Whether you are in a large complex organization with lots of resources or a tiny business where you are the chief cook and bottle washer, the most important element in bridging the soft skills gap is the human element.
If you are not an active champion of high priority soft skills behaviors in your sphere of influence and authority, then you can be sure that the talent in your midst will not buy in. If key leaders are not walking the walk, they will simply roll their eyes at the best slogans and logos. No matter how vividly clear the messaging and training has been throughout the hiring and on-boarding process—even if key soft skill behaviors are part of their individual performance plans—if their leaders do not emulate the high priority behaviors themselves and emphasize them in their day to day management, workers will not believe the organization is serious. As much as they may seem to take their cues from peers or online sources, you can be sure that they will take their cues about what aspects of performance really matter from the authority figures with whom they interact most.
Sure you need to get your employees to own their soft skills learning process and make available lots of easy to use online resources so they can pursue their own self direct learning. But that doesn’t let you off the hook. You’ve got to spend time with them—in person whenever possible—to lead them to purposeful self-directed learning and you’ve got to spend time with them during the intervals between their self-directed learning sessions.
The very nature of soft skills is such that they are very hard to develop without the help of another human being who can serve as an objective third party observer and source of candid feedback. Ideally that human being would be one who is a bit older and more experienced, perhaps one with greater influence and authority—one who can provide guidance, direction, and support.
What role are you—and other leaders in your organization—going to play in bridging the soft skills gap?
If you are leading, managing, or supervising any person on any project for any period of time, you have an obligation to provide regular guidance, direction, support and coaching to that person on every aspect of that person’s performance—including that person’s performance on high priority soft skills behaviors. The problem is that it’s so easy—in the day to day grind of work—to back-burner these issues. Most managers don’t spend much time talking with their employees about their soft skills development, unless they are dealing with a specific instance of failure. Right? When do managers most often talk with their direct reports about matters of self-management or critical thinking or people skills? When an employee is late or dressed inappropriately or loses something or fails to follow through or makes a ‘stupid’ mistake’ or curses at the wrong time or has a conflict with a customer or a coworker… or something else that is a petty failure.
That’s why managers often say things like, “Do I really have to talk to my employees about these things? They are adults. They should already know how to manage themselves and solve problems and play well with others.” Sorry. You really have no choice. If you are in charge of anybody, then it is part of your job.
At the very least, you must build it into your regular management routine: Talk about the high priority soft skills in team meetings and talk about them in your ongoing one-on-one dialogue with every single person you manage. Focus on the high priority behaviors in your organization, your team, in each role, or those that are particular focal points for particular individuals. Trumpet the broad performance standards regularly. Just like every other aspect of performance, build it into your team communications and talk about it on a regular basis in your one-on-one dialogues: Require it. Measure it. Reward people when they do it. Hold people to account when they don’t.
Managers often ask me, “At what point can I back off on giving them so much attention?” My answer: “Whenever you want to start losing that employee’s best efforts.”
Developing soft skills, whether for yourself, your team, or your organization, is one of the best investments you can make: