Sean Glaze explains why soft skills like trust, communication, and collaboration matter more to team performance than new equipment or technical investments. Leaders who develop these abilities in their people see bigger gains in productivity.
So why are soft skills important in your organization as an effective leader? Well, I've shared with a number of leaders across industries that you probably notice how your people have been hired for their technical skills but often have issues based upon interpersonal skills. And if you were sitting at a table surrounded by your peers and other leaders and the question was asked, if you had $10,000 to spend on improving your team's performance, where would you invest it? My guess is your mind did not immediately jump to a new piece of equipment. In most cases, the conversations that I have with leaders lead to wanting to improve interpersonal skills. That's where the greatest gains are made, is when you improve your people, you improve your business and performance. Investing in soft skills, which improve the trust and communication and collaboration among your team and across your departments, is the surest way to increase your productivity and to make sure that you get the results you want as an effective leader.
