In discussions about organisational culture, strategy and culture are often pitted against one another; as if the two are somehow separate and one is more important than the other. In the same way, we often make the distinction between so-called “hard” skills (curriculum development, designing, programming, using software) and “soft” skills (communicating and working well with others, doing what you say you’ll do, inspiring others). This distinction undermines the importance of the “soft” skills despite the reality that they are just as essential as the others.

 

Author and entrepreneur Seth Godin suggests that we let go of the antiquated terms “hard” and “soft” and instead refer to them as vocational and interpersonal skills. The vocational skills are a baseline for what someone needs to know in order to do a job and are easy to identify on a resume. However, during the interview and other parts of the recruitment process is when we look for evidence of the interpersonal skills.

 

The interpersonal skills are the ones that are the ultimate indicators of culture fit and answer questions such as:

 

  • Is this person reliable and trustworthy?
  • Does this person have a sense of personal accountability/ownership?
  • Can this person handle challenge in a professional manner?
  • Will this person be able to solve problems with optimism and creativity?
  • Will this person be able to persevere, bounce back and learn from mistakes?

 

Of course, your questions might vary based on the interpersonal skills valued by your organisation. The likelihood is that you already ask questions designed to identify interpersonal skills, but are you as committed to developing and training people for these skills as you are in the more obvious vocational skills?

 

Even in culture-focused organisation, the assumption is at times that you can’t teach people interpersonal skills. But this is often exactly what we’re doing when we develop, nurture and distribute leadership. We teach people to challenge and be challenged. We teach corporate acumen. Beyond timelines and assignments, managing projects and innovations is largely about managing the team dynamic.

 

Much like creativity can be taught, so too can interpersonal skills. This doesn’t mean recruiting teachers and staff who don’t fit because they have the requisite vocational skills; it just means nurturing your culture by nurturing and developing the interpersonal skills as well. And in this way, you’ll discover yet another powerful way to strengthen collegial engagement and reinforce your organisational culture.