MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE

April 20, 2021 | Sandra Pierce


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LinkedIn recently released their annual research report analyzing the top skills needed in business today. Creativity, they reported, topped their list of in-demand “soft skills” needed for a post-pandemic economy.

I hate the term soft skills. It’s my pet peeve. In an internal business meeting someone once said to me “oh yes, you’re the one with the soft skills.” My reply, “Soft skills my ass. There’s nothing soft about them”.

My reaction might appear extreme, but it was such an obvious putdown implying my soft skills were not as valuable as hard skills, hence I was lesser than.

The word soft is too often used as a pejorative term. For example, in academic contexts, the term “soft” science has been used to define fields of study that investigate people, interactions, or behaviors, whereas fields that use measurable and controlled variables (e.g., chemistry, physics) have been described as the “hard” (i.e., more legitimate) sciences because their means of study is considered more rigorous.

Many of the synonyms listed in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary for the term soft, although not all negative, nonetheless have undesirable connotations, such as “dull,” “debilitated,” “unsubstantial,” “weak,” “wimpy,” “characterless,” “bland,” “indulgent,” and “cheap”.

I’m often accused of being too sensitive to what is “just a word”. But it’s bigger than that. We give too little respect to these skills when we call them “soft”. It’s implied they’re optional, lightweight. Describing them as ‘non-technical or ‘intangible’ further implies, inaccurately, that they require little effort and no special knowledge. Continuing to do so will have huge implications for the success of businesses and in the career paths of women. If high levels of management do not give the validation to soft skills they deserve women will continue to be held back.

Mary Parker Follett, (1868-1933) writer, social worker, political theorist, and organizational consultant, often referred to as "the woman who invented management”, provided what is considered the definitive definition of management - “the art of getting things done through the efforts of other people.”

Parker- Follett advocated a "pull" rather than "push" approach to employee motivation, differentiated between "power over" and "power with," and postulated insightful ideas on negotiation, conflict resolution, and power-sharing which helped shape modern management theory.

And to accomplish all of the above? One needs to possess people skills, communication skills, listening skills, time management, empathy, emotional intelligence, and creativity, all skills that continue to be referred to as soft.

New research from the preeminent global people and organizational advisory firm Korn Ferry found women more effectively employ all of these competencies to a higher degree than men.

“The data suggests a strong need for more women in the workforce to take on leadership roles,” said Daniel Goleman, Co-Director of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at Rutgers University.

David Grossman, a foremost authority on communication and leadership, reported in his article “The Cost of Poor Communications” a recent survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees had an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.

Referring to them as soft skills actually tends to lead management into believing these non-core skills are a priority that can be deferred. Soft skills will continue to be thought less of and will continue to stay in the shadows. And women will continue to be overlooked and less likely to, in the words of the Broadway musical Hamilton, “be in the room where it happens.”

It’s time to make companies sit up and realize that by perpetuating the use of the term they give far too little respect to the skills that are vital to management. Let’s start a petition! No more calling it soft skills; let’s be original and call it “management skills.”

There is no accomplishment so easy to acquire as politeness…. And none so profitable.”

                                                          ……George Bernard Shaw