Quote of the Month: Hard skills will...

"Hard skills will get you an interview, but you need soft skills to get (and keep) the job"

I've selected this quote because of the topic discussed in the post "The importance of "soft skills""

The importance of "soft skills"

How "soft skills" influence in an interview, your job or daily routine? Are they more important than "hard skills"?

This month, Julia McIntosh of ASQ's Communications department wrote about different themes discussed in the past ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement 2013 in Indianapolis-Indiana, and I've selected "soft skills" to be my topic for the monthly Influential Voices discussion.

During the conference, Sally Hogshead and James Melton talked about "soft skills", emphasizing in the importance of making oneself likeable, fascinating, and charming, and treating strangers with the same courtesy as you do loved ones, in order to "go far". When they had to answer the question: Do soft skills matter if you’re extraordinary at the technical aspects of your job?, their both answered YES, and I totally agree with.

But before continuing, let's have a quick review of what soft (and hard) skills are.

Soft skills (Wikipedia) are personal attributes that enhance an individual's interactions, job performance and career prospects; in and outside the workplace. A set of "soft skills" is related to a person's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient). Some examples are personal qualities, personal traits (common sense, responsibility, a sense of humor, integrity, etc), social graces, communication, language, personal habits, self-confidence, friendliness, ethic, positive attitude, optimism, etc.

Quality National Award

April's topic for the Influential Voices that ASQ's CEO Paul Borawski wanted to discuss, is about the existence or not of a National Quality Award in our countries.

My country, Argentina has been working on that for the more than 20 years.

In 1991, in order to be part of the world effort to bring quality at the front line and based on the well-known "Deming Prize" (Japan, 1951) and "Malcolm Baldrige Award" (USA, 1987), an Argentinian institution called "Business Institution for Quality and Excellence - FUNDECE" (for its initials in Spanish - Fundación Empresaria para la Calidad y Excelencia) promoted and actively participated along with the Government and the community in the creation of a "National Quality Award - PNC" (for its initials in Spanish - Premio Nacional a la Calidad) in recognition of Argentinian companies that have implemented successful quality-management systems.

In 1992, the Law 24.127 was enacted where the award and events related to, were considered of national interest, with symbolic and non economic nature. 

The main goal for the law is "to develop and promote the processes and systems for a continuous quality improvement of products and services, developed in private and public companies, in order to support the modernization and competitiveness of these organizations." (Art.#2 of the Law) .