Soft skills. What are they? Why do I need them?

Hard skills are teachable abilities or skill sets that are easy to quantify. They are typically taught in the classroom, or on the job. Veterinary skills are hard skills – you are trained to do them or learn them from reading books and practising the tasks. Soft skills, on the other hand are harder to quantify. They are more subjective and correlate with the way you relate to, and interact with, other people. They are generally not taught in the undergraduate veterinary curriculum in any great detail.

Task vs. people orientation

Our personalities can be divided into two orientation types: either task- or relationship-focused, with a spectrum in between. There are no rights or wrongs here – we need a balance of both orientations in society. People-orientated personalities build relationships and community, while task orientated people get things done. Our businesses need both.

Task-orientated people focus on their to-do list and getting things done, have concrete goals and are concerned with productivity. This is a very typical veterinary personality trait. Those who are people-orientated lean towards a focus on the people around them, running happy teams, building relationships and placing a greater importance on happiness.

Soft skills

The types of skills referred to as soft include communication, flexibility, patience, problem solving and leadership. Time management, dealing with difficult clients and resilience are three key skills a newly graduating colleague should try to prioritise. Leadership, communicating your vision and enabling staff to fulfill their potential are three key skills a principal might aspire to achieve. Soft skills are vitally important to allow us to thrive within the veterinary industry. We work as part of teams; we need to communicate and build rapport with clients, understand and communicate with our bosses, provide feedback for our employees and deal with the daily dramas of practice. To understand if you need more soft skills in your life ask yourself the following three questions: [...]