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10 highly valued soft skills for IT pros

Like it or not, it's a global economy. So I would add to this list,

11. Learn to work well across national and cultural boundaries.

Learn a little Chinese, French, Spanish, Brazilian. Understand their cultures and be prepared to be the person to lead when and if the programming work gets outsourced to other countries. Be flexible, be able to work across time zones and understand how different cultures think and act in terms of leadership and specifying requirements and tasks.

The skills listed are ones an upwardly mobile IT person should have, executive skills should be polished to a degree.
The knowledgeable can reduce costs in a major project in ways never imagined by the bean counters.
IT people tend to know a lot, they were born networking, they have access to the hive mind, don't fool yourself, IT people are aliens....ok not really, but non-IT folks can't understand a word they say when evesdropping on them.
I couldn't agree more as regards languages.
Cultural sensitivity can be critical.
Spanish is a given for folks from the southwest(show me a Texan that doesn't speak Spanish and I'll show you someone from Cape Hatteras).
French in an easy tongue for most.
Japanese is a bit more of a challenge, but it's not impossible to accidently pick up enough Japanese to get by.
Chinese would seem to be needed in the near term, and one could do worse than to learn some Russian, and a smattering of Farsi.

We see plenty of people with the above soft skills but shallow technical prowess.
We call them spoofers.

I agree

I agree and add that "Technical people" with these soft skills are really only necessary in environments with bad management and environments where the project managers are spoofing.

John - what do you call people with these skills who are also have the technical ability to match? It would seem many don't get hired because they are labeled as over-qualified but really they scare those without soft skills to death.

I call them 'Boss'. I lack many of these skills, but I also don't aspire to climb the ladder to echelons where they're more critical. More power to those who possess these tools and enjoy using them. I'll stay where the emphasis is more on the tech skills than the soft ones.

I thought they were commonly known as consultants , perhaps I'm mistaken. However technical skills can be learned , not being a **** is harder as its more or less in built.
Problem is that often at Uni these guys are given inflated expectations and few soft skills are taught. When studying for my applied physics qualification I thought the business communications module was a waste of time because it wasn't hard core science. In retrospect this was probably the most useful module in the real world employment situation.

This applies to all jobs, not just IT. However I will concede that many IT people have a hard time with people skills, and being a team player specially when it comes to coding. Programmers usually hate someone else messing with their code. I know I do.

I'm very much a loner when it comes to coding and I've been fortunate in most of my jobs. I have a particular way of working, of naming variables, for example, and code layout. In my present job, I followed on from a guy who wrote code that wasn't easy to follow, and now I have a colleague who doesn't follow my 'rules'. This doesn't cause problems, just minor niggles, but one thing I've never encountered is documented coding procedures anywhere I've worked. Maybe there should be a global committee on coding rules then anyone who was familiar with the rules could more easily understand code written by someone else (who adhered to the rules). Anyone willing to start such a ball rolling? I'm willing to share my 'rules' for consideration.

There is a word for an activity in which everyone gets full freedom of self-expression: hobby. I've owned and operated a software development business for 40 years and have enjoyed watching software design and programming advance toward a true engineering discipline. I was delighted when college-educated software designers began to graduate with the title "engineer." This will never, however, be the profession it can be until any engineer can understand the design of any other engineer, and any programmer can follow the work of any other programmer--just as in every other kind of engineering and development environment. Getting IT pros who possess all the skills described in the article is a must, of course, but to be efficient once the decisions are made we need communications among ourselves on the order of electronic hardware development's naming conventions and schematics.

The problem with coding conventions is that technology advances faster than the conventions do. In the end, the "right way" if doing things makes a company less fleet of foot and more likely to play catch up.

Great advice, especially about Vendor management. Thank you!

Fix global warming, feed the hungry, free the oppressed and solve the energy crisis. And why not invent chocolate that cures cancer and makes you slim! This is a wish list that would be great
for any member of any team to have - not just IT. How many team leaders and business managers have more than a couple of these skills? Most of these soft skills are badly served across all business disciplines with only a few stand-out people able to deliver anything like half of these.
As for the CIO's, what exactly will they be doing whilst IT pros are bridging the gap? Is this not exactly what they are paid to do? Using those powerful and invaluable skills that they learn from their background in liberal arts?
Most people want IT to make their computer work. Simple really. They need IT guys who can deliver technology in a robust, stable and progressive manner. This requires IT guys with IT skills first and foremost. Great if that person can have all these soft skills, but realistically most real life tech people work hard enough with the tech. I'm sure there are a few marvellous people out there who can do all this and I hope they are getting all the recognition and benefits they deserve. Mostly IT teams need a variety of people to focus on skill-sets.

