Soft Skills in Sales Leadership

“Strong enough to be weak

Successful enough to fail

Busy enough to make time

Wise enough to say “I don’t know."

from The Paradoxes of being a Servant-Leader by Brewer

When hiring for sales positions, I rarely paid attention to formal education, the school attended or degree obtained, or even the name dropping of sales trainings attended. I was looking for relevant experience and soft skills.

Soft skills, defined as "desirable qualities … that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive, flexible attitude."

Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character or personality traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence, and emotional intelligence quotients, among others. They enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills.

“Soft skills” is a composite expression, and each of the two words explains a defining aspect of the concept.

The word “skill” highlights the practical function. The term alone has a broad meaning and describes a particular ability to complete tasks ranging from easier ones like “learning how to kick a ball” to harder ones like “learning how to be creative." In this specific instance, the word “skill” has to be interpreted as the ability to master hardly controlled actions.

The word "soft" is the opposite of "hard" and implies "subjective, fuzzy, and unreliable." Because of their subjectivity, soft skills are hardly assessed and never fully mastered. Also, vagueness explains why soft skills are not always clearly understood by employers and employees.

My personal list of top soft skills relevant to sales and sales leadership includes:

- Communication

- Problem-solving

- Creativity

- Adaptability / Flexibility

- Work ethic / Self-motivation

- Teamwork

- Interpersonal Skills (empathy, humor, patience, tolerance, listening, …)

- Decisiveness / Taking action

- Inspiration

- Positivity

- Vulnerability

- Honesty

- Trustworthiness

- Coaching

- Foresight

- Delegation

According to Forbes, 94% of recruiters believe that top-notch soft skills outweigh experience when it comes to promotion to leadership positions.

You may be a computer whiz, a scientific genius, or a rocket scientist. However, to be successful, you need more than just expertise in your given specialty. In fact, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), when participating employers were asked to name the attributes they seek in candidates, they gave their highest scores to the following three traits:

Written Communication Skills (82%)
Problem Solving Skills (80.9%)
Ability to Work in a Team (78.7%)

Interestingly, technical skills (59.6%) and computer skills (55.1%), often considered among the most important skills an applicant can possess in today’s high-tech job market, ranked quite low by comparison. The results make it clear that employers are paying much closer attention to soft skills in the workplace than they did in years past.

Good to know I am not alone with my priorities.

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Indeed – Soft Skills: Definitions and Examples

Keather Snyder – The 7 Soft Skills You Need to Be Successful

Photo by Anne Gosewehr