By Jason Richmond, CEO & Chief Culture Officer at Ideal Outcomes, Inc.
Every year, LinkedIn publishes a “Top Skills” list, which analyzes its huge professional social network to rank which skills are in top demand, yet low supply. LinkedIn Learning editor Paul Petrone wrote in a blog post that 57 percent of senior leaders on the platform say soft skills are more critical to their businesses than hard skills. According to Inc.com, the top five skills are creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.
Global HR consulting firm DDI provides a different perspective. In a study that correlated soft skills with performance, they found that empathy was king. More specifically, empathy was the top interaction skill driving overall performance, decision making, coaching, engaging, and planning and organizing. However, empathy was one of the lowest scoring skills among the frontline leaders they assessed.
The Society for Human Resources (SHRM) took a slightly different approach by looking at the top skills missing in job applicants. In short supply: problem solving, ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity, and communications.
Reading these articles and research can be overwhelming for leaders and talent management professionals for several reasons, especially at a time when everyone is working remotely. First, although there is overlap as to the skill priorities, there is enough variation to create confusion (how are you doing with dealing with ambiguity right now?). Second, it can be challenging to assess employees’ soft skills in an objective manner. Third, there are deep-seated beliefs that such skills are hard to train and even harder to measure, even as the workplace becomes digital.
Global HR consulting firm DDI provides a different perspective. In a study that correlated soft skills with performance, they found that empathy was king. More specifically, empathy was the top interaction skill driving overall performance, decision making, coaching, engaging, and planning and organizing. However, empathy was one of the lowest scoring skills among the frontline leaders they assessed.
The Society for Human Resources (SHRM) took a slightly different approach by looking at the top skills missing in job applicants. In short supply: problem solving, ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity, and communications.
Reading these articles and research can be overwhelming for leaders and talent management professionals for several reasons, especially at a time when everyone is working remotely. First, although there is overlap as to the skill priorities, there is enough variation to create confusion (how are you doing with dealing with ambiguity right now?). Second, it can be challenging to assess employees’ soft skills in an objective manner. Third, there are deep-seated beliefs that such skills are hard to train and even harder to measure, even as the workplace becomes digital.