With all the talk about the difficulties between IT and the rest of the business it's important keep all of these soft skills in mind. Not every IT person may need to work with non-IT but many do.

Both sides of the fence need to work to improve communication. We can't control how non-IT bridges that gap but we can work on our part. Plus, at least most of us are human and if we can all remember that part of ourselves when dealing with non-IT folks it will help.

Lastly, being able to communicate well does not mean you're all smiles and make nicey nice. Non-IT people will still value and appreciate an IT person's input even if they are gruff and to the point. If the communication is clear, questions are answered in a way non-IT understands and non-IT feels like they are really being listened to then things will work better.

It wasn't the actions with the CIO or Director of IT that determined the attitude of the employees toward IT, it was the interactions between the techs and the employees. Tech skills are essential, but if you're pissing off your customers, they won't want you around.

Absolutely agree. Every person in IT should know their customers , who they are ,what they need and why what they do is important to the business. If you cant figure it out and articulate that to both the management and customer then its time to either learn or look for a new job. For a lot of us its self preservation. Respect is earned and its a two way street. Customers/Users should feel that you understand their needs are are willing and capable of helping them or that you can reasonably explain why you cant. Sometimes it helps to explain what would be required to do that. "computer says no" is career limiting/ending.

especially if you're technically incompetent.

But, then again, who needs technical competence when you have the Indians just an ocean away? You can always cleverly outsource, "all the hard stuff," to them. You know, hard, technical stuff, like... setting up an account in AD or managing the VoIP system or writing the code for an iPhone app (or a military drone - meh, what's the difference?) You know, the stuff we don't want to worry our pretty little heads over. Who cares, anyway? You've got those soft skills to talk your way out of anything, right?

So, go ahead, wrap this noose around your necks. Take the leap. Your (technically incompetent boss) will love you for it.

Yup seen that a couple of times, the former tech that goes into middle management because he doesn't want to deal with the tech stuff anymore.(plus "supposedly" there's more money) and after a while starts acting like a Pointy Haired Boss.

The fun part is that the higher ups still regard him as a "disposable techie" and the troops start hating his guts.

And when upper management kicks his butt out of the company because all his soft skills can't spin a disaster caused by their stupidity combined with his lack of a spine for stopping it when they decided whatever tech monstrosity they wanted (that's what the "business" calls "negotiating"), he finds that his tech skills are outdated and can't get any talented tech to work for him, and then he wonders why the world is so unfair.

Hi,
Those skills are important for any professional not only IT as Suresh Mukhi mentioned but the biggest mistake made by managers when they are looking for them is trying to find all of them in one person. After more than 15 years professional career and more than 5 years management experience I'm quite sure that this person doesnt exists. So in my opinion the point is to try to build a team(IT or not it doesn't matter) which includes people having one or two of those skills plus technical knowledge.

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.

The thing most lacking in my experience is documentation. The ability to write accurately and coherently, to understand spelling and grammar, together with the ability to explain things to those less technical or less experienced is what is most needed among IT people - and also people in general. To single out IT as needing particular skills is good but it should be mentioned that IT is not the only profession which is lacking in some of these skills. The majority of journalists, in my opinion, could do with taking a course in the correct use of English with particular emphasis on grammar and spelling. After that last remark, I had to go back and ensure that I had made no spolling mistooks!

It drives me crazy when I'm in a meeting and people don't know even the simplest things like when to use "I" and when to use "me". And by the way, I'm not being picky but there is a "type-o" in the first sentence of the communication paragraph.

Cream rises to the top and attracts flies.
I don't wonder at all why the "flies in the cream" want their underlings to "need" these soft skills.

Meeting skills are vital - not just for ITers, but for anyone who has ever needed to participate in a meeting (which is everyone :)). Making sure that the meeting stays on track, and that decisions are made, not just postponed to the next meeting, are what you need to ensure that your meetings are productive, and that ultimately, goals are met. And of course, in every meeting theres some measure of give and take, whether its listening to other peoples opinions, or deferring to a different set of priorities - at the end of the day, it is whats in the best interest for the project, or the company, that really matters, and of course, making sure that the meeting decisions are followed up and acted upon.

Using a tool like MeetingKing makes it far easier to manage the meetings flow - from agenda to participants to tasks and decisions, so that when you DO decide how to move the project forward, you also know exactly what has been decided and whos taking ownership of those tasks.

I would agree that the ability to effectively communicate across departmental and company lines is crucial. In fact, although Better Communication Skills is #2, it could be argued that they are necessary for #'s 1, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10. As for a 6th sense of project status - I can't buy into that concept. Granted there are people who can intuitively see the inter-relationships in a project - and PM's who can't. So, how do you quantify that capability? If such innate abilities exist, without the 'credentials' of a PM they will never be exercised.

