Soft skills

Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social

skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career
attributes and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others.
The Collins English Dictionary defines the term "soft skills" as
desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not
depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the
ability to deal with people, and a positive flexible attitude.

History of the term

US ARMY training
The term "soft skills" was used as early as in late 1960s in the
context of U.S. Army training. Since 1950s U.S. Army invested
considerable resources in technology-based development of
training procedures. In 1968 the U.S. Army officially introduced a
training doctrine known as "Systems Engineering of Training"
covered in the document CON Reg 350-100-1. The document
defined soft skills as follows: [
"... job related skills involving actions affecting primarily people
and paper, e.g., inspecting troops, supervising office personnel,
conducting studies, preparing maintenance reports, preparing
efficiency reports, designing bridge structures.
At the 1972 CONARC Soft Skills Conference Dr. Whitmore
presented a report aimed at figuring out how the term "soft skills"
(in the areas of command, supersivion, counceling and
leadership) is understood in various CONARC schools. Whitmore
criticized the CON Reg 350-100-1 as vague. After designing and
processing a questionnaire, the following tentative definition was
formulated:
"important job-related skills that involve little or no interaction with
machines and whose application on the job is quite generalized"

with a remark "in other words, those job functions about which we
know a good deal are hard skills and those about which we know
very little are soft skills."
Another questionnaire was processed to evaluate whether "soft
skills" were adequately specified (what is to be performed, under
what conditions and how performance must be evaluated) in Army
documents (manuals, reports, etc.), with negative conclusion.

Concept
Soft skills are a cluster of personality traits that characterize one's
relationships in a social milieu with other people. These skills can
include social graces, communication abilities, language skills,
personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, time
management, teamwork and leadership traits. National Business
Education Association deems soft skills as critical for being
industrious in todays workplace. Soft skills complement hard
skills also known as technical skills, for productive workplace
performance and everyday life competencies (Arkansas
Department of Education, 2007). A study conducted by Harvard
University noted that 80% of achievements in career are
determined by soft skills and only 20% by hard skills. Bonnie
Urciuoli associates "soft skills" with occupational demands of neoliberal economies, where workers are required to "own their skills"
and successfully market them to employers.

Enumeration and categorization

A person's soft skill is an important part of their individual
contribution to the success of an organization.Organizations
which deal with customers face-to-face are generally more
successful if they promote activities for staffs to develop these
skills through wellness enhancing programs. Training or
rewarding for personal habits or traits such as dependability and
conscientiousness can yield significant return on investment for

an organization. For this reason, soft skills are increasingly sought

out by employers in addition to standard qualifications. Studies by
Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation
among Fortune 500 CEOs established that 75% of long term job
success resulted from soft skills and only 25% from technical
skills (Sinha, 2008). Hence, soft skills are as important as
cognitive/technical skills (John, 2009; Zehr, 1998).

Top ten soft skill attributes for business

executives
Following is a list of soft skills compiled by Eastern Kentucky
University from executive listings.
1. Communication oral, speaking capability, written,
presenting, listening.
2. Courtesy manners, etiquette, business etiquette, gracious,
says please and thank you, respectful.
3. Flexibility adaptability, willing to change, lifelong learner,
accepts new things, adjusts, teachable.
4. Integrity honest, ethical, high morals, has personal values,
does whats right.
5. Interpersonal skills nice, personable, sense of humor,
friendly, nurturing, empathetic, has self-control, patient,
sociability, warmth, social skills.
6. Positive attitude optimistic, enthusiastic, encouraging,
happy, confident.
7. Professionalism businesslike, well-dressed, appearance,
poised.

8. Responsibility accountable, reliable, gets the job done,

resourceful, self-disciplined, wants to do well, conscientious,
common sense.
9. Teamwork cooperative, gets along with others, agreeable,
supportive, helpful,collaborative.
10.
Work ethic hard working, willing to work, loyal,
initiative, self-motivated, on time, good attendance.