If you look through online job boards, you’ll notice most produce listings feature at least one requirement of a fairly technical nature. Knowledge of good agricultural practices or postharvest handling; familiarity with integrated pest management; experience with ethylene or ozone; proficiency in Excel and CRM. Known as “hard” skills, these tangible, measurable competencies have become increasingly prized in a business world eager to integrate technology and efficiency into its systems and processes.
Unless you’re a surgeon or a plumber, however, technical proficiency alone isn’t enough. What many workers are now realizing—or perhaps rediscovering—is there’s far more to achieving success than simply knowing how to do your job. Flashy technical skills and knowledge may impress potential employers, but without the ability to communicate, collaborate, or cooperate even the most tech-savvy wunderkind probably won’t make it to the top of the professional ladder.
Enter soft skills. Often linked to a person’s emotional intelligence, or EI, soft skills include personality traits and interpersonal skills such as confidence, a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, critical thinking, dependability, leadership, flexibility, and self-motivation, which reflect the human element of life in any organization. In every workplace, there are relationships, friction, and different personalities; EI helps us recognize our emotions and how they affect those around us. It may sound squishy, but don’t be fooled—soft skills, while less quantifiable than their technical counterparts, are pivotal to succeeding in today’s business climate.
The Comeback
So what’s more important to employers, hard skills or soft skills? A 2013 study conducted by American Express and consulting firm Millennial Branding found more than 60 percent of managers said soft skills were their top consideration in employee performance evaluations, while 32 percent made hard skills the number-one priority. A 2014 Harris Poll conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder indicated an overwhelming majority of U.S. employers, 77 percent, believe hard and soft skills are equally important, while 16 percent believe soft skills are more important.
Not surprisingly, job descriptions have begun to reflect the business world’s changing attitude toward soft skills with phrases like, “Must be a team player” and “Must be passionate about growing through collaboration and feedback.”
“In order to get anywhere in management or in organizations, soft skills are absolutely essential,” comments Holly Katko, president of U-Connect, Inc., a consulting and training firm in Lisle, IL. “It’s literally a matter of getting along: how do you get along with people? How do you work with others?”
Hard skills might land you the interview, but soft skills will get you hired. All the technical knowledge in the world won’t be worth much if you can’t sell yourself during the interview. To this end, Katko notes that a phone interview is one of the best tools to screen for soft skills in potential employees. A good interviewer can capture a great deal of useful information and insight in just one conversation.
“You have to know how to really listen to the interviewee because all you hear is the voice, and this takes down the façade we put up in an in-person interview,” Katko advises. “Did the person use the right words? Did he or she build heart into the conversation? Was there hesitation in the wrong spot? Those are soft skills at work.”
In some instances, soft skills can often compensate for a lack of hard skills. D.J. Stornetta, president and owner of California-based executive recruiting firm Produce Careers, Inc., points out that cultural fit, working style, personality, and dedication to the industry—all soft skills—play a role in determining whether or not someone is a good fit for a certain position or company.
If you look through online job boards, you’ll notice most produce listings feature at least one requirement of a fairly technical nature. Knowledge of good agricultural practices or postharvest handling; familiarity with integrated pest management; experience with ethylene or ozone; proficiency in Excel and CRM. Known as “hard” skills, these tangible, measurable competencies have become increasingly prized in a business world eager to integrate technology and efficiency into its systems and processes.
Unless you’re a surgeon or a plumber, however, technical proficiency alone isn’t enough. What many workers are now realizing—or perhaps rediscovering—is there’s far more to achieving success than simply knowing how to do your job. Flashy technical skills and knowledge may impress potential employers, but without the ability to communicate, collaborate, or cooperate even the most tech-savvy wunderkind probably won’t make it to the top of the professional ladder.
Enter soft skills. Often linked to a person’s emotional intelligence, or EI, soft skills include personality traits and interpersonal skills such as confidence, a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, critical thinking, dependability, leadership, flexibility, and self-motivation, which reflect the human element of life in any organization. In every workplace, there are relationships, friction, and different personalities; EI helps us recognize our emotions and how they affect those around us. It may sound squishy, but don’t be fooled—soft skills, while less quantifiable than their technical counterparts, are pivotal to succeeding in today’s business climate.
The Comeback
So what’s more important to employers, hard skills or soft skills? A 2013 study conducted by American Express and consulting firm Millennial Branding found more than 60 percent of managers said soft skills were their top consideration in employee performance evaluations, while 32 percent made hard skills the number-one priority. A 2014 Harris Poll conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder indicated an overwhelming majority of U.S. employers, 77 percent, believe hard and soft skills are equally important, while 16 percent believe soft skills are more important.
Not surprisingly, job descriptions have begun to reflect the business world’s changing attitude toward soft skills with phrases like, “Must be a team player” and “Must be passionate about growing through collaboration and feedback.”
“In order to get anywhere in management or in organizations, soft skills are absolutely essential,” comments Holly Katko, president of U-Connect, Inc., a consulting and training firm in Lisle, IL. “It’s literally a matter of getting along: how do you get along with people? How do you work with others?”
Hard skills might land you the interview, but soft skills will get you hired. All the technical knowledge in the world won’t be worth much if you can’t sell yourself during the interview. To this end, Katko notes that a phone interview is one of the best tools to screen for soft skills in potential employees. A good interviewer can capture a great deal of useful information and insight in just one conversation.
