Social Capital Mentor

I came across a question on Answerbag.com today that sounds like someone’s upset about a promotion that she didn’t get.

At work, how does it make you feel when someone less qualified with no real substance gets promoted above someone else who is much more qualified, just because one is a much smoother talker and knows how to put on a better “show” and talk the talk?

Of course, I have no idea if she’s writing about personal experience. What intrigues me about questions like this is how easily people want to dismiss the importance of soft skills (as my regular readers know, Malcolm Gladwell does a great job describing the importance of social savvy in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success).

I worked with a friend who used to get all bent out of shape because the manager of our group wasn’t as good at design as my friend was. I would agree with him. He was a better designer. But that’s not the manager’s job. The skills of management are not the same skills as design.

A great manager will always hire staff that are more qualified in the hard skills. It takes a lot of self-assurance because when you do this as a manager, it creates an appearance of not being as smart as the rest of your team. But, in reality, hiring people who are better than you at the hard skills is one of the smartest thing you can do. It’s often the same when promoting someone; it’s often not about the hard skills.

For many jobs–especially in management or leadership–you have to consider someone’s ability to create relationships, represent your group, get things done in teams, etc. It’s very important.

Do you have a boss? Is he or she more qualified than you in the hard skills of your job or less qualified? What about the soft skills?

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