Why is My Company Struggling? The Challenging Disadvantages of Poor Soft Skills

When Jim Collins published Good to Great in 2001, the dot-com bubble had just burst, Enron was imploding and Lee Iacocca’s turnaround of Chrysler was yesterday’s news. Visionary leaders and egotistical CEOs were perplexed. Why hadn't they seen the cliff everyone was hurtling towards?

Collins and his team presented a different view: The cliff was easily visible when you understood that nothing compares to simple, humble, consistent management practices.

That’s right, soft skills. Good ones.

Have you ever heard the term soft skills? Maybe you’ve heard it thrown around in a way like, “dude nice soft skills?” or maybe, “where ya get dem soft skills?”

Ok, maybe not.

Usually when you hear the term “soft skills” used in the business world, it’s because someone is dismissing the word and more importantly, the concept. Many business owners today feel that these “soft” skills don’t stack up in hiring decisions against a good, solid resume.

These owners could not be more wrong. And in fact, maybe that’s why they show up at Habitly’s doorstep asking for our help with their company.

The truth is soft skills can make or break a company.

Nothing makes for a more competitive advantage quite like well-developed soft skills. They have the ability to improve a your business’s reputation, prevent office drama, and increase company productivity.

But First, Can We Get a Recap on Soft Skills? 

Before we dive into all the competitive advantages soft skills can offer, let’s talk some about what they are. Soft skills are personal attributes that help a person to better perform their job. Soft skills can include everything from creative problem solving to communication skills.

Teamwork, active listening, and emotional intelligence can all fall under this umbrella.

And good habits are some of the most important soft skills. , They create the foundation for a stellar work experience. 

Bad Customer Service Experiences

Have you ever had a bad customer service experience? You’re already calling because you’re extremely frustrated. You’ve tried it enough times yourself and yet still, you just can’t seem to get it right.

But then you get on the phone with a customer service rep and they make you feel unheard, unimportant, and like that last haircut was a massive mistake.

Well, maybe not that last one. You get the gist.

You’ve got a bad taste in your mouth for the rest of the day.

When companies neglect soft skills training for their employees, their customers suffer. When a customer interacts with your company, they want to feel that you really care about them and their problem. If they’re calling with a complaint, they want your employees to find a solution, even if it’s not the standard solution. 

So what do you do to accomplish this? You teach your employees how to have to have a strong set of soft skills. This means practicing active listening and empathy in order to connect with your customers. And it also means creative problem solving to come up with solutions for the conundrums clients present.

Poorly Trained Employees

This all begins in training. Initially you may hire someone for their hard skills, but they’ll need to continue to hone their soft skills during their time at the company.  Employees need to function well within the company, and that’s not just about staying up to date on the latest trends in the marketplace.

What’s your emotional intelligence like?

People with well developed emotional intelligence are able to accept constructive criticism and use that feedback to grow. People without those skills are likely to stay stagnate and simply blame the people offering the feedback.  

And without constructive feedback, how can we grow and learn?

In an article by Forbes, “10 Shocking Workplace Stats You Need To Know”, they quote a surprising statistic from CareerBuilder.com.

“a whopping 58 percent of managers said they didn’t receive any management training.”

I’m sorry, what?

As Jim Collins points out in Good to Great, management is an art form. But like any great art form, it needs to be taught.

What About Workplace Drama?

Yep. Workplace drama can also be found under the soft skills umbrella.

Workplaces that aren’t strong in soft skills tend to have more drama and office politics.

Employees who aren’t emotionally intelligent may not know how to handle constructive criticism, causing them to lash out. And managers without good communication skills may not know how to deliver this criticism.

Feelings get hurt, feuds start, and petty contests spring to the surface. 

When these dramas and feuds are going on, it takes attention away from your overall company productivity. Rather than working together to improve productivity, your employees are focused on how to get back at the person who offended them.

“Did Katie eat my cake again? It has my name on it for a reason!” Yes, Katie ate your cake. And you told Katie that she was lazy. None of this is good.

It’s not unusual for projects to fail entirely because two employees can’t work well together. And this costs more money than is ever necessary.

How do you keep up with your competitors’ level of advancing productivity when you’ve got projects failing left and right because your employees can’t work well together?

The simple answer is you can’t.

Fewer Clients 

As internal factors start to fester, changes begin happening with your business. And they don’t look good. You’re likely to begin losing clients. Nobody wants to work with a company that doesn’t communicate well and can’t solve problems when they arise.

You may also end up pulling in fewer clients when you don’t hire for soft skills. Bringing in new clients requires a fair amount of emotional intelligence, active listening, and empathy. If your sales and marketing teams don’t have this, no one will be walking through the door.

Bad Reputations

The saying goes, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.  As your clients slowly start to abandon ship, your company is likely to get a bad reputation. Clients talk, especially those who run in the same social circles or work in the same industries. And thanks to the wide world of the internet, anyone can let the whole planet know exactly what they think about your company.

Today, one bad Yelp review can lead to the demise of a business.

Former clients will warn their friends and colleagues away from your business. And over time, if you don’t make it a priority to be focused more on soft skills, your company is bound to gain a bad reputation in your industry.

Are you convinced yet how necessary it is to have good soft skills?

It’s Not All Doomsday

Alas, there is hope. And today it comes in the form of Habitly. We train professionals in soft skills because we care. We don’t want to see your company sink like the Titantic. Rose won’t share the raft.  

We want to see you succeed.

So come on over to Habitly and let’s have a quick chat.