# Soft skills vs. Technical skills

  

##### Post Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Community Manager at G2
- Net upvotes: 5


## Comments
### Comment 1

<p>I think being empathetic and understanding with people that are new to tech or just have no understanding is really important.  if they get frustrated and you act like you dont care, try to speak over their head, it makes it harder for them to accept and learn. </p><p>Having the soft skill to hold a virtual hand is very important.</p>

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Digital Media & Information Technology | FB Power Admin
- Net upvotes: 4


### Comment 2

<p>Organisation is definitely a big one for me. People management is another.  For clients where I act as a content coordinator, I often have to work with difficult staff as well as staff who lack skills in particular areas. Being able to manage them and get them to do what needs to be done is a must!!!</p>

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Full-funnel marketing specialist
- Net upvotes: 3


### Comment 3

<p>Unfortunately, technical skills sometimes seem to take away from soft skills.There are those who cover themselves with certifications, degrees and courses, but lack skills such as leadership, teamwork, crisis management, pressure control, planning and communication skills. And when I mention leadership, it is not only but the ability to be responsible for a team; leadership can be applied to our own life and activities and this is not learned with high certifications in programming, cloud platforms or databases. Time management and financial knowledge are also important skills that are seen less and less every day and the pandemic highlighted these problems since by not interacting with other people, many people lost the lever they had to hide their shortcomings in soft skills with others. I think it is important to obviously have technical knowledge, but it is almost as important to have the ethical, personal and emotional capacity to apply it responsibly and without risking our well-being or that of others.</p>

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Más de 25 años de experiencia en procesos de negocio y tecnología
- Net upvotes: 3

#### Reply 1

Couldn't agree more Germán. Well said and thank you for sharing!

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Community Manager at G2


### Comment 4

I think empathy and curiosity are two skills imperative to my job. 


##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Creative, Accomplished Marketing Professional
- Net upvotes: 3

#### Reply 1

Love that Nanci! When I first started my career, I was in sales, and curiosity was probably the most important skill for me.

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Community Manager at G2


### Comment 5

<p>These skills are very important:</p><p>-listening</p><p>-organization .  Emails always go into folders.  I have done it where I would not file an email away until I read it but it has been very helpful to keep them organized.  When there's a high volume of emails that you have to deal with on the same day you can flag them with different flag colors in Outlook (eg Red, Yellow, and Green) so that you can go back and go after the very important ones first.</p><p>-presence.  Harder to do in a virtual environment.  In my most recent in-office job just being there was important because then people could come by and talk about their ideas and give updates, and I could help them whiteboard things out. I still do this in virtual work.  This also goes to paying attention in meetings.  I always take notes on any meeting I'm in , whether it's my meeting or not.  </p>

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: 20-year Marketer and Marketing Automation Expert
- Net upvotes: 3

#### Reply 1

Presence is a great one and I would say is even more important in a virtual environment. "Showing up" to work in a virtual way is something to have at the forefront of our minds!

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Community Manager at G2


### Comment 6

<p><strong>Empathy. </strong></p><p>This is all-encompassing, but one small example is e-mail. One of my coworkers, unfortunately, sends these massive e-mails with multiple sections and lists and topics, and they will send them regardless of day and time. To me, they're missing the empathy for the people receiving these e-mails, who may not have time to digest a 10-page e-mail and try to figure out precisely what they're supposed to do with the information. Also, receiving e-mails at 4:30 pm on a Friday is never great - it can be saved for the next week, and there are e-mail scheduling options in Outlook!</p><p>When I send e-mails, I try to be succinct and to the point and make it very easy for someone to understand why they're receiving it and what my expectations are regarding their response or what they need to do. Anything else just slows everything down and frankly annoys people.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Writing, Spelling and Grammar</strong></p><p>This is a big one. When I was hired, I thought I would mostly be doing social media, website, and photo/video stuff. I quickly realized that I would have to use my writing skills to "finesse" a <em>lot</em> of content in terms of grammar, spelling, and even length. It's become a big part of my every day, and the only way to reduce it would be to get several other staff to work on it themselves. I am trying to get Grammarly for the whole team so people can at least see some ways of improving. I use it myself, and it's incredibly useful. I've worked hard on that aspect of my soft skills for a long time, and it's definitely one that stands out to me almost every day.</p>

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Digital Content Creator. Tech Geek. Dad.
- Net upvotes: 2

#### Reply 1

Hi Matt, Re Empathy: Fair point on e-mail. Timing (like your Friday 04:30 PM - 16:30 example) doesn't bother me (could be due to working over/ in different - Global - time zones). If something is urgent, call me😉. Regardless, not a fan of "massive, multiple sections, e-mails either. Especially when the e-mail is addressed to multiple people (recipients in the "To" field). This workflow could (will) become real messy, real quick. Add (versioned - documents) attachments into the (e-mail) equation and  you have a recipe for miscommunication and for sure "wasting time".  Threaded responses (preferably with the attached files - document(s) in a shared - collaborative - repository)  do help (me). I understand there are plenty of "it depends" in my reply. "It depends" on the (your) use case, so for sure, your milage may vary. Some "predefined rules" for structure, if possible, could help. RE: Writing, Spelling and Grammar, this is indeed a "big one". Me, not a native English speaker/ writer (and looking from a social media, website, photo/video point of view) , "get the point" you make.  Grammarly (good product, I think) and the likes do (all so it seems) come with the "challenge" setting the "proper English" for the "job" (target audience). US English vs UK English per example 🥳 Best, Mark 

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Managing Partner at Huf Consultancy and full time Autist

#### Reply 2

Hey Mark, great response! Our core employees are all in the same time zone, so if I have something ready to send but it's late on a Friday, I will use the scheduling option in Outlook! 

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: over 2 years ago
- Author title: Digital Content Creator. Tech Geek. Dad.

#### Reply 3

You're right on the money about an e-mail that is to multiple people. While it's a bit of extra work, I try to keep e-mails relevant to the recipient whenever possible, so they understand the ask if there is one. OneDrive has helped a lot with documents - shared documents and folders means no attachments to e-mails! :)

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: over 2 years ago
- Author title: Digital Content Creator. Tech Geek. Dad.


### Comment 7

<p>He Stephanie,</p><p>For me, vital soft skills:</p><p><strong>Effective communication</strong>.</p><p>As being able to articulate ideas clearly and actively listen to others is essential.</p><p><strong>Problem solving.</strong> </p><blockquote>Here I would add "autism is my superpower".</blockquote><p>In my "day to day", the only variable seems to be change.</p><p>Which bridges nicely to:</p><p><strong> Adaptability. </strong></p><blockquote>Here I would add "autism can be my kryptonite".</blockquote><p>Being able to quickly adjust to changing circumstances, can do. </p><p>Question is, "should (I) do?" </p><p>Answer is, "It depends". </p><p>Luckily, I learned to (am amble to) assess both the situation -circumstances- and my current state of "health", very quickly.</p><blockquote><strong>Health always comes first.</strong></blockquote><p> </p><p><strong>Building</strong> and <strong>maintaining</strong> (longterm) <strong>relationships</strong> "<em>from HouseKeeping to CEO</em>".</p><blockquote>What can I say, it is a spectrum 😉</blockquote><p><br></p><p>Best,</p><p>Mark</p>

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 3 years ago
- Author title: Managing Partner at Huf Consultancy and full time Autist
- Net upvotes: 1




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