The term “soft skill” originated in training courses in the US Army in the 1970s. The course designers involved attempted to separate the skills required to operate machinery or weapons from interpersonal skills.
So they called them “hard skills” and “soft skills.”
They didn’t realize the terminology they used would make one feel more important. The context in which the definition made sense was, of course, lost over time.
There are a few interesting lessons here. The one I keep going back to is the importance of context as we communicate and make decisions. As we seek to make better long-term decisions, it is generally worth asking – how would what we do or say be interpreted by someone who doesn’t have the context we have?
