A Shared Humanity & The Importance of Soft Skills

I have been reminded, over the past 22 days that I have been in these United States, that while people may live in different parts of the world and have different cultures, people are, in essence, the same: people are people wherever you go. Irrespective of where we live, or what we look like, or what we belief; we share a common humanity. I have been reminded that what we have in common is of greater importance than our differences, and that our present and future are inescapably bound together. The actions of individual lives impact each other in the past, present, and future. David Mitchell, in his book Cloud Atlas, expresses this truth beautifully: “Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”

Related to the above-mentioned, one of the themes that has stood out for me, in our collective and in my individual interactions with various individuals and organizations over the last 22 days, is the importance of “soft skills”: a sociological term relating to a person’s Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ). Soft skills include: the ability to be kind and gentle, listen well, communicate effectively, be positive, handle conflict, accept responsibility, take initiative, show respect, build trust, work well with others, manage time effectively, accept criticism, etc. “Hard skills” refer to a person’s skill-set and ability to perform a certain type of task or activity. Hard skills would include knowledge, machine operation, sales administration, etc. Unlike hard skills, soft skills relate to a person’s ability to interact effectively with others.

Soft skills, like hard skills, can (and ought to) be learnt and continuously improved. They are important because we become who we are (and will become who we will be), and will achieve what we achieve, both personally and professionally, in relationship/interaction with others.

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“Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in everyday of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of the will and unconscious example. Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it is passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will. All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands. Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – to the very survival of the human tapestry. Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognised potential to affect the world that the great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous day.”

- Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye