Today, based on a large body of research, we know that soft skills matter.
In fact, we know that they are
the most powerful predictor of success in career and life. They have a significant impact on academic,
career and personal success. But, how well do they predict success?
Soft Skills as a Predictor of Academic Success
The Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation interviewed 400
Fortune 500 CEOs. They found that 75% of long-term college and career success depends upon
developing soft skills. According to another study, soft skills predicted high school and college
completion. Their research reported that 95% of students ages 3-11 who scored in the top 20% of the
soft skill “self-control” graduated high school. Only 58% of students who scored in the bottom 20% of
“self-control” graduated. Research conducted by the Alliance for Excellent Education estimated that
reducing the number of high school dropouts in half for a single high school class nationwide would
increase America’s gross domestic product by up to $9.6 billion by the time the graduates reached the
middle of their careers. According to that same research, the high school graduation rate across the
United States for the class of 2015 was 83.2%. Increasing the graduation rate to 90% would:
• Create 65,150 new jobs
• Boost gross domestic product by $11.5 billion annually
• Increase annual earnings by $7.2 billion
• Increase annual spending by $5.3 billion
• Increase federal tax revenue by $1.1 billion
The most empirical finding of the economic impact of six widely used SEL programs found that the
average long-term benefits of every dollar invested in these programs yielded an $11 return. Included
among these benefits were higher lifetime earnings and better mental and physical health.
Research conducted out of the University of Chicago found that scores on another soft skill,
Conscientiousness, predicted how many years of education adults would complete. The correlation of
Conscientiousness with years of completed schooling was .27 while the correlation with Intelligence
was .16, making it highly statistically significant. No other predictors of academic success ranked higher
than social skills.
Soft Skills as a Predictor of Career Success
Believe it or not, data has shown soft skills being more important than hard skills for 100 years. It was
established back in 1918 by Mann’s study on engineering education that approximately 80% of success
is due to soft skills while 20% is due to hard skills.
In research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center
concluded that 85% of job success came from having well‐developed soft and people skills, and only
15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).
Technical proficiency, once a guarantee of lifetime employment, is a commodity in today’s job market.
Companies today are hiring for soft skills. A 2006 survey of 400 employers were asked to list the most
important qualities they want in their employees. The top three were: 1) professionalism/work ethic, 2)
teamwork/collaboration, and 3) oral communications.
Return on investment in soft skills is much more than you could ever get from education or technical
training. Research conducted by Stanford Research Institute International and Carnegie Mellon
Foundation with Fortune 500 CEOs reported that:
• 75% of long-term job success depends on people skills while only 25% on technical knowledge.
• Higher levels of soft skills predict financial stability, lifetime earnings and frequency of financial
crises.
• By 2020, more than half a million workers will be significantly held back by a lack of soft skills.
Echoing the Stanford Research reported above, Mette Johansson, the head coach of KPI Singapore
reported that, by the year 2020, in the UK alone:
• Over 500,000 people are expected to be significantly held back by their lack of soft skills (this
means that half a million people will not have the soft skills required to do their job).
• The loss of productivity due to the soft skills deficit is anticipated to exceed $10 billion per year
by 2020.
In 2002, Bowles and Gintis Recent reported the importance of high levels of persistence and the relative
unimportance of IQ on lifetime earnings. Additional research has supported the authors’ hypotheses
concerning the role of soft skills, rather than technical skills, as determinants of labor market success.
In a 2008, Google conducted research called Project Oxygen to understand their top employees’ keys to
success. The findings of that research were shocking to many as technical skills came in last place. The
rest were soft skills. The eight most important qualities of their top employees were:
1. Being a good coach
2. Communication skills
3. Possessing insights into others and different values and points of view
4. Empathy toward one’s colleagues
5. Critical thinking
6. Problem-solving
7. Drawing conclusions (making connections across complex ideas)
8. STEM Skills
Soft Skills as the Best Predictor of Success in Life
Well-Being is recognized as one of the best measures of success in life. In a study of 8,119 men and
women aged 52 and older, the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College
London found that soft skills boost well-being as we age. They discovered that conscientiousness,
emotional stability, persistence, control and optimism work in concert to promote health, wealth and
well-being in early and later life. These five soft skills were associated with better health, less
depression, less loneliness, fewer chronic diseases and greater financial stability.
Significant evidence connecting conscientiousness to health-related issues has also been found. This
research concluded that conscientiousness increased positive health impacting behaviors like stress
resilience, social connectedness, SES (educational attainment, career success and earnings) and
longevity. In addition, it was found that conscientiousness decreased behaviors having a negative impact
on health, including physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, excessive alcohol use, drug use, risky sexual
practices, risky driving, tobacco use, suicide and violence. They also found that conscientiousness
decreased morbidity related issues like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, high blood pressure, skin problems,
strokes, tuberculosis and ulcers.
Soft Skills Contribute to Becoming Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
Research over the past 100 years points to soft skills as the best predictor of success in academic, career
and life. The past ten years have seen a marked increase in research into the positive impact of soft skills
and the significance of the gap in soft skills possessed by graduated entrants to the workforce has been
well documented.
As I reflect on some of the significant successes experienced by people I worked with in my counseling
and executive coaching practice, one particular story comes to mind. Joseph (not his real name) and his
wife made an appointment with me because their marriage was on the verge of ending as he was
seldom home due to long work hours and when he was home, he was irritable and stressed out.
Focusing on Joseph’s behavior at home without attending to issues at work would have been an
incomplete approach, so we decided to combine counseling for Joseph and his wife with professional
coaching. As he learned and implemented soft skills at work, he found that employee morale increased
along with productivity and a general improvement in the work culture. He also saw a decrease in
turnover and customer complaints.
The combination of these changes led to higher profitability which led to him being noticed by the CEO.
With the attention and support of the CEO, Joseph progressed through the ranks over the next seven
years, climbing all the way to COO of this Fortune 100 company.
Joseph’s newly acquired soft skills allowed him to accomplish more in less time and with less stress,
allowing him to spend more time at home and be less irritable when he was there. He became the kind
of husband and father he wanted to be, while simultaneously achieving his career goals – all due to his
focus on developing soft skills. One could say that developing soft skills helped Joseph to become
healthier, wealthier and wiser.
Not everyone works as diligently to develop soft skills as Joseph did, but when they do, they experience
significant improvement in the personal and professional lives. Soft skills improve every area of life from
the academic to career to health and wellbeing as I have learned based on both hard data/research and
my own experiences in coaching and counseling.
