CHAPTER SIX

HARD AND SOFT SKILLS IN HUMAN RELATIONS

The phrase “soft skills” are often used to describe the skills which characterize relationships with other people or which are about how you approach life and work, actions and interactions.

“Hard skills” by contrast is a phrase usually used to describe job specific skills like bricklaying or teaching accountancy, medical expertise, such as diagnosis and treatment or other skills that can be taught and certificated whose presence is testable through examination and certification

Top Hard Skills

1.     Statistical Analysis and Data Mining

2.     Middleware and Integration Software

3.     Storage Systems and Management

4.     Network and information systems

5.     SEO/SEM Marketing

6.     Medical sciences

7.     Engineering

8.     Science education and technology

9.     Agricultural sciences

10.  Environmental sciences etc.

Top Soft Skills

1.     Ability to work in a team structure

2.     Ability to make decisions and solve problems

3.     Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization

4.     Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work

5.     Ability to obtain and process information

6.     Ability to be loyal to your boss

7.     Respect for work ethics

8.     Ability to be obedient to rules and regulations

9.     Ability to trust others

10.  Ability to respect time.

Difference between Hard Skills and Soft Skills

1.     To be good at hard skills usually takes smarts or IQ (also known as your left brain-the logical center). To be good at soft skills usually takes emotional intelligence or EQ (also known as) confidence, stress management and people skills like communication or networking skills.

2.     Hard skills are skills where the rules stay the same regardless of which company, circumstance or people you work with. In contrast, soft skills are skills where the rules changes depending on the company culture and people you work with. for instance, programming is a hard skill. –

3.     The rule for how you can be good at creating the best code to do a function is the same regardless of where you work. Communication skills are a set of soft skills. The rules for how to be effective at communications change and depend on your audience or the content you are communicating. You may communicate well to fellow programmers about technical details while struggle significantly to communicate clearly to senior managers about you project progress and the support needed.

4.     Hard skills can be learned in school and from books. There are usually designated level of competency and a direct path as to how to excel with each hard skill.

Importance of Hard and Soft Skills

Hard and soft skills both play different and important roles within your career. Hard skills are what will spark an engager’s attention and get you an interview; while soft skills will help you advance, maintain the job well, once you are part of the company. One of the biggest mistakes a staff can make is neglecting his soft skills. Soft skills also help management separate potential leaders from other contributors in the company or organization 

Hard Skills and Soft Skills – Which Is More Important?

It depends highly on the career you choose. Here is why Careers can be put into 2 kinds of categories. It is up to you to figure out which category your career is in.

1.     Careers that need hard skills and little soft skills are for (instance: physicists); this is where you see brilliant people who may not easily work well with others. They can still be very successful in their career – look at Albert Einstein.

2.     Careers that need both hard and soft skills are many, these careers are in this category (instance: Accountants, teaching Lawyers- they need to know the rules of accounting and of the careers

Interesting Review of I’m OK-You’re OK

You know a book is classic when you see it featured in sitcoms. In an episode of Seinfeld, Jerry opens the door of his apartment to find all-time hopeless case George Costanza spread out on the couch reading I’m OK-You’re OK. For Jerry, reading a self-help book with a silly title is just one more piece of proof of his friend’s loser status.

I’m OK – You’re OK is indeed an icon of the pop psychology boom of the 1960s and 1970s, written by Thomas Harris. The key concepts here view man as being able to redecide what was earlier on decided. Although the early experiences which lead to the position cannot be erased, the early position or decision can be changed in the transaction by being self-governing, taking responsibility for your own actions and feelings and throwing off patterns that are irrelevant and un appropriate to living in the here and now to have a complimentary transaction for instance: -

References

Bellet, Paul S. & Michael J. M. (1991). "Theories of human relations”. JAMA.226 (13): 1831–1832. doi:10.1001/jama.1991.0347 References0130111039.

Barilan, M.Y. and Weintraub, M., 2001, “Persuasion as Respect for Persons: An Alternative View of Autonomy and the Limits of Discourse,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 26: 13–33.

 Barnes, A., 1990, “Some Remarks on Respect and Human Rights,” Philosophical Studies, (Ireland): 263–273.