As we move from the information age to the conceptual age, effective people (soft) skills are in higher demand than ever before.
In critical situations the strength and style of your communication and negotiation skills can make the difference between success and failure. These jugular business and social events are your signature moments.
Soft skills are different than hard or technical skills. Hard skills are based on precision, accuracy and routine. Typically there are defined ways of performing that are manualized and almost universally understood. Managerial accounting, computer programming and oral surgery are good examples of hard skills. Hard skills are vital to our success, they are the things we get done.
Soft skills are people skills, how we speak, negotiate and relate to other people. Reading body language is a soft skill, so is running a meeting or even leading a team. Soft skills can be thought of as the way we interact with and impact others, while doing the things that must get done. We need both hard and soft skills.
But as we mature in our careers and seek upward mobility, we rely less on our technical skills and more on our soft or people skills. With soft skills there is less emphasis on structure and more on making the right people reads and interaction choices at the right time. Think of hard skills as a fixed target with a small bulls-eye. While soft skills have a larger target area but move constantly in multiple directions.
Hayward has keen insight into the field of communication. He is a cutting edge mentor.”- David Booth MA
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