Did you know the term “soft skills” originated in the U.S. military? Neither did we—until we read this brilliant post by our CEO CF member Szymon Malecki. From legacy BPO challenges to C-suite alignment and local business buy-in, GBS leaders still face issues that go far beyond #KPIs and automation. They’re not about “steel”—they’re about people. #Softskills. Still the hardest to master. 👉 Read his post. It’s worth your time. #GBS #leadership #softskills #castellanova #businessservices
GBS Executives Hiring around the 🌏 | GBS Talent Location Strategy | Founder and Managing Consultant at Malecki Executive Search - Horton International | Honorary Consul of Luxembourg in Cracow
Did I know, the expression "soft skills" originated in the U.S. military? No I did not. Did you? Adam Grant writes about it in his great read "Hidden Potential". In the 1960s, the U.S. Army recognized that training soldiers solely in technical skills—like operating weapons—was insufficient. They brought in psychologists to help develop competencies in communication and collaboration. The term “soft” was coined simply to differentiate these interpersonal skills from physical contact with weapons and machinery—literally, “hard” steel. Ok, but does this have to do with GBS? Right, You may think, I think, all is related to GBS. Don’t worry. But this one is, much more then you think. I was actually planning to write a short text about challenges, I have recently discussed with a few fellow GBS Leaders from across the world. On different continents, in multiple time zones, different markets and in very different organizations. Even if for all GBS professionals very familiar, the challenges in detail were also different. One we spoke about was the missing service level consistency of a BPO provider. Another one was about lack of commitment in the C-suite about the direction the GBS organization has to go. Yet another about the constant challenge of convincing the internal client(=local business) about the value GBS brings into the picture. Or seeing them not wanting to give away control. Let’s, for a moment, look past our collective eye-roll at how old these challenges are (they go back at least as far as the very first shared service center). But what do all these issues have in common? They are all far away from the "steel". They are about the human factor, the soft skill. Obvious? Did anyone ever say, global business services organizations do not do their job in any of the vast number of KPIs they are measured by? KPIs, hard figures are the steel. Automations, optimizations, first AI and other technology solutions and hard data including cost reduction provide evidence. The engines are running, the power is produced. If this would be so obvious, we would not hear the endless questioning of it’s existence.
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Brilliant insights. At Talenteum.com, we see every day how essential soft skills are—especially in remote and international teams. They’re often the true driver of success across borders and time zones. Thanks for the reminder that people still matter most.