Soft Skills or Hard Skills: which is more important?

The process of interviewing individuals for teams in our company often involves discussions about interesting topics. I have worked for many companies in technologically developed countries, spanning from West to East. Personally, I consider myself to be a very technical person, although my soft skills could be improved. Well, there will always be someone who wants to see them better. That's life.

So, what is more important: soft skills or hard skills?

Stop. Don’t answer. There is a catch in this question.

Actually, we don't need someone with exceptional soft skills, who is the heart and soul of the team but works slowly and inefficiently. We also don't need someone with exceptional technical skills always trying to prove that they are the smartest bad-ass in the room.

But what we truly desire is to find individuals with whom we and our colleagues can work comfortably. Does this imply that soft skills hold greater significance?

I believe this simply demonstrates the prevailing bias in the industry. We are all highly technical individuals, well-educated, and aware of our shortcomings. We constantly work to this gap. This is a deeply psychological aspect.

I believe that if we genuinely want to promote "soft skills," we should change our approach in searching for good candidates. Instead of focusing on what candidates should be like, we should emphasize what we offer to candidates. This shift in perspective should not solely be the responsibility of HR with their standardized list of benefits. I think software developer leads should also take on this responsibility.

People come to us with a desire to achieve something. As leaders, what can we offer to our future colleagues?

Hard skills are crucial for businesses to drive robust, technically optimized, and efficient solutions that are relevant to the case.

Soft skills are crucial for businesses to enable collaboration between people on "high-end" technologies.

We need to find the right balance between hard and soft skills on the scale. This balance can be achieved not only by assembling individuals with the desired combination of skills, but also through a diverse mix of people. We understand that intelligent individuals may have poor communication skills. Instead of attempting to change people and make them more "soft", leaders can take responsibility by creating an environment where both "smart people" and "not-so-smart people" can collaborate and compensate for each other's weaknesses. The entire team can be seen as a collective "person" with a combination of soft and hard skills that always come together.

The balance of skills is important.