Just being a superstar developer alone isn’t enough to advance in your career or to survive layoffs. Technical professionals are increasingly required to broaden their skill sets to master the so-called soft skills. The increased global competition and the changing nature of most technical jobs have made soft skills more than simply “nice to have”. These skills are “must have”. Your prospective employer would prefer to employ someone who has adequate technical skills combined with the necessary soft skills & RIGHT ATTITUDE to get expensive and mission critical projects done in a team environment with multiple personalities.
So, if you are an experienced professional and deciding, which professional skill to improve, picking up another certification may be the wrong choice. Learning soft skills can make you not only more employable, but also can make you a more valuable and hard to replace team member. Why is this so? Let’s have a look at with some examples.
Example 1:
Mr. X is technically brilliant in UNIX, SQL, and Database administration, and most active member of a project team, but he has some concerns:
- Why do his team mates not prefer to come to him, for solutions and recommendations, and go to less capable team members instead?
- Does he have the ability to convey his ideas, solutions, and design alternatives to the cross functional teams in the simplest possible manner?
- Will he be able to communicate the detailed design to his client in an impressive manner, so that the client is convinced?
- Has he got leadership and motivational skills? Does he speak up in team meetings and make contributions?
- Is he perceived as a contributor or just another techie by his project manager?
- Can he convey his ideas to the business users without getting too technical?
Example 2:
Mr. Y is a very technically capable professional with lots of attention to details, but he has a few areas to work on:
- Does he complain frequently? Does he focus more on possible negative outcomes than the positive ones? Does he easily get frustrated and give up on things too easily?
- Can he look at the big picture and prioritize tasks based on that matter most to the business as opposed to just getting too much fixated with minor technical details?
- Is he rigid in his goals and how things are to be done? Is it possible to dissuade him once he is fixated on something? Why is he not flexible and adaptable?
- Does he blame others more often than accepting his own mistakes?
- Has he got a good work ethic? Does he occasionally and especially when really needed work past his usual hours? Does he strike a good balance between work and personal life?
Example 3:
Ms. Z is a very technically competent Java/JEE professional, but she has some areas to improve on.
- Why is she pinned to her seat and keyboard all the time? Does she interact with the cross-functional teams?
- Why does she just perform as told and not question the solution or requirement and propose alternative solutions? Can she identify potential technical and non-technical issues?
- Does she ask the right questions to identify gaps in the requirements? Does she take the initiative to organize meetings and follow up with the right people to get the doubts and concerns clarified?
- Can she get things done with minimal supervision and follow ups?
If you know .NET and C# inside and out, you are just a coder and you can be replaced by any other coder. Your technical skills will have more value when complemented with good soft skills and domain knowledge. IT projects fail mainly due to:
- Not clearly defined business needs and project scope and lack of strategy and vision.
- Wrong, incomplete, inconsistent, or inaccurate specifications.
- Staff lacking motivation, dedication, qualification, and experience to pro-actively identify potential issues, both technical and non-technical and propose alternative solutions.
- No formal project management and development methodologies and best practices to align with the company’s specific needs. Lack of communication, team work, proper documentation, and document sign-offs.
- Insufficient funding, incorrect budgets, and economic down turns.
Most soft skills like communication, interpersonal, leadership, team work, etc are regarded as transferable skills because they are needed in nearly all aspects of life, not just for your career alone. New technical skills can be acquired in days and new frameworks can be learned in weeks, but improving on soft skills can take months if not years.