Don’t Skip the Soft Stuff

Brett Tilford — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:14:01 +0000

In the world of business it’s easy to stick to the ‘hard’ areas, the places we understand and seem to easily control, like balance sheets, flow charts, and job descriptions, yet we end up ignoring the ’soft’ stuff like relationships, values, and emotions. Like Joe Friday in the hit show, Dragnet we only want the facts Ma’m. I’m not going to do is overreact and say “those hard areas don’t matter at all” – they do. These items are the basics of business and you probably won’t get very far without them. However, just as important to any successful long-term business is a deep knowledge of all things soft. Check out this quote by Lou Gerstner from his book “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?“:

If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is very, very hard. I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game- it is the game.

Culture?! What is this Lou character talking about? Sounds like he’s going all Oprah on us. Part of the challenge of this soft stuff is that it can be hard to pin down because it isn’t necessarily easily measured or quantified – which is why it’s also easy to ignore. I mean come on, how do you measure the culture of a place?

So let me take a stab at describing this soft stuff. Soft is…

The power of great design.
Remembering employee birthdays
Over-communicating when all hell breaks loose
Really listening (all too rare)
Handling conflict well
Saying “great job” when someone deserves it
The power of first impressions
The way a great attitude can lift any team
The leadership of a Tom Brady
The attention to detail of a Steve Jobs
Honesty
Thoughtfulness
Smiling
Keeping your company vehicles clean
The “vibe” of your workplace
Authentic friendships among teem members
The kindness in the voice of a customer service representative
A good handshake and steady eye contact
The intangibles we sense in great leaders

I recently came across a great quote from Chris Corrigan in his post Blurring Between Hard and Soft Business Skills he wrote:

…one of the professors observed that one can be a good manager knowing hard or soft skills, but one can only be a good leader with both.

I couldn’t agree more. To be an effective leader of a great company we need to approach this dichotomy with a “both and” mindset. My frustration is that too often these soft skills get pushed to the back of the line when they deserve to be front and center. So my advice to you is this, if you want to take your company to the next level don’t skip the soft stuff.

The Official Blog of Magnt » relational skills

Don’t Skip the Soft Stuff