There is widespread agreement that soft skills are important, and equally widespread definitions on what constitutes a soft skill. Do a quick web search; according to the sea of literature, somewhere between six and 135 skills are needed to be a soft skill success—making things difficult for trainers tasked with developing soft skills training.
How do we decide what should be included? While the numbers are radically different, certain terms appear more than others: communication, teamwork, work ethic, adaptability, problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, and leadership, for example. Even if you set out to develop training for the soft skills mentioned most often, it would be a very difficult task.
Another challenge is that some traits are fairly hardwired in people. Characteristics such as adaptability, work ethic, and extroversion are part of a person’s fundamental nature. For example, teamwork is touted as a desired soft skill, but collaboration with a team is painful for introverts who prefer solitude and thrive alone (and introverts comprise a third to half the population). We can value these skills, but is it realistic to think that all people can develop all of them? No.
Training companies that say they do soft skills training are misleading you. No one has the power to transform every employee. A more reasonable approach is to target specific skills to specific jobs and particular employees.
Don’t say: “Our company will be giving soft skills training to all of our employees.”
Do say: “This particular task demands creativity and problem solving” or “This job demands excellent communication skills.”
Don’t attempt to develop every soft skill; narrow the focus. Make sure your training objectives are realistic, necessary, and likely to succeed.
Additionally, your terms should be as targeted as the training.
Imagine a company saying, “We want all of our people to have good employee skills.” That sounds good but what does it mean? It’s too general to convey an actionable goal. Communication skills? That sounds good too. Who could possibly argue with that? I can—the term is so broad it tells me nothing about what is really needed. Written communication skills? If so, then what kind of writing? Business emails? Training manuals? Tweets? Grants? Proposals? These are all distinct and someone good at one of them may not be proficient at another.
Avoid using broad terms; describe exactly what you offer. Don’t design communication training but instead design an email writing training or a presentation skills training. (You can’t gloss over presentation skills as part of a generic communications skills training. It won’t work.)
Soft skills are power skills; they are real skills. Soft skills are also really hard. Target your soft skills training and have a more powerful impact by determining what piece of which skill is crucial for the organization, for a particular employee, and for a specific job, and using precise language.
