Soft Skills Matter Now More Than Ever: What New Research Means for Athletes

By Matt Amerlan

Director of Workforce Development

The Dual Threat Advantage

We’ve talked a lot about the idea that soft skills (sometimes called “foundational” skills or

durable skills) are in high demand in the workforce and that these are skills that athletes develop first hand in their day-in-day-out pursuit of reaching their optimal athletic ability. This can bode well for the millions of athletes who will end their playing days at some point - and will join their next team in life in the workforce and beyond. The key is empowering them to understand that they have these highly sought after skills and that they transfer. With that, let’s

take a closer look at why soft skills are so important to our workforce.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article titled,

“Soft Skills Matter Now More Than Ever, According to New Research”, the authors look at recent research that shows us exactly why soft skills or foundational skills will continue to be essential and are becoming even more important in today’s work environment across all industries.

A fascinating component of this, that may at first seem counterintuitive as to why soft skills are so important, is the fact that today we are in such a fast technologically moving environment that isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Hearing that, we might say, “well, if technology is moving so fast and growing, wouldn’t it be more important to have the technical skills to operate in this environment”? Let’s be clear, technical skills are important, however the research is showing why the foundational soft skills to operate in this environment are proving to be even more important.

Because technology is evolving so quickly and change in technology is happening at lightning speed, first and foremost, being strong in foundational soft skills provides flexibility in this fast changing world. The article discusses and gives examples of how the waves of technology rise and fall. Once Adobe Flash was the gold standard for web content, then HTML5, JavaScript, etc. Discussed in the article is the point that, “These rapid cycles are no longer rare. Researchers estimate that the “half-life” of technical skills - the time it takes for half of what you know to become outdated - has dropped from about 10 years in the 1980’s to four years, and may soon fall below two”.

The article goes on to explain that because specific specialized skills can rise and fall quickly, findings show that it is the people that possess a shared toolkit of soft skills that are able to ride out these waves, a toolkit including the ability to problem-solve, communicate, have the ability to work well with teams, etc. In addition to this, the findings show that soft skills are more essential now than ever because of how we work - cross functional projects, remote teams, the need for workers to adapt to tools that update from quarter to quarter.

In other words, being strong in our foundational soft-skills puts us in a position to perform optimally in the fast paced, ever-changing technical environment we function in today. Linking this back to the sports world, one of my favorite people to follow on LinkedIn is NBA player and Denver Nugget, Spencer Jones. Spencer shares many interesting incites into how sports concepts transcend the world of sports - concepts that we believe in and lean into at Positive Athlete.

In one of his recent LinkedIn posts, Spencer shares that, “When your opportunity is dictated by forces you can’t control, you learn how to obsess over the ones you can: Your health. Your readiness. Your availability.” When you think about it, this is exactly what we are talking about here. The forces we can’t control are how rapidly our technology is shifting and how this affects what technical skills we need. What we can learn to obsess over is making sure we have the foundational soft skills where the development of these skills is in our control. If we do this we can be ready for any game, in any setting, no matter the circumstances we come up against.

Dual Threat Playbook Tip

How to communicate skills learned through athletics to your resume.