft-skills is a waste of time. My gut feel told me otherwise and I continued to learn – by reading, taking classes, observing and also teaching these skills; which have been summarized in my book.
So, it was a pleasant surprise when this article showed up in my inbox with the opening paragraph stating what I have always believed in —
Soft skills are in-demand in nearly every company and every industry. A Wall Street Journal survey of 900 executives found that 92% said soft skills were equally important or more important than technical skills. But 89% of those surveyed said they have a “very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite attributes.” Likewise, LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Report discovered that the four most in-demand soft skills are leadership, communication, collaboration, and time management…
Read this article by Emily Heaslip that originally appeared on Vervoe.com.