When you think of the phrase "soft skills," you probably think of a few specific traits: emotional intelligence, interpersonal ability, an adeptness at communication.
That's fine, says millionaire bestselling author Seth Godin — just stop calling them "soft."
"We give too little respect to [those] skills when we call them 'soft' and imply that they're optional," Godin, a marketing entrepreneur and leadership expert, wrote in a recent TED blog post.
"Let's uncomfortably call them 'real skills' instead," he added.
Godin, a prolific author on topics like marketing and professional development, wrote that soft skills — which can also include work ethic, critical thinking and leadership presence — are constantly undervalued, partially because of how people refer to them.
Those skills are anything but optional, he wrote.
His words could ring especially true as artificial intelligence gains workplace popularity. AI has already automated some traditional vocational skills, from coding and data analysis to copywriting and even architectural design.
If that trend continues, uniquely human skills like collaboration and empathy could matter more.
"Even if you've got the vocational skills, you're no help to us without these human skills, the things that we can't write down or program a computer to do," wrote Godin.
The problem, he noted: You can learn engineering, computer science or law in a classroom, but it's much harder to get a graduate degree in charisma, drive or reliability. Those skills are harder to quantify, and therefore harder for a hiring manager to identify on a resume.
That's why many companies pay "less attention to soft skills when hiring," Godin wrote.
That could change soon, as recruiters and universities teach the Class of 2023 how to conduct office small talk, find appropriate professional workwear and make client introductions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Those skills will particularly matter for students whose social and professional development was impeded by pandemic lockdowns, Heidi Brooks, a senior lecturer at Yale University's School of Management, told the Journal.
Consider, for example, that some new grads have never even stepped foot in an office before: Remote internship opportunities were seven times higher in 2020 than 2019, an Indeed report found in 2021.
And even though soft skills may not be strongly considered in most hiring processes, any new employee's ability to communicate and work with the rest of the team is on display from Day 1. Eighty-nine percent of employers say poor soft skills are a sign of a "bad hire," according to a LinkedIn survey conducted in 2018.
Godin agrees.
"Hiring coders who can't code, salespeople who can't sell, or architects who can't design is a waste," he wrote, adding: "[But] what actually separates thriving organizations from struggling ones are the difficult-to-measure attitudes, processes and perceptions of the people who do the work."
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