Soft Skills are the New Hard Skills, and Here’s Why

We’ve minimized soft skills for decades. Compelling research shows we’ve been wrong all along. Yes, skills and experience remain important. However, the lack of characteristics of trust, mutual respect, and integrity can quite literally destroy an otherwise skilled and experienced team. The data prove out. Come learn why and what you can do about it.

The Presenter

Michael Page, AuD has served as a member of the Utah Cochlear Implant team, and as president of the Utah Speech-Language-Hearing Association, member of the Primary Children’s Medical Center Bioethics Committee, and board chair for DOPL. He has held adjunct faculty positions at Utah State University, Brigham Young University, University of Utah and University of the Pacific (San Francisco). He served as chair of the AAA Ethical Practices Committee, Manager of Cochlear Implant Program at Primary Children’s Hospital, as well as various management and executive positions with industry. He is a business consultant for healthcare and education specializing in ethical practice, professional relationships, strategic planning and healing low-trust working environments. 

Additional Resources

Passing the Word: Toward a Model of Gossip and Power in the Workplace
http://www.csun.edu/~nkurland/PDFs/AMR%20Gossip%202000.pdf

UC Riverside Study Busts Myths about Gossip
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2019/05/03/uc-riverside-study-busts-myths-about-gossip

Harvard Research Proves Toxic Employees Destroy Your Culture and Your Bottom Line
https://www.inc.com/marissa-levin/harvard-research-proves-toxic-employees-destroy-your-culture-your-bottom-line.html

It’s Better to Avoid a Toxic Employee Than Hire a Superstar
https://hbr.org/2015/12/its-better-to-avoid-a-toxic-employee-than-hire-a-superstar

Toxic Workers
http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/16-057_d45c0b4f-fa19-49de-8f1b-4b12fe054fea.pdf

Who Gossips and How Often in Everyday Life, Social Psychological and Personality Science.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550619837000?journalCode=sppa

How Do You Deal with Difficult-People
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0217/pages/how-do-you-deal-with-difficult-people.aspx

Workplace Gossip:  What Crosses the Line?
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/office-gossip-policies.aspx