Why Soft Skills Should Matter in B-Schools

Most professionals will agree that the success or failure of a project largely depends on the quality of their interactions with their teams and customers rather than just their knowledge and technical skills. It's about how well you communicate and connect with others or how they perceive you - as a leader or as just another techie. In a nutshell - emotional quotient (EQ) or soft skills come into the picture.

But why is that soft skills are largely ignored by Indian B-schools? Why is it that we give more weightage to functional knowledge and a person's IQ?

In my article "Do B-Schools Equip Students With Soft Sills? NOT Fully", I have shared my thoughts on the current curriculum process followed in most B-schools - while they encourage the building of soft skills through group assignments, presentations, etc. - they are not enough to nurture and hone one's soft skills.

The onus is now on B-schools to actively take this up, right from the entrance examination to incorporating soft skills in their curriculum. After all, it's "IQ gets you hired but EQ gets you promoted". And the best way to achieve this is to broadly divide soft skills as interpersonal skills and intrapersonal skills. While the former encompasses communication skills, negotiation and conflict resolution, the latter revolves around building students' responses to their surroundings and includes self-awareness, perseverance and resilience.

The question ultimately boils down to this - Are Indian B-schools ready to look beyond a theoretical base and focus on equipping students with the necessary soft skills to create a "complete package"?

About the Author

Abhijit Bhaduri works as the Chief Learning Officer for the Wipro group. He lives in Bangalore, India. Prior to this he led HR teams at Microsoft, PepsiCo, Colgate and Tata Steel and worked in India, SE Asia and US. He is on the Advisory Board of Wharton's prestigious program for Chief Learning Officers that is run by the Univ of Pennsylvania.

He is an adviser on Social Media usage for SHRM in India. He is among the top ten HR influencers on Social Media according to SHRM, India. You can join him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/abhijitbhaduri. Abhijit is the author of two works of fiction. His most recent book about hiring is called Don?t Hire The Best. His writings have appeared in The Economic Times, the Hindu Business Line, People Matters Magazine, Operations Research & Management Sciences Today. He has been quoted in Knowledge@Wharton and journals like Organizational Dynamics. He also blogs for Times of India.

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