Last time, we mentioned that now more than ever, employers are asking for soft skills and business knowledge of their tech hires. Jeremy W. Hill, senior national accounts manager at national staffing company Sapphire, says: "In year's past, it was more common to have requirements for just a 'heads-down techie' with X skill set. Though our clients still do request specific certifications and skills, we are seeing an increase in requests for individuals with multiple proficiencies." What are these soft skills and how do you improve yours?

According to Hill: "Soft skills are also called 'people skills' or 'client-facing skills.' They refer to an individual’s ability to work well with others. There are various components that comprise soft skills. Some are innate such as optimism, friendliness and whether or not someone has an outgoing nature, while others are skills that can be taught or improved upon, such as developing effective communication, organization, and social graces."

It's an unfortunate reality that techies are often viewed by their non-techie peers as lacking in the soft skills department. According to Matthew Moran, a business and technology consultant, and author of "The IT Careers Builder's Toolkit" , tech pros who immerse themselves in intense technology training often overlook developing their relationship-building skills, though employers value those skills as much as technical know-how. IT pros who lack the ability to adequately describe to their business colleagues how projects are progressing are viewed with mistrust by their business counterparts who may think that they have something to hide, Moran adds. Moran says he often cites findings from a 1999 KPMG study - findings that are as true today - that business leaders say IT pros can't verbalize what they are doing that means anything to them.

Moran suggests the following four ways to help IT and the business improve their relationships:

* Departmental immersion - Companies could align a techie with each business unit, ensuring that the techie is totally immersed in that business unit day-to-day. This would allow the technology expert to fully understand how technology is used in business and what works and what doesn't. Although this would require much effort upfront, the results could be tremendous.

Whitepapers

• PRICING STUDY: GROUNDWORK OPEN SOURCE VS. HP SOFTWARE
• Accelerating a Diverse Mix of Traffic Across the WAN
• Boost Productivity While Cutting Costs with Next-generation Collaboration
• Deploying Virtualized NetWare on Linux Whitepaper
• Driving Business Success Through Workgroup Choice and Flexibility
• Toward More Flexible, Next-Generation Collaboration Solutions

View more NETWORK MANAGEMENT whitepapers

Webcasts

• Key Considerations for a Successful 802.11n Deployment
• Managing the End User Experience-A Real World Example of Success
• Branch Office Trends and Best Practices
• Correlating granular network and application visibility
• Migrating to an MPLS-Based Network
• Round Table Webcast with Forrester Research

View more NETWORK MANAGEMENT webcasts

Special Reports

• Bringing IT Operations Management to Open Source and Beyond
• Ehternet Services: WAN options mature
• Executive Guide: Virtualization Reality Check
• WAN Optimization: The Ultimate No Brainer
• Keeping Spam at Bay
• Application Performance Management Executive Guide

View more NETWORK MANAGEMENT special reports