Soft Skills for Success

Globalization of businesses, outsourcing of services, and the consequent information technology revolution and the cyber phase, that started in the early part of the century, brought with it the demand for technical communication, the teaching of English and soon after, for ‘soft skills’. This sudden change of emphasis was seminal because hitherto it had been assumed that if hard skills and technical know-how was mastered, the ‘soft skills’ would follow willy-nilly. But the harsh reality that dawned on the technical aspirants for higher level jobs was that without the soft skills, which they had earlier taken for granted, they could not achieve the goals they desired. They could not become the managers or the leaders they wanted to early in their careers if they did not also acquire the requisite ‘soft skills’ and the ability to communicate.