You probably have heard about soft and hard skills, and the importance of these abilities in personal and professional development. Nowadays an executive needs to cultivate some tools, improve himself, to stand out in the job market. It is necessary to acquire some dexterity in an area, an activity, and show it to the employer.
At first, the terms soft skills and hard skills were presented in training manuals of the American Armed Forces in the year of 1972. It mentions the importance of humanizing the soldiers so they could provide a better service to the citizens. Today business organizations are looking for executives with these two kinds of abilities.
According to Daniel Goleman, an specialist in emotional intelligence, soft skills are some behaviors which characterize our relationships with others and with ourselves. For example, an executive with an ability to be a great leader, a person that knows how to communicate properly, empathy, creativity, proactivity, and so on.
Furthermore, hard skills are some specific technical competencies, talents and qualities which are required for the executive, some study and actualizations about a subject. He can learn it with books, doing a course, talking with a person that is a specialist, etc. We can quote management of people, image edition, english proficiency, machinery operation, among others.
In a business company, any position or function requires that the executive have some technical ability and also, behavioral abilities to work properly and get better results, being efficient and productive. Therefore, it's necessary to measure and develop the soft and hard skills, so the organization team can act the best way possible, improving the quality of the process and operations.
It's important to say that both abilities can influence the results generated by the executive inside the organization that he works. Although, measuring the soft and the hard skills are two different processes. The technical abilities are easier to analyze, like a professional that is good in software programming, for example.
The behavioral abilities, the soft skills, can be measured when a business manager asks an employee to do some activities related to leadership, or communication. He will then analyse his conduct, and see if the executive is properly capable. Both crafts can be developed in a proper time, helping the employee in his career.
The business company can test the soft skills when they are interviewing a professional to work in the future with them. Later, to develop behavior abilities in a business company, the manager needs to first carry out an assessment of his employees. He can recognize these abilities and stimulate his workers.
Now, to develop the hard skills of the employees of the business company it is necessary to offer the professionals, the executives, a way to improve themselves with technical abilities, like, graduation, specializations, master´s degree, and doctorate. A good idea is to offer the opportunities which can help workers to stay up to date with courses, lectures and workshops.