Here’s a gem from the February 20th edition of Mad, Sad, Glad from ManagerTools.com:
This is a typical HBR article in that it’s long and academic. The important part is that people would rather work with with someone who is incompetent than someone who is unlikable. If you think that smarts are enough, refer to our very first podcast ‘Solution to a Stalled Technical Career‘. Yes, HBR, we said it 10 years ago 🙂
What! I thought this was a meritocracy! Am I not hired for my mad skills?!
Well, yes. You are.
And contributing positively to a team is a skill. One the vast majority of us can’t succeed without.
Be likable.
Be a good, kind, and gracious person. People tend to like those.
No tricks. Don’t just gently imitate others like Andy Bernard from The Office. Trickery is icky and doomed to fail — if not professionally then ultimately in the shriveling of your soul.
I’m glad you liked this Mad, Sad, Glad! Wendii (Manager Tools).
I’ve really enjoyed them. Today’s in particular was very good. I particularly like your take on voicemail and wrote a bit about it today: http://www.managerjs.com/blog/2015/06/pretend-its-all-voicemail
I think it is about 50-50 between technical skills and soft skills. Many developers do not fully appreciate that their role is to satisfy the users needs. This can lead to products that are great from a purely technical point of view but don’t actually do what the client wanted.
I think its better to hire someone with average technical skills and great soft skills than to hire a technical expert with poor soft skills. The person with great soft skills is likely to also be a good learner and will keep improving their technical skills. But someone with poor soft skills often cannot see their own flaws so it is much harder for them to improve.