The necessity of possessing soft skills is felt more than anything else in the present scenario with India emerging ahead as a lead player in the global economic scenario. And, opportunities are bound to come knocking on your doors. It’s just a matter of time. But, it’s important how you have prepared yourself to make most of these opportunities. One has to be really good to be able to articulate his ideas well to climb the success ladder.

"I am a very intelligent person and also a social retard. I completed my graduation in Civil Engineering from a small town in Andhra Pradesh. My social retardedness exists because even though I have good intentions, I don’t know how to begin a conversation. Even if I get into a conversation with somebody, I have no idea how to keep it going. As a graduate, I have realized that this ineptitude is keeping me from getting a job.

"It has been said that intelligent people seldom relate to others except to their own kind. That isn’t true. Due to our lack of social skills, we have trouble talking with each other. This puts us in further isolation. Because of my social awkwardness, I have been shunned by other people. This has further driven my abilities, which in turn has brought further isolation. Now, you see the cycle. For the longest time, because of being isolated socially, I have been more inclined to doing things on my own rather than relying on others" one engineer was frank enough to admit what he was missing while analyzing the situation.

K. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who is working as a project manager in an MNC, recalled his own experience. "During my early university years, I regarded myself as an intelligent guy. With a bit of hard work, I completed my graduation in Mechanical Engineering, since I thought there will always be good prospects for mechanical engineers.

After one year of study, I began to see two major classes of students. The first was ones who would turn up to few lectures, enjoy a great social life, and do the minimum work to complete the courses.

The second class of students were intelligent, hard workers, score decent marks in their exams, and were very focused on their studies. Surely, these intelligent and hard working students would be the ones to get the jobs over the other, more "lazier," class of students?

Not so. Students are often shocked when graduating that their qualifications are not as important as they once thought. They are guided to believe that their academic knowledge is all they need to get a great job and be successful. Students think that all power and success is derived from intelligence.

But, these intelligent graduates, like me, enter the workforce only to realize that co-workers hate them, less intelligent people are receiving promotions over them. The fact, students like me, who have the "hard skills" such as technical know-how, lack the "soft skills" such as conflict management and other human relational skills. The transition for intelligent people from being very goal-oriented to people-oriented is usually realized through the hard school of knocks – experience.

It’s not that people will dislike you because of your intelligence; it’s that people will dislike you because you’re not able to articulate your ideas and plans in a better fashion.

According to a study, "Those with good soft skills born into poor families are 14% more likely to be in better positions in their careers compared to similarly under-privileged person with average soft skills." The study presents a few interesting points that are worth noting for the purpose of this article.

Firstly, soft skills and other communication skills were found to be more important later on in life. Maybe you’ve experienced the same thing. When you were young, you could get away with by using bullying tactics, like yelling at other students around you. But you will not be able to follow similar tactics in an office environment.

A second finding from the study that is of interest to us is that the best way students can develop the communication skills required for life are through organized activities. These groups should have children of varying ages, experiences, and interests, as well as adult leaders that provide guidance to the young group. The adult leaders typically have a goal, they want the children to achieve together. Team sports are a good example of activities that fit the described criteria to help children develop their social skills.

When a person has poor communication skills, it is bound to have a "cyclic effect." Their poor communication thwarts them from putting themselves in situations which require those communication skills, which further decreases their skills. Should a person have poor communication skills during their developmental and independent years, I believe they will struggle to improve the skill for several reasons – mostly an over-reliance on their intellect.

Reasons for Failure

 Chances are that who were smartest in the class were generally not very popular due to their poor soft skills. This doesn’t mean all intelligent people have poor people skills or that all the unintelligent people have good people skills. Intelligence and people skills aren’t mutually exclusive characteristics! Having one doesn’t mean you can’t have the other. Smarter, wealthier, or generally people who have feelings of superiority, refuse to seek help from others while dealing with people.

The study also found that achievement and other factors are influential to peer acceptance. We do need to keep in mind that peer acceptance doesn’t equate to just soft skills. There are several other factors like good behaviour, team spirit and negotiation skills etc.

Realty-check

Any prospective job seeker should do a realty check. Whether he/she has the requisite qualifications to handle the situation that demands better communication skills like holding discussions with a multinational client, impress them about a particular project etc.

Are technical/ job-related skills are good enough for a person to climb up the ladder in a organization. No doubt, tchnical and job-related skills are a must, but they are not all that enough sufficient when it comes to progressing up the ladder. With the traditional paternalistic style of leadership becoming pass, professional managers expect their teams to be proactive and communicate openly.

Soft skills are very important. It is essential that one should be able to articulate his/her idea properly. With the software boom and outsourcing jobs trend of the day, the importance of soft skills is more than mandatory in the present scenario. According to a behavioural training experts say there are several soft skills that are very important for a prospective job seeker in the present circumstances. They are:

The fact is, in the initial years of your career, your technical abilities are important to get good assignments. However, when it comes to growing in an organisation, it is your personality that matters, more so in large organisations where several people with similar technical expertise will compete for a promotion. With India emerging as a global hub, the importance of soft skills is more than required in the present scenario.