We are in a technical industry, where having technical or “hard” skills is necessary to do the job. However, to excel in the home-services industry—or any other industry—soft skills are crucial. We are learning the importance of soft skills over technical skills from an unlikely source, Google. That’s right, Google conducted two studies that prove the importance of soft skills.
In the first study, Project Oxygen, Google decided to test its hiring hypothesis by crunching every bit and byte of hiring, firing, and promotion data accumulated since the company’s incorporation in 1998. Project Oxygen shocked everyone by concluding that, among the most important qualities of Google’s top employees, technical skills such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics expertise came in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills:
- Being a Good Coach
- Communicating & Listening Well
- Possessing Insights into Others (Including Others’ Different Values & Points of View)
- Having Empathy Toward & Being Supportive of Colleagues
- Being a Good Critical Thinker & Problem-Solver
- Being Able to Make Connections Across Complex Ideas
Google’s second study, Project Aristotle, analyzed data on inventive and productive teams. Google takes pride in its A-teams, assembled with top scientists, each with the most specialized knowledge and the ability to throw down one cutting-edge idea after another. Its data analysis revealed, however, that the company’s most important and productive new ideas come from B-teams comprised of employees who don’t always have to be the smartest people in the room. Project Aristotle showed that the best teams at Google exhibit a range of soft skills:
- Equality
- Generosity
- Curiosity Toward the Ideas of Your Teammates
- Empathy
- Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional Safety (Which means each team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard without the risk of bullying.)
So, now that you know soft skills are important, how do you go about instilling these skills in your team?
- Provide a Safe Space
For your team to learn, grow, and express ideas, they must feel safe. If they do not feel safe, they will be less likely to be open and adopt whatever skills you are looking to instill. Feeling safe means they are confident, and they will not experience ridicule or punishment for expressing themselves.To create a safe space, lay out the ground rules. Get your team involved in creating the ground rules. If they help create them, they will feel a sense of ownership and obligation to abide by them. Also, by creating the rules as a team, you are removing yourself from an authoritative role and becoming part of the team, which will help create the feeling of safety.
If employees are not offering up ground rules, suggest some of your own. Just make sure you get the group’s approval before writing them down. Rules to suggest are: respect others, no judgement, keep an open mind, listen, remove distractions, etc.
- Train, Train, Train
Soft skills may seem difficult to teach because they are more ambiguous than hard skills, but as a leader, you must take every opportunity to do so. There are many formal and informal resources available to help teach soft skills.For formal training, you can send your team to Learning Alliance courses, where all courses incorporate softs skills with hard skills. Or you could suggest readings about certain skills you want your team to learn.
For a more informal approach, clearly describe what you want the employee to do differently. For example, if you want an employee to use less technical language when talking to clients, give examples, analogies, or metaphors they can use when explaining an issue to a client. Practice being the client and role-play with the employee. Point out when the employee is being too technical and offer suggestions.
Whatever method you choose, it is important to follow up, continuously reinforce the training, and recognize when the employee is making the changes you asked for.
- Lead by Example
Every company has its own unique culture and work environment, which every owner needs to establish. Whatever yours is, it needs to be communicated to every member of your team.If you value and exemplify teamwork and collaboration, “the newer employees will naturally start to inherit these very important traits,” says Ed Mitzen, founder, Fingerpaint Marketing.Soft skills are something you learn by doing, and you must live it to learn it. If you are a good example and live by the culture you want to establish, your workers will follow. When you are holding trainings for your employees, don’t neglect the soft skills. Being the fastest and best technically inclined technician is helpful—but not as important as how your technicians communicate with clients and how they make clients feel. Soft skills can turn a routine maintenance call into a high-ticket call.