Breaking the Leadership Mold: An Executive's Guide to Achieving Organizational Excellence

Chapter 19. PRINCIPLE #19: INTEGRATE THE HARD AND THE SOFT

Traditionally, we have assumed that the skills required of those who lead organizations fall into two categories—hard and soft. Hard skills are those we consider to be more tangible and are usually easy to observe, quantify, and measure. Activities such as account management, data management, project management, financial management, product development, and business analysis are typically thought to demand hard skills. In contrast, soft skills are much more nebulous. Harder to quantify and measure, soft skills have to do with how people relate to each other and include such things as communicating, listening, engaging in dialogue, giving feedback, collaborating as a team member, solving ...