In sports, different players have different specialties - a pitcher is not expected to be an excellent outfielder or catcher, but he does need to know how it's done. IT needs to cultivate different soft skills in the entire group to raise basic awareness, then further cultivate those who have a knack for this skill or that. Kind of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts sort of thing.

Though I think that one major obstacle to finding these people is the hiring process itself. Read just about any technical role and it's a wonder anyone gets hired. The list of qualifications is over the top, with a wide range of skills listed as *required*. If one has some of the skills *and* good soft skills bothers to apply, they will almost certainly be culled from the list by the HR bots and drones and the hiring manager will end up with a stack of resumes containing uber geeks with no soft skills, well qualified people well above the salary range and a bunch of too-good-to-be-true applicants. They will end up being stuck hiring someone who doesn't 'play well with others' or someone who can't really get the job done, since there is no way in he$# HR will allow a hire above the salary cap. Talk about a dysfunctional process.

I'm sure this is a problem for all departments too, not just IT. Managers need to force HR to give them a better stack of applicants. Stop focusing on certifications so much. If a manager has a 'like-to-have' list of 8 skills but can mold an employee with 5 that also has soft skills, then create a job listing that can actually find these people and does not filter them out.

There is so much talent out there. I'm expecting this comment section will end up having a bunch of people saying they can do this but can't get an interview, as well as a bunch of managers saying they can't find anyone. HR is the weak link in this chain.