Great managers maintain a delicate balance between hard and soft skills.
However, while there is no denying the importance of hard skills, far too much emphasis is placed on them. And it is soft skills that propel managers to excel.
Schooldays are usually dominated by learning and practising the hard skills of writing, mathematics and the natural and physical sciences.
Even subjects like history, geography and languages are taught in a way that requires heaps of rote learning such as dates, geographical features, rules of grammar and so on.
At college or university, the acquisition of hard skills progresses apace, focused on equipping us with the hard skills needed to enter ‘real world’.
In agriculture, among other subjects, the focus is on subjects such as genetics, animal and plant nutrition, pasture and veld management, soil science, irrigation and pest and diseases. Facts and more facts are accentuated for developing hard skills.
These are some of the traditional hard skills most of us were exposed to in preparation for entry to the world of work.
In the present landscape, it’s far worse. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought with it many additional hard-skill challenges.
These include the need to understand and harness the powers of smart sensors, drones, autonomous machines, robots and artificial intelligence if our businesses are to remain competitive.
But the escalating demand for hard skills from managers risks overshadowing the critical need for soft skills.
Team-building
While hard skills may be the bedrock of successful business, soft skills are what foster winning teams and inspire, motivate and build profitable businesses.
Perhaps the most vital team-building and management skill of all, communication, is the prime example of one that’s often overlooked.
No manager will ever reach great heights unless he or she is a good communicator, and this is a skill that cannot be learnt solely from textbooks. Every situation is unique, depending on the audience and the message.
Have you ever had any structured formal training in communication? Most of us developed what skills we have on the job.
But, from bitter experience, I can tell you how much better you would be at it if you’d been taught the fundamentals of good written and verbal communication.
Self-awareness
In my early 30s I was arrogant enough to think that there wasn’t a job in the business I couldn’t handle. After I was handed a few, however, I realised how little understanding I had of my own capabilities, my own strengths and weaknesses.
I had never appreciated how my instinctive reaction in some situations often caused more harm than good.
If I’d been aware of these shortcomings, I would have been able to modify my behaviour and been a far better manager. This gap in my soft skills cost me dearly.
Empathy and trust
Empathy is another crucial soft skill and characteristic that leads to hard tangible results. It’s at the heart of building and keeping relationships intact and productive.
Without empathy it’s difficult to create bonds of trust or get honest feedback on what others feel or think.
Bruna Martinuzzi, in her book The Leader as a Mensch: Become the kind of person others want to follow, lists a number of practical ways to build your level of empathy, many of which relate to communication:
- listen with your ears,
- eyes and heart;
- pay attention to body language,
- tone of voice and hidden emotions;
- don’t interrupt;
- smile and use people’s names;
- remember names of spouses and children;
- be fully present when you are with people;
- don’t keep checking your phone.
There are many other soft skills truly great managers have:
- the ability to control your emotions when provoked and think calmly and clearly;
- patience and perceptiveness;
- the ability to cut through the clutter in a crisis situation;
- the ability to apologise, forgive and forget;
- resilience to handle disappointments and move on.
Your hard skills are important, but they’re relatively simple to identify and learn. There’s no easy way however to learn and develop soft skills, and they are vital to you as a manager.
Peter Hughes is a business and management consultant.
