I never thought this would happen…

Credit: Emilija Randjelovic

If you have followed me a bit longer, you have seen me on a rant about the stubborn habit of calling leadership skills soft skills.

These skills are often called soft because they are not tangible or easy to document in concrete skill training, unlike, for example, straightforward Microsoft Office training.

Let’s just stop with these qualifications.

It doesn’t add value, is confusing, and, most importantly, suggests that leadership is easy. I understand we use hard and soft to qualify a boiled egg. But the idiot who used hard and soft for leadership was not a leader.

Any skill that helps you grow as a leader is a leadership skill. Any skill that helps you grow as a manager is a management skill. If you need to learn Microsoft Office, it’s a software skill or perhaps a technical skill — not soft, not hard.

That qualification does not add any added value.

Why share this reminder of my view on soft or hard leadership skills?

I will introduce you to a skill or quality that I never considered a leadership skill or quality until recently when it hit me head-on in my face.

Here are a few pieces of data first:

Americans touch their phones approximately 2,617 times daily, highlighting smartphone engagement’s pervasive nature.

Frequent smartphone use can diminish the ability to concentrate. A study from the University of California, Irvine, found that workers’ average time on a task before switching attention decreased from 150 seconds in 2004 to just 47 seconds in 2012.

Employees lose approximately 720 work hours annually due to distractions, with smartphones being a primary contributor.

When I summarize all of the above in one simple sentence, it’s this:

We lose Focus.

I never thought I would write an Insight advocating for Focus to become a leadership quality we should pay attention to.

We’re so bad at remaining focused because of all the distractions around us that it’s hurting ourselves and the businesses we’re part of tectonically.