Hire for Deep Skills

How could you prioritize both surface and deep skills?

Employers often distinguish ‘hard’ skills (e.g., specific knowledge or abilities like computer coding or cutting hair) from ‘soft’ skills (e.g., general qualities like collaboration or communication). I often hear a similar distinction between ‘hard’ metrics (i.e., quantitative) and ‘soft’ metrics (i.e., qualitative). Labeling these different domains as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ is harmful on at least two levels. First, the terms communicate a level of clear distinction (like different parts in a machine) that ignores the interconnected, organic realities of real life. Second, these terms often carry a strong and mistaken prioritization toward the ‘hard.’ Who wants to argue for the importance of the vagaries of the ‘soft’ when the ‘hard’ is so obvious and clear?  

I propose that anyone interested in achieving long-term excellence banish these terms in favor of an alternative that flips the prioritization: deep and surface. Using these terms will help us remember that our work is an integrated whole. “Hard” skills like programming proficiency are reframed as ‘surface’ skills...which we can intuitively picture as connected in a seamless union to the ‘deep’ skills like trust, agency and cooperation. Additionally, this highlights that the ‘surface’ qualities employees bring to the job will provide limited contribution unless they are combined with ‘deep’ qualities like honesty and integrity. Reframing away from "hard and soft" helps us pay better attention to typically ignored (or taken for granted) qualities like trust, hope, motivation, curiosity, love, and integrity - qualities that are in fact the deep foundations of success.