“Soft Skills” Hard to Learn
Posted by quinncreative on January 19, 2008
Mention that you teach writing, a key business skill, and a software instructor will say, “Oh, a soft skill. I don’t teach those.”
There are a lot of computer programs (called ’software,’ incidentally) that are hard to learn, no doubt, but that shouldn’t make the basic skill of writing a ’soft’ skill. Tagging a whole body of knowledge as ’soft’ makes it sound unimportant, not as good as ‘hard’ and probably not worth learning.
Look at the power in words that have ‘hard’ in them–hardball is playing tough, hardcore is uncompromising, hardshell it tough and protective. Hardheaded is single-minded and persistent. Hard news is important, soft news is cheap, starchy filler. No one wants to be soft-headed, softhearted, or an old softie.
So why call the important skill of writing a soft skill? In the world of web 2.0, writing is vital. Judging from the number of unintelligible emails, confusing instructions, unclear requests, and rambling directions I’ve read in the last two years, there are a lot of people who need to learn how to write, and write clearly.
Perhaps it is because a software program can be learned in a day or two, and writing takes months, even years, to master. Some people never do. It is a skill that some are born with, and others will never understand. And that makes writing clearly a hard skill to master.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer who develops writing courses for businesses. She teaches Writing for the Web; How to Write A Good Article, Beginning to Publication; Writing and Giving Powerful Presentation and other, well, soft skills courses. See her work at QuinnCreative.com
–Image of soft-serve ice cream: www.cactice.com
January 20, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Soft skill? Ha! I remember watching my grandfather preparing to write a letter in the 1960s. He would pencil line his paper, mark the margins and check his pen-nib and then dip his pen into the India ink and begin to draw his perfect copperplate. Everyone I know who ever received one of his letters has them still. He was economical and precise in his word usage because it took so long to write them, and I didn’t see an error in any of his letters until he was in his early 80s and his hand had begun to shake. He didn’t hide the error: he lined through it neatly and rewrote it correctly.
A well written line is a HARD skill: hard to learn and hard to find! It needs to be valued whether it comes from a pen nib or a keyboard! Ask anyone who has ever tried to assemble a child’s bike on Christmas Eve from garbled instructions.
–Which reminds me of the wonderful instructions in the driving book I got when I went to Japan many, many years ago: “Beware of the skid-demon that lurks in the oil mud,” and “Behold the festive dog who sports in the street! If he continues to sport as you advance, tootle him softly. If he hies not, tootle him more melodiously.” -Q
January 23, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Ok, this confirms it: I’m atypical. Even with all my “hard” skills, I’d rather be remembered for being soft-hearted. And the older I get, the more I value good writing.
May 1, 2008 at 12:29 pm
[...] and leaders of corporate America, which is a shame for so many reasons (see my friend Quinn’s discussion, for instance, of soft skills in the workplace). People who possess those skills can make a [...]