Soft skills are responsible for crushing many people’s dreams

Research by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Stanford Research Center revealed: “85% of job success comes from having well-developed social and social skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).” Regardless, many inventors, technocrats, business owners, new hires, supervisors, and managers from various industries rely on your expertise. Consequently, they forget to proactively develop their skills with people, and in turn pay terrible prices individually and wreak havoc on their organizations.

In our history, we have witnessed many technically great people struggling to succeed due to a lack of some essential interpersonal skills. Nikola Tesla was one of those people. Tesla invented the AC electrical system and coil, renowned for laying the foundation for wireless radio technology. In addition to these two inventions, Tesla also pioneered the discovery of technologies such as X-rays, remote control, radar, dynamos, etc.

Sadly, Tesla lacked the necessary soft skills that could have supplemented his technical skills. He was unable to communicate, both in writing and verbally, his inventions. He failed to promote and commercialize his discoveries. Tesla did not get patents on all of his inventions. Nor was he able to negotiate to fully benefit from his ideas. At the end of the day, sadly, his technical genius couldn’t save him from dying poor in solitude.

As of 2016, Forbes acknowledged that Apple outshines its tech peers like Microsoft and Samsung. It is one of the most valued companies in the world. Behind the formation of Apple were two outstanding people: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

However, without the complement of Jobs’ soft skills, Wozniak, regardless of his technical genius off the table, would not have succeeded Apple. Even if he could, he wouldn’t have launched it to become a worldwide phenomenon without Jobs’ excellent social skills. In short, millions of people around the world would not have enjoyed the amazing products of this leading company if the two had not come together and complemented each other.

Both Tesla and Wozniak had extraordinary abilities. Unfortunately, these were not enough to achieve extraordinary achievements. Only 15% of success comes from technical expertise.

However, the difference between the two gentlemen was that Wozniak was associated with the soft skills genius Jobs, who articulated, promoted and marketed Apple and its products; continuously selected, empowered and inspired Apple leaders and team members; negotiated, formed coalitions and more. Tesla was not lucky to have such a partner. He paid the terrible prices for a lack of social skills. Consequently, he died alone and in debt.

The same goes for entrepreneurship. When some technical professionals see that they are amazingly good at what they do, they are tempted to start a business (or well-intentioned people encourage them to become their bosses). They quit their job and start their own business thinking that their skills are enough to excel in the business world.

Unfortunately, it is widely believed that nine out of ten new startups fail. There are many reasons why startups fail. What you won’t find on the list of reasons the overwhelming majority of startups die is a lack of technical skills. However, if you summarize all the reasons, it will come down to one thing: a lack of certain soft skills.

Not only in the field of invention and entrepreneurship, everywhere, the lack of soft skills is affecting all industries. Let’s choose the business world. There is no shortage of employees. For every position they advertise, companies receive hundreds and sometimes thousands of submissions from highly qualified, technically excellent, and highly experienced applicants. The common challenge faced by all companies is selecting the right employee who has the qualifications and experience, as well as the soft skills to fit into the corporate culture and get along with existing team members.

Despite carefully selected criteria, background checks, and contemporary selection approaches, most employers often end up disappointed in their choices. In most cases, this is not usually a technical skills issue. Mark Murphy, author of Hire For Attitude, said: “Forty-six percent of new hires fail in the first 18 months, and 89 percent of them failed for attitude reasons. Only 11 percent failed due to lack of skills.” The experience that brought the new hires through the door couldn’t help them stay there longer and prosper. Companies lay off many of their new employees regardless of their excellent technical background due to the absence of certain soft skills.

Of course, it’s not just new hires that disappoint due to a lack of social skills. Look around. Many existing employees, supervisors, and managers also struggle due to a lack of soft or underdeveloped skills.

Higher-level positions often involve supervisory duties that require excellent soft skills. Unfortunately, many companies don’t pay much attention to soft skills when promoting their super achievers. When the latter demonstrate outstanding technical skills and outperform their peers, they are promoted to lead their team. And, as a result, they wreak havoc.

Common workplace complaints such as high turnover, conflict, lack of synergy and low productivity levels that many companies are experiencing today are due to a lack of certain soft skills on the part of supervisors and managers For example, “A Gallup poll of more than 1 million employed American workers found that the number one reason people quit their jobs is because of a bad boss or immediate supervisor … People leave managers, not companies … in the end, turnover is primarily a manager’s problem. “

So what does this all mean? If you are a business owner, professional, supervisor, or manager, you need to understand that your dream cannot be realized unless you work on your soft skills. If you are a leader, you should know that most of the problems in your organization are the result of some of your key people lacking certain soft skills.