Podcast 2: The Story of Doug, Who Has Poor Soft Skills

You may have heard about soft skills, but you may not know who
in your office needs to use them and why. We'll explain it
all.
Bob Graham ‘0:00': You may have heard about soft skills, but you
may not know who in your office needs to use them and why. We will
enlighten you in just a few seconds.
Graham ‘0:22': Welcome to Episode 2 of Serious Soft Skills. I am
Bob Graham, and with me is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach
college, we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both
have used and seen others use soft skills in various jobs over our
careers. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique
lens for looking at soft skills. So let’s get to it.
We explained what soft skills were and were not in Episode 1. But
before we get to our topic today, let’s answer a few emails we
received.
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:06': It’s always good to hear from our
listeners.
Aren’t Soft Skills Just Being Nice To People?
Graham ‘1:09': Tim asked, aren’t soft skills just being friendly
and nice to the people you work with? Toby?
Porterfield ‘1:13': Wow. That’s dangerous. While we certainly want
to be engaging with people and interested in the people we work
with, that’s an oversimplification. That casual smile and looking
like you are paying attention are not what we are looking for. When
we are talking about soft skills, we are talking about
intentionality here. It’s not just being nice, it’s not just being
there, but that’s important. It’s the intentionality of engaging in
such a way that it enables us to apply our technical skills, our
hard skills, in a new way.
Graham ‘2:19': You aren’t saying we shouldn’t be nice. You’re just
saying that soft skills are more than just being nice.
Porterfield ‘2:23': That just isn’t going to get us where we need
to go at work.
Why Did It Take So Long to Recognize Soft Skills?
Graham ‘2:27': We also have a great question from Kaitlyn. If
researchers working with the Army first coined the phrase soft
skills in the early 1970s, why did it take so long for people to
really start talking about them?
Porterfield ‘2:49': The work for the Army in the early 70s is where
they coined that term “soft skills.” I wish I had coined that term
myself. It would have been a great thing. They were pretty
forward-looking on soft skills. They really were able to grab hold
of that. I don’t think we are arguing that soft skills didn’t exist
way before the 1970s. People have been working in teams, using
listening skills, perseverance. We have a country made of pioneers
who persevered and captains of industry who built the economy that
we live in today. It comes back to intentionality in what we have
seen as we have progressed from the 1970s, the 1980s to today is,
as we talked about in Episode 1, the economy has changed, the
workplace has changed and there is a need now to approach work in a
new way. We have emphasized those hard skills, we have a lot of
disciplinary knowledge in so many fields, but those soft skills are
what are coming into play today that are making us say, what do we
need today to be competitive, innovative. We’ve got the hard skills
and soft skills, but how do we mobilize them? That’s where soft
skills really are coming into the discussion today.
Graham ‘4:26': I want to thank Tim and Katlyn for their great
questions. Keep those questions coming. You can email them to
podcast@serioussoftskills.com or tweet them to us at
@realsoftskills. We will answer more questions in future
episodes.
Which Employees Use Soft Skills?
Graham ‘5:19‘: Now, Toby, let’s talk about which employees have to
use soft skills. Is it the leaders, the new employees or only
people who have to interact with a firm’s “customers”? I have heard
all three of these.

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