Contrary to popular belief, the right balance of soft and hard skills is crucial to success. To further inform you of their importance, here’s an article about soft skills vs hard skills.

Soft skills are referred as the art of coaching and hard skills are referred as the Science of coaching.

Soft skills and hard skills are usually part of all the jobs where humans are involved. However, since professional coaches are self-employed, it’s important that professionals looking at becoming coaches are aware of the expectations from the role of a coach.

When used correctly, soft skills and hard skills can get you to great heights. With the mastery of these skills comes the mastery of your craft as a coach.

Soft Skills vs Hard Skills: What’s the Difference?

Simply put, soft skills are non-technical skills relating to how you work. They are subjective and are therefore not quantified. In the coaching industry, soft skills are collectively known as the “art of coaching”.

Soft skills are typically learned through practice and experience. They are not usually taught in the classroom. There are a few exceptions though.

Also known as interpersonal skills or people skills, soft skills describe how you interact and relate to other people.

On the other hand, hard skills are technical skills relating to how you work. They are objective and therefore quantified. In the coaching industry, hard skills are widely known by the same name.

Hard skills are typically learned through teaching and training. They are usually taught in classrooms through books and other materials.

Also known as technical skills, hard skills describe how you perform the technical aspects of your job.

Examples of Soft Skills

Soft skills are extremely important for professional coaches. Creating a program is just half of the equation. The other half is about how you relate to and treat your prospects and clients.

Soft skills include:

• Altruism
• Learnability
• Curiosity
• Listening

Examples of Hard Skills

Hard skills are also crucial in any professional coach’s success. As mentioned, your people skills consist half of your journey to success. You must also have the technical skills needed in coaching.

Hard skills include:

• Coach education
• Credentials
• Digital Proficiency

Why Do Professional Coaches Need Soft and Hard Skills?

Now that you’ve understood the differences between soft skills vs hard skills, it’s time to know why they matter to your coaching career.

For starters, soft skills and hard skills are needed to reach out to your prospects. For instance, you must write engaging content (soft skill) so prospects can resonate with your thought process. However, getting that copy out to the world requires computer proficiency (hard skill).

Next, creating an effective coaching program requires soft skills and hard skills. Motivating your clients (soft skills) is half of the program. The other half consists of producing videos and audio files (hard skills).

Lastly, taking your coaching business to the next level requires both skills. Communicating with your high-performing team (soft skill) and creating business plans (hard skill) are required to grow your business.

Soft and hard skills can also help you develop core values and core competencies for coaching. Without these skills, it would be extremely difficult, if not possible to launch a successful online coaching business in India.

While soft and hard skills are helpful for coaches to learn, it is also important to understand the context in which you are operating. There are few skills like sales and marketing that you learn on the way.

Core values can include but are not limited to perseverance, teamwork, genuinely helping others, and ethical practice. Interestingly, you can set your own core values as a coach and enhance them as you develop soft and hard skills.

Core competencies, as enumerated by the ICF, includes having a coaching mindset, communicating effectively, facilitating learning & results, and co-creating a relationship with your clients.

Conclusion

Soft skills vs hard skills have been debated over the years. However, there’s no winner in the battle of soft skills vs hard skills. Both are equally important. Thus, you must strike the right balance between the two skills.

Are you an aspiring coach? Contact us  to kick start your coaching journey. If you’re looking for ICF life coach certification or leadership coaching certification, please tap us. We can support you become a high impact coach while becoming an ICF credential coach. See you soon, coach!