I dislike the term "soft skills". The name itself gives off the impression that these skills are less valuable than others in society. Learning about what makes up aerospace engineering skills is something we see as being earned through degrees, certifications, and job titles - and rightfully so.
But where is the work of soft skills acknowledged? Universities do not have degrees in soft skills. The job market tends to underplay soft skills in favor of technical skills. Management promotions tend to favor individual achievement and technical expertise over what soft skills are needed to truly do the job well.
The truth is this: people undervalue soft skills because they are harder to quantify.
To borrow a saying from Professors Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky of Harvard - soft skills like leadership occur "below the neck"; where our heart and gut get involved. Society values what is "above the neck" - aka what our brains are capable of.*
*All of these skills are technically a function of our brain; the metaphor of the heart and gut still remains relevant across multiple cultures in the world and will be used accordingly to differentiate between logic (our brains), human connection, and emotion (heart), and our intuition and ability to take risks (our gut).
Mind you: I do not suggest undervaluing technical skills to compensate for the lack of emphasis on soft skills. Rather, I would like to see soft skills have their dues paid for the value they truly bring to our professional world. What happens below the neck is just as important as above the neck.
Let us look at a case study of the rescue mission for Apollo 13 to illustrate the importance of both soft skills and technical skills. When the Apollo 13 shuttle broke down in space, the work that needed to be done had to happen from Houston, Texas, and within the ship as well. Some of the world's greatest aerospace engineers at that time were working on a daunting challenge: how to get the Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth?
On the technical side, the knowledge needed to solve the challenge of rescuing those astronauts spanned multiple fields of study. Multiple experts were trying to solve multiple challenges: How to preserve oxygen, how to keep the astronauts healthy, how to properly re-enter Earth's atmosphere, how to keep the power going in the ship, etc. Needless to say, the challenges involved were abundant during that timeframe!
How could all of those engineers and experts work together on a challenge that they have no previous experience handling? After all, this was the first challenge of it's kind in history: rescuing astronauts from a failing ship in space. This is not a scenario where you can hire an expert to solve the problem with a formulaic approach - like a mechanic who fixes a car, a surgeon replacing a heart, or an engineer designing a ship. All of those examples are hard tasks to accomplish, but none of them involve new learning.
New learning requires soft skills. Skills like leadership, communication, listening, collaboration, and building trust are some of the many skills needed to learn how to solve a challenge as important as saving the astronauts of Apollo 13.
So what soft skills were involved in the Apollo 13 rescue mission? The leadership of the many (not just those with formal authority) to get multiple experts and departments to work together collaboratively under intense pressure and stress. Navigating uncertainty. Inspiring a collective purpose and getting buy-in from multiple people involved. Managing disagreements and conflicts amongst the staff. Understanding what challenges require technical expertise and which require more soft skills. Speaking up when something is wrong, regardless of their job title or whether it is their responsibility to manage. The list can go on and on.
[Thankfully, the astronauts landed safely back to Earth after multiple days in space. The work of the NASA staff and the astronauts was a tremendous example of crisis management.]
The takeaways:
You can have a room full of experts in their field, and still not be able to solve a monumental challenge if the soft skills are lacking.
What soft skills lack in prestige, they make up for in the execution of life's most important challenges
New learning requires both technical expertise and soft skill expertise.
So perhaps it is time we give soft skills the dues they rightfully deserve. Invest in learning and practicing them. Help others develop them. Emphasize their importance in the professional world (and at home even). Let's uplift the importance of soft skills in our voices and actions, and show that they can be equal partners with the technical skillsets.
Last but not least - can we please change the name from "soft skills" to something more commanding and respectable?! Just my 2 cents.
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