I do not disagree with the need for team players and political adroitness. However, in too many organizations "team player" becomes confused with "inter-changeable parts" and the idea of "taking one for the team" becomes expected (worn THAT t-shirt!). As for political smarts - those who play in that arena often get caught up in "the Great Game" and devote most of their work day to furthering their causes.

Good list and I agree. Having the soft skills helps IT maintain a better image as well. I always find myself looking for that proper balance of soft skills and technical skills.

This article has prompted many excellently written observations. Highly valued project managers and business analysts have a thirst for understanding the challenges of IT world as well as the challenges of the line(s) of business with which they work.

They must always exhibit respect for the people in both areas, however wacky the statements may seem to be. The better the listening skills, the more likely one is to get to the root cause (business issue OR IT issue).

These skills may be difficult to quantify, but they are usually exhibited in the person's precision in communication. The more precisely PMs and BAs express the business problem(s) to be solved, the stronger the IT solution.

It is certainly ironic that the first sentence makes no sense, has an unneccessary long hyphen, and that the second sentence is missing the word "were". Really "speak in clearly"?

"The ability to read, write, and speak in clearly and effectively will never go out of style especially in IT. IT project annals are filled with failed projects that were good ideas but poorly communicated."

It sounds like some in this thread are saying soft skills aren't important. I always thought they were part of doing my job correctly, in addition to extremely high technical skills. I also expect anyone I hire to have these other qualities. (as well as extremely high technical skills) I also believe that non-technical employees that have good soft skills and use technology as part of their job (like a call center or data entry) need to stay up to speed with new technology. If they say "I'm computer illiterate" they don't belong. They need to be re-trained if they are required to use a computer as part of their job. Their "good soft skills" will enable them to see the importance of the new training.

My boss is admittedly technically incompetent, (he's really not) but he's not I.T. That's my job and my department's job. After looking at this list, I feel that my company is on the top end of the game. I believe that soft skills should be a huge part of any highly valued I.T. employee. A person with these skills would also be compensated more because of it. Follow this link for an article at Techrepublic regarding this: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/when-should-you-stop-valued-employees-from-walking-out-the-door/5025750?tag=content;siu-container

The overseas outsource companies have the ability to do technical jobs, but how much better is it to employ a highly motivated local person that cares enough about his/her position (or your company) to possess these skills and be an ambassador for you?

Those that believe that soft qualities have little value would benefit by seeing it in action. I think it's just good ol' fashioned work ethic.

In about 99% of my professional experience, the cry for "my lack of of soft skills" comes from opposing pretentions to solve technical problems with political solutions (and vice-versa).

I DON'T expect upper management, marketing/sales organisms and NON-IT personnel in general to understand A PRIORI technical problems. That's why there is people specialized in IT. I have no problem explaining technical issues (however complex they may be) to them as many times as needed for them to understand the issue. What gets me complaints about "lack of soft skills" is when they pretend to have a project that needs X amount of resources and Y units of time done with X/10 resources and Y/10 units of time with full functionality (AND NO ERRORS). And judging from what I have seen, it's a pretty common problem.

answer so it means you don't have soft skills. Another example of killing the messenger because of the message.

As is the importance of proofreading...

The ability to read, write, and speak in clearly and effectively will never go out of style

Gotta love an article about business communications that has a glaring error

Each manager is different and you must tailor your approach.

Some managers expect your approach to be on your knees, head bowed down, in deference to the superior wonderfulness that infuses their (lack of) personality, management ability,and technical "chops".

Regardless of how well you get on with your peers, clients, etc. your boss will make, or break, your career at that company, so you best learn quickly if the boss must be the only light in the room.

Some of these are interpersonal skills all professionals should have, but today's current management types only want clones of themselves, but better, with the ability to solve their technology problems AND do their work, while being paid a lot less. Oh and yeah, if it doesn't work out, there's always outsourcing to India and now China.

Management is necessary and managers used to be competent professionals, but we've descended into a crop of 11 year olds of the type responsible for the 2008 worldwide financial meltdown (with the excuse -- and you can see this in "Inside Job": Nobody stopped us!).

Children playing at being professional, making the lives of professional technologists unpleasant and nearly impossible.

It's time for a massive change, and if management doesn't fix the problems in itself (aptly described in "Moral Mazes" and "The Management Trap"), they will find themselves out of business in a slow slide of entropy.

HR & middle mgmt always want a "TEAM Player", but just ask them how their TEAMs are organized and how they operate and just watch the blank stare that they give you. The "TEAM Player" term is usually just something added to a position profile so that the Company can appear to be trendy.

"Team player" can be defined as "one who does not rock the boat".