We all have our practical skills which can be acquired through education, training programs, learning by doing. Skills we are not born knowing. Something we must teach. "Hard skills" as we often say.
In the book 'The Song of Significance', Seth Godin says we let ourselves off the hook when it comes to skills like
- Decision-making,
- Eager participation,
- Dancing with fear,
- Speaking with authority,
- Working in teams,
- Seeing the truth,
- Speaking the truth,
- Inspiring others,
- Doing more than we are asked,
- Caring, and
- Being willing to change things.
He says that we tend to underinvest in training on these skills, fearful that these things are innate and can't be taught.
We downplay them, calling them "soft skills", making it easy for us to move on to something seemingly more urgent.
These are interpersonal skills. Leadership skills. Human skills. Skills that amplify your hard vocational skills.
Adam Grant refers to "character skills" in his hook 'Hidden Potential', which are never too late to build.
- Take initiative to ask questions,
- Seek information,
- Get along and collaborate with peers,
- Pay attention,
- Take on challenging problems,
- Do more than the assigned work, and
- Persist in face of obstacles.
These skills can actually all be learned. Even though they are more difficult to measure, that doesn't mean we can't improve them, can't practice them, or can't change the way we do our work.
Seth Godin asks us to imagine a team member with all the traditional hard skills: productive, skilled, experienced. That's a fine baseline.Now add to it. Perceptive, charismatic, driven, focused, goal-setting, inspiring, and motivated.
Generous, empathetic, and consistent. A deep listener, with patience.
What happens to your team when someone like that joins?
