The story was told of a man who was slapped by his driver. The man had just being employed by a thriving energy company as an executive, and one of the perks was a car and a driver.
A few months after taking this new job, the unfortunate incident happened.
According to the story, the driver he had to teach this new boss a lesson. He had been on the company’s pay roll for over 15 years and had driven everyone from young to old and had never had to drive anyone like this man. He was tired of the daily disrespect and insults from this new boss and on the unfortunate day of the incident he was done with this new boss.
Further investigation occurred and the board discovered that other staff had similar problems with this new boss. Other members of staff began to come out with their reports of emotional abuse, verbal abuse and a few ‘mistaken physical hits’.
The board was conflicted. This man was the perfect fit. He had all the technical skills and know how, but what he lacked in soft skills was about to cost him his job. It turns out that it wasn’t enough to have just the technical skills and know how, he needed soft skills to deploy this technical skills.
Soft skills loosely defined are personality traits and behaviors. Unlike technical or “hard” skills, soft skills are not about the knowledge you possess but rather behaviors you display in different situations.
A study by Harvard University noted that 80 per cent of achievements in career are determined by soft skills and only 20 per cent by hard skills.
Contrary to popular belief soft skills are not only for the workplace or for career acceleration. Soft skills are skills necessary for daily productive living and are ultimately life skills. Experts say soft skills training should begin for a person when they are students, to perform efficiently in their academic environment as well as in their future.
Some issues in your life may just need the application of the requisite soft skills and because they’re life skills, every individual should have certain soft skills in order to lead successful lives.
Below are some of the areas of life where soft skills are needed.
Marriage: In marriage, with skills like effective communication, interpersonal and creative problem solving, conflict resolution the world would record happier marriages and divorce rates will decline drastically. Institutions that provide pre-marital and marital counselling will do well to employ a prolific life and relationship coach to provide needed coaching and training to couples in order to better equip them to handle friction in the institution of marriage.
Health and wellness: one of the reasons why there is a decline in health and wellness is because a lot of people lack self-awareness. People fail to understand and know themselves physically, psychologically and emotionally and this has caused a decline in their health and overall wellness. Another reason is a lack of personal discipline. Discipline is a soft skill that should be taught and instilled in every individual as it helps achieve success across all areas of life.
Parenting and tutoring: as a society we would raise better children who would become better adults if soft skills like creativity and adaptability are instilled in children from a young age. Creativity enhances open mindedness, the ability to take calculated risks, and the ability to learn from others with humility. Adaptability on the other hand encourages consistency and optimism.
It is a bit hypocritical as a society if we demand that soft skills be deployed or learnt only for career growth purposes because no one aspect of life is more important than the other and we should focus on being wholesome and balanced in all areas of life.
Here are a few tips to note:
- Pick a soft skill needed to enhance your daily living
- Mimic positive soft skills in people
- Buy books and resources to give you information in the needed soft skill
- Invest in seminars, workshops and coaching to help you develop soft skills
How do you react in certain circumstances? Do you always have an emotional reaction or do you intelligently deploy tools and capabilities to solve them. For more information on how you can be coached on life skills please send me an email at gbemieobadan@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram @coachgbemz.
Remember soft skills are the new life skills, and they are needed to lead a wholesome and balanced life.
Leave a Reply