Soft skills

Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people. Soft skills complement hard skills (part of a person's IQ), which are the technical requirements of a job and many other activities.

A person's soft skill EQ is an important part of his or her individual contribution to the success of an organization. Particularly those organizations dealing with customers face-to-face are generally more successful if they train their staff to use these skills. Screening or training for personal habits or traits such as dependability and conscientiousness can yield significant return on investment for an organization. For this reason, soft skills are increasingly sought out by employers in addition to standard qualifications.

It has been suggested that in a number of professions soft skills may be more important over the long term than technical skills. The legal profession is one example where the ability to deal with people effectively and politely, more than his or her mere technical skills, can determine the professional success of a lawyer.

Examples of interpersonal skills

• Participate in a team (see team building)
• Teach others
• Provide services
• Lead a team (see leadership)
• Negotiate
• Unite a team amidst cultural differences
• Motivate
• Employ decision-making skills
• Employ problem-solving skills
• Observe forms of etiquette
• Engage with others
• Maintain meaningless conversation (small talk)
• Maintain meaningful conversation (discussion/debate)
• Neutralize arguments with timing, instructions and polite, concise language
• Feign interest and speak intelligently about any topic

See also

• Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills
• Interpersonal skills
• People skills
• Social skill

References

• Career Opportunities News, Career Opportunities News, 2002

• Paajanen, George (1992), Employment Inventory Reports (PDF), Technology Based Solutions/Personnel Decisions, Inc.

• Giusti, Giuseppe (2008), Soft Skills for Lawyers, Chelsea Publishing ([3]), ISBN 978-0955892608 {{citation}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
• U.S. Department of Labor - Employment & Training Administration

• Carnegie, Dale (1998), How to Win Friends & Influence People, Pocket, ISBN 978-0671027032