6 Responses

1. Core Skills

   Core Skills

2. 2 more

   KSAB's  – (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes/Behaviours)

   CSV's – (Competencies, Skills and Values)

3. An idea

   Hi.

   I'm interested in why you would want to change the name at all if the L&D community are familiar with the terminology. What is the debate around?

    

   Having said that, you might consider 'behavioural skills'

    

   Regards,

    

   Adrian.

4. Human or interpersonal skills

   Soft skills is not a term I particularly like. This implicit assumption is that they are the opposite of respected 'hard' business skills – they are linked with soft, namby-pamby things like feelings, women, emotion, caring. What we should really be talking about is human-to-human or interpersonal skills. These are particularly important in the current context, where across the globe, companies are realising that not all problems can be solved purely by traditional methodologies of risk management, financial forecasting, mastering our environment or modelling the supposedly predictable future.

    

   Instead they are focusing on making their people more flexible, adaptive, and innovative. They are investing in tools and techniques designed to make teams more creative, collaborative and cohesive and leaders better equipped to deal with the unpredictable.

    

   In the knowledge economy, these so-called soft skills are the currency of hard-nosed profit, because they provide the point of difference for high functioning organisations. 

    

   If I may be permitted a plug, my company works with introducing the Arts into organisations to deliver a new set of human skills traditionally not taught in business schools, so overcoming the notion that these are soft skills is one of our big challenges. http://www.darlingarts.co.uk

5. Human or interpersonal skills

   Soft skills is not a term I particularly like. The implicit assumption is that they are the opposite of respected 'hard' business skills – they are linked with soft, namby-pamby things like feelings, women, emotion, caring. What we should really be talking about is human-to-human or interpersonal skills. These are particularly important in the current context, where across the globe, companies are realising that not all problems can be solved purely by traditional methodologies of risk management, financial forecasting, mastering our environment or modelling the supposedly predictable future.

    

   Instead they are focusing on making their people more flexible, adaptive, and innovative. They are investing in tools and techniques designed to make teams more creative, collaborative and cohesive and leaders better equipped to deal with the unpredictable.

    

   In the knowledge economy, these so-called soft skills are the currency of hard-nosed profit, because they provide the point of difference for high functioning organisations. 

    

   If I may be permitted a plug, my company works with introducing the Arts into organisations to deliver a new set of human skills traditionally not taught in business schools, so overcoming the notion that these are soft skills is one of our big challenges. http://www.darlingarts.co.uk

6. the wonderful dichotomy

   the lovely thing about the use of the terms "soft skills" and "hard skills" is that it is a bit like "software" and "hardware"……

   Anyone and everyone can see the hardware and the hard skills.

   But the software and the soft skills are less obvious.

   Also with hard skills you either have them or you don't; you are a qualified surveyor, engineer, designer or accountant or you aren't….you have the certificate on the wall to prove it.  Whereas the soft skills are more subtly demonstrated.  Also they are more ephemeral……you may demonstrate the soft skills of a wonderful manager to person A who you respect and like but a lousy manager to person B who you have a prejudice against (NB before the howls of objection I'm not saying that this prejudice is acceptable but it is  a common factor).  You may demonstrate the soft skills of a great communicator most of the time but on certain days, in certain conditions, you may go to pot and be lousy at it.

   As cartoonist Scott Adams puts it "Everyone is an idiot…….some of the time"

   Perhaps, if we don't like the term "soft skills" we should take a lead from the same place that the terms software and hardware come from  and refer to them as "wetskills"

   ????????????????

   Rus

   http://www.coach-and-courses.com