I want to say both! The most successful people are strong at both technical skills and soft skills. Since I had to choose, I chose people skills, since I truly believe that we need to work together to accomplish great things. You need the soft skills to truly meet your full technical potential. The soft skills help you learn from those around you and help them learn. The soft skills also help you manage your time wisely so you spend it on the right tasks and do those tasks at the right time. The soft skills also help you communicate all of your technical skills to those around you - it is not very helpful if you have a brilliant idea, but no one else knows about it or benefits from it.
Susan - 14 years ago
This is a tough one! I've certainly seen quite a few brilliantly technical people rise the ranks with very poor people skills... so that would tell me that you can get by without soft skills. I really don't like working with people who lack in people skills regardless of how brilliant they are!
I want to say both! The most successful people are strong at both technical skills and soft skills. Since I had to choose, I chose people skills, since I truly believe that we need to work together to accomplish great things. You need the soft skills to truly meet your full technical potential. The soft skills help you learn from those around you and help them learn. The soft skills also help you manage your time wisely so you spend it on the right tasks and do those tasks at the right time. The soft skills also help you communicate all of your technical skills to those around you - it is not very helpful if you have a brilliant idea, but no one else knows about it or benefits from it.
This is a tough one! I've certainly seen quite a few brilliantly technical people rise the ranks with very poor people skills... so that would tell me that you can get by without soft skills. I really don't like working with people who lack in people skills regardless of how brilliant they are!