We all work with people who can be difficult to deal with , and we all work with other people who are a joy to be around, who make the working day a little brighter.
Some of these difficult people will be highly competent in their field; their technical knowledge will be deeper than most - and they will know it.
But is technical competence enough? Do organizations need only that in order to thrive? Or are soft skills (such as communication, teamwork, and leadership) equally important skills to have in a professional environment?
A recent report from Harvard Business Review concludes that these types of soft skills can help workers to reach the highest levels of professional attainment.
The report notes: “Put simply, as technical complexity rises, the glue that keeps talent productive is social skill – communication, empathy, conflict resolution, and the ability to coordinate diverse expertise.”
Soft skills, then, are those personal attributes, traits, and abilities that determine how you interact and work with others – helping you to navigate the complexities and challenges of the workplace.
They are vital for effective collaboration and, unsurprisingly, highly valued by employers.
Life skills
The life sciences sector is a priority for the UK Government, as well as a huge employer of highly-skilled scientists and engineers, along with many others working in support or administrative roles.
But there is a critical skills shortage in some areas of this industry. For example, one report calculates that 70,000 new and 75,000 replacement jobs will be needed in medicines manufacturing in the next 10 years, as new medicines are approved that require complex handling and processing.
The government has responded to this predicted increase in need by creating Resilience, the UK’s Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence. Resilience is a two-year, £4.5 million program designed to excite, engage, and attract young people to work in the sector, and iuses advanced virtual reality (VR) technology to deliver core laboratory and manufacturing skills.
Critically, it also uses AI-powered VR technology to develop soft skills, creating and learning from customizable roleplay.
VR offers many benefits for this kind of learning; - users can be put into highly typical real-life scenarios, such as difficult conversations and job interviews, where they interact with virtual avatars. Crucially, they can replay the scenario over and over again, trying new approaches and building confidence with each new iteration of the scenario.
Providing feedback on a user's performance, AI tools can analyze their behaviors and actions (speech, body language, decisions), providing immediate insights to help guide improvements.
Perhaps most importantly, users choose to approach any given scenario from another perspective (for example, a colleague’s), a choice which can help to create empathy, as well as allow the user to see how they come across to a third party.
While the idea of watching ourselves back is enough to make most people squirm, the truth is that it can reveal aspects of our behavior (mannerisms, delivery, and body language etc.) that we’re likely unaware of.
Finally, because VR training can be delivered anywhere and scaled at will, it represents a highly cost-effective form of training staff.
Talk talk
Collaborative working is essential in the modern workplace, perhaps even more so in the life sciences sector, where scientists work on highly advanced biology and medicines.
The current scientist archetype is one of a brilliant yet eccentric character who lacks social skills and is typically hopeless at communication, which is of course the core enabling skill underpinnning any sort of collaborative work.
Good, effective, communication can mean the difference between success and failure – and the most significant part of communication is listening.
Of course, the best approach is to ensure the organization attracts and retains the right people in the first place. As the wise saying goes, "hire for attitude, train for skills."
As noted above, the most important of those skills is undoubtedly communication, from which everything else flows. Clear communication means using appropriate language – not shouting or looking down on your listeners - and should engender respect and trust in a team.
If you can't communicate your meaning clearly so that your interlocutors can understand it, then t doesn't matter if you or right or know more than anyone else about something; it is simply a waste of time.
As Einstein said; "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
Of course, there is another side to this coin, one captured in another famous quote by Ernest Hemingway: “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."
On a related note, Stephen Covey also observed that “most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." And even further back, in the 17th Century La Rochefoucauld noted: "We never listen when we are eager to speak". This passive sort of listening, when you are ready to pounce in with your Tuppence-worth as soon as someone is finished speaking, is particularly pernicious, resulting in frustration and loss of trust. However, when it is highlighted to an offender, it can be quickly corrected.
Other soft skills that are highly valued include adaptability, work ethic, and emotional intelligence. They can help you stand out in a competitive job market.
Talking of which, here’s a final extract from the Harvard Business Review analysis: “We found that those who scored highly on basic skills were more likely to earn higher wages throughout their careers, move into more advanced roles, learn specialized skills more quickly, and were more resilient to industry changes. The presence and development of foundational skills didn’t just make workers more competitive for entry level jobs — they determined how far they could climb the career ladder.”
The Resilience program recognizes how important it is for scientists and engineers to communicate effectively, and has developed the tools and technology to help them improve this primary soft skill.
Given the critical skills shortages in some parts of the UK’s life sciences sector, it is vitally important that we not only find highly qualified scientists and engineers, but also ensure that they are ready to work in and contribute to a collaborative, supportive, respectful, and trusting environment.
Communication is the core skill that underpins this type of professional environment, and it cuts both ways: articulating your point clearly is vital, but so is actively listening to other points of view.
About Resilience
Resilience is the UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence. It is a £4.3 million program funded by the Office for Life Sciences, part of the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, and managed through Innovate UK.
The two-year program, which started in April 2024, uses virtual reality to train medicine makers in core skills which would be impractical, disruptive, and expensive to gain in the real world.
Partner organizations across the UK delivering the program include the University of Birmingham, University College London (UCL), Teesside University, Heriot-Watt University and the not-for-profit company, Britest. Professor Ivan Wall of the University of Birmingham and Professor Gary Lye of UCL are co-directors of the program.
As well as bridging the skills gap, Resilience is helping the NHS to meet its long-term goal of achieving net zero. 25% of NHS emissions are in the supply chain, and VR will help the industry deliver net zero medicines manufacturing by reducing laboratory waste.
Newsletters
Receive the latest pharmaceutical news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.
