It is noted that as professionals advance to higher levels of management that the relative importance of technical skills de-creases in comparison to the importance of soft skills. Profes-sionals should therefore strive to maintain their technical competence whilst increasing soft skills.
A few years ago the Institute of Chartered Accoun-tants in Australia (ICAA) and KPMG Consulting jointly published "CFO of the Future", a paper whose purpose was to predict the work of finance professionals in the future and the skills and training they would require. Soft skills were identified as one of the skills finance professionals would require.
The paper recognised that the career path to CFO requires more than just financial number crunching and that more businesses require finance professionals to take on roles that add greater value - providing business leadership and partnering with other business professionals.
ACCA students and members are very aware that elements for membership range from hard skills in key areas such as Financial Information (e.g. preparation and presentation of financials) to soft skills in key areas such as managing people (e.g. maintaining effective and ethical relationships)
Similarly other "technical" groups including those involved in engineering and information technology have acknowledged that for their members to be effective they need to interact and partner with end users and business managers to deploy effective solutions and expand their roles beyond the traditional as they advance.
HR practitioners also point out that what makes a difference in many interviews is the interviewee's interpersonal skills and the interviewer's judgement as to whether these soft skills can be adequately developed.
Soft skills or interpersonal skills are defined as those needed for effective leadership and management.
Change Management, Communication, Influencing, Negotiating, Project Management, Social and Cultural Skills and Team Building are listed as the essential soft skills.
Change Management
Change although necessary for businesses to survive, is often resented and resisted. The ability to manage change is critical to ensuring success. This ability must extend to managing change affecting others as well as personal adaptability - being able to function successfully in new environments.
Communication
A good leader must be a good communicator. Professionals must be able to clearly express observations, suggestions and solutions to peers, subordinates and senior management. In addition qualities such as listening without judgement and displaying diplomacy are equally important.
Influencing and persuading
There are too many decisions to make in a high velocity business world for them all to be made at the highest level of management.
A key part of delegation is that throughout the organisation persons must agree in broad terms with objectives and methods and operate within certain parameters. To get the best out of people they must be influenced and persuaded to a common viewpoint. The professional should be able to deal effectively with challenges and questions and react positively to suggestions.
Negotiating
Partnerships, both internal and external are critical and the professional must be equipped to understand all parties' points of view and deliver "win-win" outcomes.
Project management
The professional must possess good project management skills for large and complex projects as well as normal day-to-day management which can require elements of project management. The ability to multi-task is crucial.
Team building
An understanding of what makes a good team and the ability to identify people with the right skill set and to successfully combine persons with different skills is important. The approach to problem solving with other staff members and the ability to train, mentor and encourage is key.
Social and cultural
The ability to interact with persons who are different and an appreciation of the diversity of persons is key not only in itself but in assisting with all other soft skills.
In business, preparing a business plan or writing lines of C++ will only help professionals climb so far up the ladder. Soft skills will determine whether they become CFO or CIO and ultimately CEO.