Delivering Better Business Outcomes with Soft Skills

Abstract

Abstract It has often been said that "Technical skills get you hired, and soft skills get you promoted." Whether they are called "soft skills," "nontechnical skills," or "professional skills," the incorporation of soft skills into the development of technical professionals is evolving and becoming more critical to both employers and technical professionals. Because of the "Big Crew Change," new supervisors and technical leaders will take on new responsibilities, which will require them to rely upon their soft skills. Ensuring that soft skills training is embedded with technical training prepares future leaders. The quality of the technical contribution increases when individuals work more collaboratively. Soft skills help to improve personal effectiveness, providing a vehicle with which to deliver business results. Soft skills enhance expected business outcomes of the technical professional's work product. A variety of methods are utilized in professional development to disseminate best practices in soft skills to technical professionals. In addition to SPE, several other professional and technical societies are placing an increasing emphasis on soft skills development. There are several ways to measure the impact, both qualitatively and quantitatively, of incorporating soft skills into professional development for engineers. One way of measuring the impact includes surveying participants and their supervisors according to Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation. It is challenging to incorporate soft skills development into existing rigorous engineering degree curricula or corporate onboarding programs without sacrificing the emphasis on development of technical competency. Increasingly, it is becoming more apparent that the value of the effort to incorporate soft skills, pays off in multiple ways to both the corporation in achieving their strategic objectives and to the working professional in realizing their career development goals. Common themes from case studies, surveys and benchmarking with other professional technical societies will illustrate how to deliver better business outcomes with soft skills.