We use the terms “hard skills” and “soft skills” in organisations, but do we know where they come from?
They started out in the US military in the late 1960s.
Hard skills were tied to machines and equipment: operating, maintaining and repairing the hardware of war. They were concrete, technical and there were clear ways of testing them.
Soft skills was the label used for leading people, communicating, making decisions under pressure, working in a team. The military defined them as skills involving little or no interaction with machines.
Over the years, organisations kept the labels and lost the meaning.
Soft skills became the “nice to have”, while hard skills were seen as more important.
I’ve seen and worked with experienced specialists who had issues with colleagues, clients because they judged instead of giving feedback, others could not speak up, handle conflict or explain their ideas to people outside their field.
Technical skills are needed, but not sufficient. Assertive communication, feedforward, emotional intelligence, adaptability, smart decision making, and empathy are valuable too.
The skills we call “soft” take years of deliberate practice and are the hardest ones to master.
I propose we replace soft skills with human and meta skills.
What do you think?