“You have to know how to really listen to the interviewee because all you hear is the voice, and this takes down the façade we put up in an in-person interview,” Katko advises. “Did the person use the right words? Did he or she build heart into the conversation? Was there hesitation in the wrong spot? Those are soft skills at work.”
In some instances, soft skills can often compensate for a lack of hard skills. D.J. Stornetta, president and owner of California-based executive recruiting firm Produce Careers, Inc., points out that cultural fit, working style, personality, and dedication to the industry—all soft skills—play a role in determining whether or not someone is a good fit for a certain position or company.
“These are strong factors to ferret out during the interview process, in addition to hard skills and competence,” Stornetta says. “Human Resources teams and hiring managers are discovering that strong character traits like attentiveness, depend-ability, thoroughness, and initiative are key elements in a successful employee.”
The Grey Area
In general, soft skills cover a large area of characteristics and capabilities, but certain skills rise above the rest. In particular, communication is often regarded as the most important, as many scenarios call for expert written and oral communication skills, as well as finesse: negotiating a contract, dealing with a difficult supplier, or handling a new marketing initiative to name a few.
“When you look at communication, if it’s in person, 70 percent is body language,” contends Katko. “Do you make eye contact? Do you smile? How do you shake hands? How do you stand? Where are your shoulders?” Regardless of the type of career, Katko says convincing someone else to do something—such as grow, ship, buy, or sell produce—is a soft skill capability.
Other soft skills in demand include adaptability, teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking. These traits include working well with different personality types, the ability to learn new skills to meet your employer’s evolving needs, leading by example, making good decisions with available information, and negotiating.
Professionals with excellent interpersonal skills will, in today’s competitive market, nearly always grab the promotion ahead of those whose soft skills are lacking. Attitude is key; research shows nearly 46 percent of new hires part ways with their employer within the first 18 months, largely due to issues described as “attitude problems,” not because they can’t handle the more technical side of their jobs.
How Employers Can Help
The good news is that soft skills, like hard skills, can be taught—though not easily. Given the diversity of America’s workforce in terms of age, gender, and background, training employees in how to develop soft skills may be among a company’s biggest challenges.
“When it comes to training or teaching your employees, you want to make sure [the outcome] is measurable,” asserts Katko. “Boosting soft skills means you’re setting out a plan.” She recommends using a ‘smart goal’ formula that includes being specific about which soft skills are required for a particular position and how to measure an employee’s performance. An engineer, for example, may be a technical whiz, but also needs to be able to convince higher-ups of the importance of his/her projects.
Here’s where coaching programs can be beneficial, helping managers understand how to work with their employees in learning and using soft skills. Katko, whose company conducts corporate sales, management, and customer service training programs, says the strongest managers are also coaches.
“The best managers will bring the biggest benefit to the company and its employees not by being a dictator or a taskmaster, but by being someone who can coach,” she explains. This includes leading by example and using their own soft skills “to help employees understand the importance of the company’s goals.”
Like coaching, mentoring often figures prominently in developing an employee’s soft skills: an experienced mentor can have a positive impact on employees of any age. “Having a good mentor who knows what’s needed and can gently direct you can make a world of difference,” Katko recommends. “I still have mentors to this day.”
Company Culture
Critical to the success of any organization is its culture. Culture produces results; it sets the tone and establishes a vision. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that culture often plays a role in a company’s hiring process. Experts agree that companies should be specific and up front about what they’re looking for in an employee. Moreover, top management shouldn’t be involved in the interview process, instead, it should be run by the people who are building the team and whose work will be most affected by the new hire.
“Culture is huge and should be included, or at least mentioned, in the interview,” Katko says. Further, she recommends jobseekers arrive early and sit in a company’s lobby, observing the atmosphere and people. Is there laughter? Multiple conversations? Do people look nervous or happy?
Stornetta agrees, noting that company culture should be defined in the job description. If a company has a particular way of doing things or certain processes that it follows to the letter, this should be made clear in an interview.
“When moving up in an organization, soft skills are crucial,” he emphasizes. “Some companies thrive on a team-first, supportive environment; others encourage self-promotion at the expense of the team. Some are numbers first and work to achieve these numbers by any means necessary.”
Stornetta points to farming and agribusiness, which are different from other industries in that hard skills often trump soft ones. Many ag businesses are also family-owned. In this case, the family typically determines how things are done, how things work, and who advances or doesn’t—in effect, the company culture.
He also suggests hiring teams compare notes, comments, and ratings, in addition to individual feelings about and reactions to an interviewee. “Sometimes, a candidate may not be flashy or gregarious during an interview, but might be a great fit,” he says. “But he/she might also be overlooked due to a hiring authority’s view of how a person interviews versus how he/she will be a fit for the whole organization, the position’s needs, and potential position growth.”
Leading By Example
Ultimately, if a company expects a certain type of behavior and work ethic from its employees, management should model this behavior. It’s similar to parenting: children emulate their parents in language, attitude, and even posture.
When looking to build a team, observes Katko, workers must be able to work and learn together. And to those who may believe they already know everything about camaraderie and interpersonal skills, she advises, “You think you know it all? Guess what, you don’t—there’s always more to learn.”
