"Soft" Skills are still the Key to Virtual Work
A month before the pandemic, I listened to a podcast that truly resonated with me suggesting that “soft” skills are in serious need of rebranding. Soft skills are typically defined as “the ways we interact with others, our interpersonal dynamics, and how we communicate and work together”. These skills are so often misinterpreted as “nice”, “mushy”, or “fluffy”. Now, many months into the most accelerated digital transformation of our working lives, nothing could be more clear - attention to these skills is critical to the success of this transformation. Our ability to relate to others, whether we formally manage people or as individual contributors, is a foundational set of people skills - and they are not “soft” in any way. They are the hard skills. As podcast guests proposed in that episode, “soft” skills should be rebranded as life skills or as leadership skills.
Since March, we’ve learned in the most painful way possible that these skills are even tougher without the benefit of live, in-person work. But they are no less important or impactful - on the contrary, they may take on even greater priority and the need to be intentional in a virtual world - that is not ending anytime soon. In a surprisingly still hot talent market, those managers and organizations who recognize that the technology tools are just the means and focus on how to support their teams through this virtual transformation will win at retaining top talent. Now, we sadly understand this distanced workplace is a marathon rather than a sprint. The focus for employers has shifted to such topics as: advising the workforce on building resilience, navigating uncertainty, sustaining wellbeing, and dealing with stress. Organizational psychologists are working overtime to develop coping strategies. These are not technical skills, nor are these concerns primarily caused by technology. The toughest issues we have are at their core interpersonal, person-to-person and person-to-self. BetterUp’s research recently pulsed thousands of their virtual coaching participants, and the results were quite telling: the greatest stress reported (low wellbeing combined with low productivity) comes not from introducing and leveraging new technology or learning new technical skills, but from the often accompanying changes in organizational structure, role, and team composition. The human stuff. The coping with change stuff.
So how do we best focus on the tough people skills, the dynamics of human interaction without the benefit of face to face? How do we recommit to the basics of motivating human beings, and the decades of reinforcing lessons we already know, and apply them virtually?
The best workforce-focused knowledge we have about human motivation lies in employee engagement research. Pick any white paper, or study, and it will highlight how much more lies in the hands of direct managers than we acknowledge. Research confirms over and over that when people feel valued, heard, connected, empowered and paid attention to regarding their development, that is what makes all the difference in their productivity and sense of belonging in the organization. It matters not just in how people feel treated, but in the “extra mile” they give the organization. Although it will never feel the same as face-to-face, this can - and is - happening virtually. Here are a few of my suggestions, and I’d love to hear yours too!:
l) Prioritize your 1:1 conversations - and don’t let your staff meeting be a substitute. Prepare for a quality conversation that will make a genuine difference. Here is one of many excellent resources to help prepare for a quality conversation. Hint: Direct less, ask more. If you are an individual contributor, check out the resource in reverse: ask yourself these questions, and bring up topics you wish to address with your manager.
2) Simulate brief, hallway or coffee station informality as much as possible. Miss the informal “gotta minute?” chat? Who said every discussion needs a formal invitation with a link and 30-60 min slot? Get creative by offering “drop-in hallway time” where you tell your team you are available for quick check-ins if they want to message you. If you manage by walking around and miss that, work out a virtual way to walk around. Create a common team calendar block called “hallway time” where no one has formal meetings - they can work independently but know team members are available for drop in and at least some spontaneity - like when you meet in the kitchen for coffee.
3) Enhance two-way dialogue and co-create change with your staff. There is no corner office right now. Take advantage of the virtual “office” where all leaders regardless of title have the same size window on a laptop. Help the ideas flow upward, not top down. Pay close attention to gaining quieter voices with mindful facilitation: “I want to hear from everyone”, “Susan, I haven’t heard from you yet” and make liberal use of the chat function. One terrific exchange of ideas is leading a “lessons learned” discussion - What went well? What could improve? What did we learn? What might we do differently next time? Ask questions in advance and summarize “issues” to jumpstart live discussion on solutions. Show your employees their opinions count - here are a few other ideas on organizational listening. If you are an individual contributor, don’t wait to be asked. Dare to share your perspective and ideas.
4) Recommit to connection, caring, and building a sense of belonging. Watching how successfully the vast majority of employers scrambled to adapt and pivot, setting up employees to work remotely, Zooming away - was both astonishing and impressive. That was the enabling technology. Then came the surge of guidance to managers to demonstrate employee empathy, reminding us that the tools are just the means. They do not replace the need for human connection. The guru of organization trust, and the Trust Pyramid, Patrick Lencioni, made this crystal clear: “be exceedingly human”. If you focus on relationships first, task will follow. As detailed in a prior blog, I saw cases during the pandemic where, when leaders focused on connection and enhancing a sense of belonging, engagement actually increased in the months that followed with a high level of attention paid to interactions between people. If a team member seems not quite themselves in the group setting, follow up privately.
5) Deliver recognition - praise is considered one of the highest impact, yet lowest cost ways to demonstrate you value someone, but this is an often overlooked strategy. The most powerful praise is genuine, frequent (Gallup’s research says every 7 days) and especially specific - “great job” is not as meaningful as “the presentation really gave our client a realistic perspective by the way you covered X with examples…” Want to multiply the positive effect? Deliver recognition in front of co-workers and it multiplies the effect for the recipient AND, as a bonus, it lets everyone know what behavior you want repeated.
We are fortunate to live in an age of innovative technology that supports our ability to work virtually. Technology is an amazing enabler, but it must be leveraged to facilitate human to human interaction, it cannot replace it. Leaders who maintain a highly engaged staff will not only differentiate themselves during this challenging time, but do so when we can once again enjoy sitting across the desk or conference table in person.