Research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Stanford Research Center revealed, “85% of job success comes from having well-developed social and interpersonal 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 in various industries rely on his expertise. Consequently, they refuse to proactively develop their social skills, and in turn pay exorbitant prices individually and wreak havoc on their organizations.
In our history, we’ve seen many technically great people struggle to succeed due to a lack of some essential interpersonal skills. Nikola Tesla was one of those individuals. Tesla invented the AC electrical system and coil, which is credited for laying the foundation for wireless radio technology. In addition to these two inventions, Tesla was also a pioneer in the discovery of technologies such as X-rays, remote control, radar, dynamos, etc.
Unfortunately, Tesla lacked the necessary soft skills that could have complemented his technical skills. He was unable to communicate, both in writing and verbally, his inventions. He did not promote or market his discoveries. Tesla failed to patent all of his inventions. He also couldn’t negotiate to fully benefit from his ideas. At the end of the day, sadly, his technical genius couldn’t save him from dying poor alone.
As of 2016, Forbes acknowledged that Apple dwarfs 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.
Yet without the complement of Jobs’s soft skills, Wozniak, regardless of his off-the-chart technical genius, would not have made Apple. Even if he could, he wouldn’t have launched it to become a worldwide phenomenon without Jobs’ excellent soft skills. In short, millions of people around the world would not have enjoyed the incredible products of this leading company if the two had not come together and complemented each other.
Both Tesla and Wozniak had outstanding hard skills. Unfortunately, these were not enough to achieve an extraordinary achievement. Only 15% of success comes from technical expertise.
The difference between the two gentlemen, however, was that Wozniak was associated with the soft skills genius Jobs, who articulated, promoted and marketed Apple and its products; he continually selected, empowered and inspired Apple’s leaders and team members; they negotiated, formed coalitions and more. Tesla was not lucky enough to have such a partner. He paid the terrible prices for his lack of soft skills. Consequently, he died alone and in debt.
The same is true when it comes to entrepreneurship. When some technical professionals see that they are incredibly good at what they do, they are tempted to start a business (or are encouraged by well-meaning people to become their boss). They quit their job and open their own business thinking that their technical skills alone are enough to stand out in the business world.
Unfortunately, it is widely believed that nine out of ten startups are unsuccessful. There are many reasons why new businesses fail. What you won’t find on the list of reasons the vast majority of startups die is a lack of technical skills. However, if you sum up all the reasons, they come down to one thing: the lack of certain soft skills.
Not only in the field of invention and entrepreneurship, everywhere the lack of soft skills is affecting every industry. Let’s choose the corporate world. There is no shortage of employees. For every position they advertise, companies receive hundreds and sometimes thousands of applications from highly qualified, technically excellent, and highly experienced candidates. The common challenge that all companies face is selecting the right employee who has the qualifications and experience, as well as 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 with their choices. In most cases, this is usually not a problem with technical skills. Mark Murphy, author of Hire For Attitude, said: “Forty-six percent of new hires fail in their first 18 months, and 89 percent of them fail because of attitude reasons. Only 11 percent fail because of a lack of hard skills.” The experience that brought new hires through the door couldn’t help them stay there longer and thrive. Companies fire many of their new hires despite their excellent technical expertise due to the absence of certain soft skills.
Of course, it’s not just new hires that disappoint due to a lack of soft skills. Look around. Many existing employees, supervisors, and managers also struggle due to a lack of or poor development of soft skills.
Senior level positions often involve supervisory duties that require excellent interpersonal 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 experience today boil down to a lack of certain soft skills on the part of supervisors and managers. managers. For example, “A Gallup survey of more than 1 million employed American workers found that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor… People leave managers, not managers.” to companies…in the end, turnover is primarily a manager’s problem.
So what does all this 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’re a leader, you should know that most of the problems in your organization are the result of some of your key people lacking certain interpersonal skills.