While corporates are waking up to the importance of soft skills, a lot still needs to be done. Many companies still give more emphasis to knowledge skills and the importance given to soft skills depends upon how much management support is offered to them.
Soft Skills have suddenly be come a hot topic for discus sion. Be it management colleges or cor porates, suddenly everyone is waking up to the importance of soft skills. But, why? Because, it is difficult to survive in this competitive world without them. As we usher into the knowledge economy with more and more people equipped with traditional degrees and certificates, it is becoming an absolutely important and critical tool that differentiates raw talent from skilled talent. Talent will no longer differentiate people in the knowledge economy. The difference between skilled talent and raw talent will be “soft skills”—the presence or absence of them. Whether one is a gold medalist or an average performer, what distinguishes him/her at the work place is how he/she applies talent in the day-to-day activities, making things better for the organization. Here is where soft skills come into action and play a very vital role.
So what are soft skills? Talk about soft skills and the most common words that come to the mind are: Leadership skills, time management, discipline, presentation skills, communication skills, etiquette, telephone speaking skills, business writing skills—the list is endless. Different authors will define soft skills in different terms. |
