Dispel the Popular Beliefs About Soft Skills
❌ Soft skills are only part of personal development.
Yes, they allow you to grow personally, but they also impact your relationship with others. For example, if you build your self-confidence, your loved ones will feel confident when they are with you.
❌ Soft skills are "soft" skills.
Soft and hard skills complement each other. For example, soft skills are just as necessary to top athletes as technical skills. They need to concentrate and manage their emotions to prepare for games or matches.
❌ Soft skills are not available to everyone.
Some believe that your abilities are innate, and you have to live with those you were dealt with. For example, someone who has never really done a creative activity might think they're not creative.
Soft skills are skills, and you have the power to act on them by creating experiences that allow you to develop them. It's about changing the plasticity of your brain through experiences.
Anyone can develop creativity and build soft skills if they have the means.
It's Your Turn
Choose three people who you think are successful. They could be family members, former colleagues, classmates, or public figures.
Identify the soft skills they have that allow them to succeed.
Here's an example using the professional tennis player, Roger Federer.
Hard Skills
Over the years, Federer has developed unmatched technical expertise.
He invented several technical tennis shots, such as the drop shot.
Federer has one of the most beautiful one-handed backhands in tennis.
He is very precise and fast on the court.
Soft Skills
He can manage his emotions in complex situations.
He can concentrate intensely for several hours.
Federer has precise power of observation, especially when adapting his opponent.
He can anticipate (cultivated through observation).
Federer has self-confidence (from years of experience).
He is creative, which is essential for certain shots.
As you can see, his technical and behavioral skills are complementary.
Let's Recap!
In this chapter, you learned that:
Soft skills and hard skills are complementary. Soft skills are almost always needed to use hard skills.
Anyone can develop their soft skills.
In this first part of the course, you learned that a computer or robot could not perform soft skills, unlike hard skills. These human skills allow us to improve our world for everyone's benefit.
In the next chapter, you'll identify your soft skills!
