SOFT SKILLS MATTER
Jim Garrison Founder & President, Ubiquity University
A recent study in the United States shows that 93% of employees consider soft skills as, if not more, important than hard skills. A Human Capital Survey by Deloitte indicates that the top mega trend in the US since 2016 is building highly empowered soft skill teams. In a world of escalating hyper-complexity and competition, soft skills matter. Who you are becomes as important as what you know. Companies that understand this and hire people who work well with others are gaining the competitive edge.
What are soft skills? They are a bit hard to define but they are generally considered to include creativity, collaboration, leadership, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, cross boundary team building, global thinking, whole system thinking, innovation, entrepreneurship. What makes them challenging to specifically define is that they have more to do with a person’s interior, with how they feel, how they react to circumstances, how they perform in teams, what they value. Hard skills are easy. They are basically about what you know. They comprise the world of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. They are about building bridges, running airports, developing computer programmes, figuring out economic data and trends. Hard skills are used to produce most of the products companies make, market and distribute. They are about the external world.
That is why new projects such as the recently announced partnership between ESOFT and Ubiquity University are so timely and so important for Sri Lankan youth. By leveraging ESOFT’S experience in technical skills and combining this with Ubiquity’s expertise in holistic education and soft skills development, this partnership will enable Sri Lankan students to develop critical competencies in leadership, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, emotional intelligence, cross boundary team building, resilience and global thinking.
Soft skills are about people, not facts