Hiring for soft skills to succeed

In workplaces everywhere, groups of people from diverse backgrounds are expected to come together to accomplish shared goals. While technical skills and business acumen are imperative, having the right mix of personal values, traits and characteristics is equally important when it comes to succeeding at work.

Most of us have experienced strain from working with a toxic or difficult colleague. Productivity and job satisfaction suffer when companies bring in people with low self-awareness, negative attitudes or poor communication skills.

Diane Kessel Knight, owner of Kessel Performance Consulting – a management coaching and consulting practice – agrees. “I have seen teams derailed by…