Even though they’re more difficult to measure, that doesn’t mean we can’t improve them, can’t practice them, or can’t change the way we do our work. Of course we can. Let’s stop calling them soft. They’re interpersonal skills. Leadership skills. The skills of charisma and diligence and contribution. But these modifiers, while accurate, somehow edge them away from the vocational skills, the skills that we actually hire for, the skills we measure a graduate degree on. So let’s uncomfortably call them real skills instead.
