The Importance of Soft Skills

While preparing courses for the upcoming semester, I found a survey from a few years ago that was part of a presentation I gave to an arts organization. The survey was given to a few dozen arts entrepreneurs working in various fields in the music industry. Most of the respondents owned ventures with more than 1 employee, and only a few of the respondents were performers with no full-time employees. The questions focused on a variety of topics, from the industry landscape over the years, to changes in the field, requisite skills, and so on

One goal was to share the information gleaned from the survey with the college students in the audience so they have a better understanding of what those in the field value in practice. Another goal was to start a dialogue with the teachers in the audience about how we are preparing students.  

Because there seems to be a bias in academia towards developing hard skills, I thought I would share responses to 2 questions as the respondents overwhelmingly cited soft skills.  

What traits and skills do you look for in new associates/partners? 

• Passion, drive and positive attitude (cited 6 times)
• Representing themselves well/respectful of others (6 times)
• Reliability (4 times)
• Intellectual curiosity/continual learners (4 times)
• Strong work ethic (3 times)
• A team player (3 times)
• Flexibility and imagination (2 times)
• Public speaking skills (2 times)
• Trustworthiness
• Desire to want to help
• Organizational skills 
• More than desire, a plan to reach their goals
• Self-motivated
• Creative problem solvers not problem identifiers
• Commonsense and outgoing personality
• Well-rounded individuals
• NOTE:  Other than musical skills needed for performers, musical skills were listed as a nice to have but not must have.

What wisdom would you impart to young people desiring to create their own opportunities as an entrepreneur in your field? 

• Be reliable, passionate and positive (3 times)
• Be willing to do what it takes to succeed (2 times)
• Take chances (2 times) 
• Keep learning (2 times)
• Be active in your desired field (2 times)
• Be open to everything that comes along
• (From a preforming musician) Stay positive and concentrate on the important things (musical and instrumental skills) and adapt to the rest.
• Follow your heart and keep the big picture in mind, rather than focus on the small things
• Internship and apprentice as much as you can
• Be someone others want to be around
• Be open to new experiences
• Believe you can succeed 
• Know who you are, your strengths and weaknesses
• Don’t burn any bridges
• View everyone you meet is a potential collaborator
• Embrace those around you, and you will have inspiration for your new creations

​Given that soft skills are so highly valued among the active arts entrepreneurs surveyed, if you are currently working in the arts ecosystem, do you or have you worked on your soft skills? If you are teaching in the arts, how much time do you spend teaching soft skills and what activities do you use? 

Thanks for reading,
Nick