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.