The phrase ‘soft skills’ is often used to describe the skills which characterize relationships with other people, or which are about how you approach life and work.

    Other phrases that are often used for these types of skills include: ‘people skills’, ‘interpersonal skills’, ‘social skills’ or ‘transferable skills’.

   ‘Hard skills’, by contrast, is a phrase usually used to describe job-specific skills. Examples of such skills include professional skills like bricklaying or accountancy, medical expertise such as diagnosis and treatment, or other skills that can be taught and whose presence is testable through exams. Ironically, for many people, the so-called soft skills are often some of the hardest skills to develop.

   A Harvard study says that 85% of one’s success at the work place is attributed to soft skills and only15%....