Knock It Out of the Park: The Competitive Advantage of Good Habits and Soft Skills
In Carol S. Dweck’s riveting book, Mindset, she writes that “we like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.”
Dweck is describing those folks who break through in business and culture, rise to the top, and seem different from the rest of us. But they are not different, and greatness doesn’t just happen to special people. It begins like all things - with hard work, discipline, and good habits.
“But how do we get there?” It’s a lot less complicated then the third star on the right and straight on till morning.
Last week we talked about the disadvantages of poor soft skills and what happens when your company doesn’t have good habits. Companies with poor habits and bad soft skills have higher levels of drama in the office, poor client retention, and a bad reputation.
It’s time to flip the table over and focus on the positive.
If you’re like many Habitly subscribers, you want your business to benefit from everyone having good soft skills. Here are just a few of the advantages.
Delighted Clients
Can ya see it? Big toothy smile, lips pulled tight, reaching from ear to ear, cheek bones up so high that they squint the eyes.
This is a happy client you’re looking at. In fact, they’re delighted.
You now have a customer service department filled with employees who excel in soft skills. When a customer calls in with a problem or a question, they’ll find that their issue is handled with care, and they’re given a custom-tailored solution. They’ll feel heard, knowing that your company genuinely cares about them. If they were on the fence, choosing between you and another company, that extra level of personal care will earn their loyalty.
Everyone sleeps soundly at night. Unless you have a baby… it’s difficult to have a baby and get a good night’s sleep no matter how delighted your clients are. But at least you won’t have to worry about the baby AND your clients!
Smooth Internal Operations
Strong soft skills can also help your company operate much more smoothly. Of course, any time you have multiple people working together for long periods of time, conflicts are likely to arise. But when your employees are emotionally intelligent and know how to communicate, these issues don’t sit and fester. They get worked out!
Instead of workplace feuds, your employees will know how to assess their own feelings and needs in the situation. They’ll communicate those needs to the person they have a problem with and listen as that person discusses their own needs.
Together, they can come to a solution and prevent the problem from happening again.
Well-Trained Employees
Having a managerial staff with excellent soft skills is critical if your goal is to have a team of well-trained employees. Soft skills are an essential part of communicating new ideas and mentoring team members through periods of growth. A manager who is empathetic and knows how to communicate can telegraph ideas to their direct reports much more clearly.
Have you ever had someone peer over your shoulder while they train you and just yell at you? I have. No one learns that way.
Instead, competent managers practice good habits and set an example for their employees to do the same. With well-developed soft skills, managers can find creative ways to explain concepts and techniques in a way that respects everyone’s way of learning. If you don’t respect someone, they probably won’t respect you and will be deaf to whatever you’re attempting to teach them.
Nobody wins.
With these soft skills in place, you can make sure your team is well-prepared to stay competitive.
Stellar Reputations
Nothing earns you a stellar reputation in your industry quite like improving your customer service and workplace culture.
And on the customer side of things, happy clients mean a happy life. Or is that wife? Happy wife, happy life? When you think about it, there’s a lot of similarities.
They will tell their friends and family what a delight it is working with you. They’ll leave positive reviews and encourage people to work with you if they get the chance.
An article from the 2021 ZenDesk Customer Experience Trends says, “75 percent of people are willing to spend more money on a brand that provides a stellar experience.” That kind of buy in translates into real dollars.
Even beyond customer opinion, your company will gain a reputation as a fantastic place to work in your industry. You’ll have a workplace that values open communication, problem-solving, growth, and empathy. This reputation can help you bring in top-level employees who will drive your company to even greater heights.
High Productivity
It should come as no surprise at this point that better soft skills among your employees will help you improve your productivity and develop better habits. Since your internal team is working to remove communication barriers, they’ll be able to keep moving. In fact, they will be able to develop new protocols that make your company even more efficient.
As for manufacturing, having creative problem-solving on your side can help to get rid of all sorts of inefficiencies. With better habits and soft skills, your team will look for new ways to tackle problems and keep you moving forward at the head of your industry. They can even communicate with other internal teams and find ways they can work together to improve your productivity.
Long-term Strategic Advantage
In Morgan Housel’s book, “The Psychology of Money” he writes, “A question you should ask as the range of your competition expands is, ‘How do I stand out?’”
Seriously, how do you?
And please, don’t give answers that sound like, “Well we’re the only company around with a dude who can dunk in our after-work basketball league!” While that is impressive, a hugely important soft skill is the ability to recognize your company from a completely honest point of view. The good and the bad. Housel then goes on to say,
“In a winner-take-all and globalized world these kinds of people are increasingly your direct competitors. Intelligence is not a reliable advantage in a world that's become as connected as ours has. But flexibility is. In a world where intelligence is hyper-competitive and many previous technical skills have become automated, competitive advantages tilt toward nuance and soft skills - like communication, empathy, and perhaps most of all, flexibility.”
Most companies opt to plan for ongoing competitive advantage strategies in the short term. With technology changing so fast, this makes for a bad competitive strategy.
Soft skills, however, are for the long haul and can give your team a long-term edge in your industry.
Onward and Upward
Soft skills are, in fact, one of the most important skills in the professional world. A company that doesn’t prioritize soft skills will find itself with a lot of unhappy customers and squabbling employees.
Companies that hire with soft skills in mind can improve productivity, create a positive culture, and gain customer trust.
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