Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills – What’s the difference?

Merrystaffing July 14, 2016 0Uncategorized

You may ask yourself… is one more important than the other?   Companies today are placing emphasis

on both. Depending on the industry and the open job position, soft skills may be more important.

Let’s get a general understanding of what is meant by hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills usually refer to your learned experiences through schooling and work. These are

learned skills in an environment where the general rules are the same.

 Hard skills can be learned in school, from work experiences, in exterior environments that hone

your skills in whatever area of expertise that you are pursuing.  There are usually a designated

level of competency and a direct path as to how to excel with each hard skill.

Soft Skills usually refer to personality traits that allow you to naturally be a team player. Have

good reasoning skills and an ability to problem solve individually or with-in a group. Soft skills

allow an individual to read others well and make good decisions.

 In my opinion, soft skills are more important in most business careers than hard skills. Most

employees aspire to better their positions, which usually entails managing others. With-out soft

skills, it is very unlikely you will have staff that want to perform for you.

Something to consider:

You may be excellent at your job utilizing your hard skills, but if no-one likes you and doesn’t think

you are a team player you’ll be sitting on the bench, missing the promotions.

If you work on your Soft skills: learning how to engage well with others, listening, problem solving,

being a team player while leading, and my favorite…patience. All of these fall under

communicating well with the people around you.

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