Doug NollI'm called in when human dynamics are getting in the way of strategic leadership execution.

The Surprising Origin of Soft Skills #softskills

3 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Doug Noll. This content was uploaded by Doug Noll. This is a YouTube video titled "The Surprising Origin of Soft Skills #softskills" (uploaded 2026-01-03T12:00:08+00:00). The excerpt is a short dialogue between two unnamed speakers (labelled SPEAKER A and SPEAKER B) discussing the etymology and importance of "soft skills" — noting the term was coined by the United States Army Training Command in the 1960s to distinguish interpersonal/command skills from technical tasks, and arguing that soft skills are vital rather than weak. The clip appears to be an educational/commentary segment about workplace or leadership skills.

You know where the term soft skill came from?
I knew once upon a time, but remind me.
It was coined by the United States Army Training Command in the 1960s, and they used the term soft skill to describe all of the skills that a battle space commander needed to have in order to successfully complete a battle. And they wanted to separate those skills from shooting a rifle or driving a tank. Which were pretty easy to teach. Yeah, so they call it soft skills, and unfortunately it's gotten into our vocabulary as being something that is weak and worthless and crappy and not manly and not business-like and not hard-charging. And that's total and utter bullshit. It's the most important skill we can have in our lives because we're dealing with people. So it's not soft at all, it's very common.