Listen for the skills
that lead to power.
Sociable Skills = Soft Skills
Soft skills are power skills for careers.
Researchers tracked college students for about 14 years, looking for 3 factors in their careers:
Power
Control over subordinates
Rank in their company’s hierarchy
Sociable, energetic, and assertive college students were more likely to achieve power in their careers than people who were jerks:
Selfish
Combative
Deceitful
These power achievements were “regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, degree program, work culture, industry and college grade point average.”
Network With Powerful People
Listen for sociable / soft skills to network with the people who achieve power. They could help your career.
Listen for selfishness, combativeness, and deceit to avoid people who achieve less power. They could hurt your career.
Even when jerks attain power, they might not be able to hold onto it, as former Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted painfully learned.
“Adidas CEO says his worst career setback was getting fired from HP for having a bad attitude”
Tom Turula
Business Insider
October 18, 2017
“It doesn’t pay to be a jerk at work, research finds”
Kristen Rogers
CNN
September 1, 2020
© Paula M. Kramer, 2021 to the present
All rights reserved.