Soft skills Soft skills Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character of personality traits, attitudes, career attribute, social intelligence and emotional intelligence quotients among others that enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills. The Collins English Dictionary defines the term "soft skills" as "desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive flexible attitude." Since 1959, the U.S. Army has been investing a considerable amount
Emotional intelligence Moreover, Joseph and Newman (2010) suggested that emotional perception and emotional regulation components of EI highly contribute to job performance under job contexts of high emotional demands. Moon and Hur (2011) found that emotional exhaustion (“burn-out”) significantly influences the job performance – EI relationship. Emotional exhaustion showed a negative association with two components of EI (optimism and social skills). This association impacted negatively to job performance, as well. Hence, job performance – EI relationship is stronger under contexts of high emotional exhaustion or burn-out; in other words, employees with high levels of optimism and social skills possess better resources to