The Hindu Business Line : `One is never too old to learn soft skills'

Meet Sarvesh Gulati, the chief of New Delhi-based Softspan (India) Pvt Ltd, and the author of Corporate Softskills. Soft skills, also known as `people skills', deal with many things. They include "communicating, listening, engaging in dialogue, giving feedback, cooperating as a team member, solving problems, contributing in meetings and resolving conflict," Gulati explains in his book. To know more about the subject of soft skills, The New Manager interacted with the author, through an e-mail interview. Read on.

Are soft skills a new fad? Is there any antiquity to the idea?

No, soft skills aren't a fad at all. Our education system and mindset historically, has been oriented towards technical knowledge and expertise. The focus so far has been on qualifications that boast of specialisation in various fields like engineering, software, architecture and so on.

However, the globalisation of the industries and job scene has suddenly found us wanting in the area of soft skills. These skills are essential for the success of any individual as well as an organisation. Business communication, business etiquette, leadership, team building, relationship management, and time management are some of these soft skills.

About a decade ago, I realised the need for these skills when I found that Indian software professionals were getting paid half the remuneration in comparison to professionals from the West, despite being equipped with similar skill sets. The gap was on account of soft skills, which accounted for lower productivity, and problems in fitment in a multinational environment.

Well, organisations and some management institutes have realised the importance of these skills. The focus is becoming increasingly evident. Most IT companies have, therefore, a budget for soft skills training. Soft skills are also increasingly becoming important criteria in selection and promotion of individuals.

Do hard and soft skills have a trade-off? Can one make up for a shortfall in one with a surplus in the other?

Not really. Both of them are essential in their own right. It is, however, easier to train and coach on hard skills rather than soft skills.

In hard skills, training parameters are clear and specific to the job. As technology and processes undergo continuous changes, imparting of hard skills is a regular process. Without hard skills you cannot work.

Soft skills, on the other hand, are difficult to imbibe, and require discipline and focus to learn. Impact of soft skills may not be direct, but is as strong if not more than hard skills. Lack of soft skills is a silent killer as it can bleed an organisation to death.

A person who has excellent technical knowledge, but lacks in communication skills or time management skills, can't be efficient. We all work in teams, and soft skills are the necessary lubricant to make teams work.

In today's competitive global business environment you need a healthy mix of both skills. Just having an engineering degree does not ensure success.

There are numerous examples of people from premier educational institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, who have not been able to achieve what some of their classmates have. If you do an analysis, one of the likely reasons is going to be lack of soft skills.

Should employers look for soft skills in prospective recruits? Or, can these be developed later on?

As I mentioned earlier, teaching soft skills is a long drawn process. Employers must definitely evaluate the soft skills of prospective employees before taking them on.

There are four stages to learning:

Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence

Stage 2: Conscious incompetence

Stage 3: Conscious competence

Stage 4: Unconscious competence

For us to reach the stage 4 of learning soft skills, it takes anywhere between 6 - 12 months. No organisation can wait for so long in case the gap in soft skills is large.

Soft skills can be developed with training, coaching and experience. If the gap is not substantial, then regular and identified gap areas need to be worked upon. Motivation and positive attitude are two necessary attributes for learning soft skills.

When given a choice between a person with high soft skills and low hard skills versus a person with low soft skills and high hard skills, go for the former.

How far do you think soft skills are a put-on? Meaning, they aren't the real thing, only a guise to get things done?

Let's take an example here: What is good communication? Is it speaking excellent verbose and perhaps accented English? Or, is it about making the receiver understand what you wish to say in as little time as possible?

The former may be looked at as a put on, but the latter is necessary for efficiency. For any activity, evaluation has three success parameters: Quality, quantity and time. Hard skills alone cannot help you achieve all three. Soft skills are necessary to ensure complete focus.

Soft skills are as real as they get. Ask any globally competitive organisation.

Is there any way one can measure soft skills, periodically?

Measuring soft skills has always been an enigma. There are various tools, exercises and tests available for measuring soft skills. These should, however, be selected carefully as the industry, country and company environment have to be kept in mind while using these tools.

Thus, a test that may be appropriate for an organisation in the US may not hold good in India or for that matter in China.

Improvement in soft skills is an ongoing process. And, so, measurement should be done periodically. Soft skill evaluation should be part of the periodic review of all individuals.

Does one become too old for soft skills? Or, you can groom the skills through training or counselling?

An essential requirement for improving soft skills is motivation. It has been seen that as people become more mature and experienced, they feel that they `know it all' and do not need any learning. I feel, such an attitude works like a disease, which stills one's growth.

One is never too old to learn soft skills. Anyone and everyone can go through these training and counselling sessions. I have been promoting the idea of setting up `Corporate Personality Clinics', to target people who are shifting their career or line of work at a mature age.

Soft skill sessions, through such clinics, would not only help in opening the mindsets, but also bring some of these skills to the top of one's mind so he or she starts paying attention to the finer details. As society changes, so do soft skills. If we need to survive and succeed (in that order) in the corporate world, we should be open and ready for change in soft skills.

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