Here is a brief excerpt from an article written by Brian Evje and featured in Inc. magazine. To read the complete article, check out others, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

Photo: Anthony Danielle via Flickr

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For too long, we’ve thought of “hard skills” and “soft skills” as mutually exclusive. Hard skills are supposed to provide the value, and soft skills supposed to be subordinate, inferior, and all about feelings. Some frameworks of leadership reinforce this myth by encouraging positioning leaders as above the group and magically removed from doubt and anxiety.

In reality, there is nothing “soft” about the skills needed to relate to people well enough to lead them. True leadership involves both hard skills and harder skills.

Here’s [the first of four examples of] what I mean.

Defining Hard and Soft Skills

“Hard skills” are often thought of as the occupational skills necessary to complete the tangible elements of a job. A software engineer needs to know certain languages to build applications; a finance director needs to know how to balance the books; and a waiter needs to know how to take a dinner order, place it with the kitchen, and deliver the meal to the table.
“Soft skills” can be seen as the behavioral ways in which people go about their occupational tasks. How does the software engineer collaborate with fellow engineers to unpack hidden technical challenges? How does the finance director interact with colleagues to glean the meaning behind the numbers? How does the waiter engage with guests to make their visit a memorable occasion, and not just a meal?

Hard skills can get the job done. Soft skills make the difference between a job that gets done and a job that gets done exceedingly well. Leadership requires a sophisticated approach to both. That’s even harder.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Brian Evje helps people and organizations manage change and growth. This involves a process consultation approach to change management (organization and culture), leadership development (coaching and performance improvement), and organizational health (strategy, design, effectiveness, and fitness.) Brian is a Management Consultant in the Organization Effectiveness practice of Slalom Consulting, a national professional services firm, and an Advisory Board Member of Astia, a global not-for-profit dedicated to increasing women’s participation in high- growth businesses. He is a graduate of Santa Clara University, and the Master’s program Consulting and Coaching for Change at HEC School of Management, Paris, and Saїd Business School, University of Oxford.