Do soft skills matter?

When I talk to someone about what Twin Feathers does, the conversation typically starts, and focuses on, factual items, like our experience in the commodity industry.  Our education, technical knowledge, and experience are considered hard skills.

What are hard skills?
smart phone in front of computer screen; carbon credit value falling; technical expertise or hard skills

Hard skills are the technical skills needed for a job. They are easily quantified and can be gained through education and experience.

Investopedia defines hard skills as follows:

  •  Learned abilities acquired and enhanced through education and experience,
  •  The technical skills required for a job,
  •  Skills that are easily quantified.
Hard skills are important!

Hard skills are vital to our energy advisory business.  They demonstrate that we are educated about the industry and have experience dealing with the types of issues that typically occur. These types of skills often get the most attention, from both our clients and ourselves.  But are these skills enough to be successful in our industry (or others)?

What are soft skills?

Indeed.com defines soft skills as follows:

Personal attributes; things that directly relate to how well you can work with and interact with others.

The site goes on to state that soft skills are applicable across industries and are prized because they can be difficult to teach. That same site provides specific examples of soft skills, such as:view from above of meeting table with laptops and arms visible; soft skills

  • communication,
  • problem solving,
  • creativity,
  • flexibility,
  • and work ethic.
Why are soft skills important?

Because they are easier to quantify, many times hard skills are viewed as more valuable within the commodity sector. Additionally, there is a history of placing a high value on technical knowledge and expertise within the industry. However, our view at Twin Feathers is that interpersonal skills can be just as important in the long run, and when combined with hard skills have the ability to really highlight the true value of that technical knowledge and expertise.

Twin Feathers team member talking with client; soft skills

Soft skills are vital to the success of our business and yours!

Over the coming months, the Twin Feathers blog will continue our ongoing series, Hedging 101 and South American Market Analysis, and will also be adding a series on the value of soft skills in the energy sector.

Through this series we will show how soft skills like communication, problem solving, creativity, flexibility, and work ethic are vital to the success of our business, how they can be developed internally, and why they are necessary for the long-term success of our clients.

We Have You Covered

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Testimonials

From Our Valued Customers.

We enjoy working with Twin Feathers. Great people who have helped our business!

Will

Twin Feathers has taken the burden of the everyday supply logistics off our plate and allowed us to focus on our operations in the critical times of the year. They have edu...

Dave

We experience less angst when making a futures purchase.

Jeff

They not only taught us how to plan and diversify our supply, but also new ways to protect the price. They have been great at negotiating supply deals and putting plans in ...

Troy

We can’t say enough about the high level of service the entire team provided us. We relied on them and they came through for us over and over. They are com...

Rick & Ann

It has been one of the best decisions that our company has ever made. The Twin Feathers team have looked after our interests since day one, and have executed the p...

James

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About Twin Feathers

Twin Feathers has partnered with energy firms since 1998 to provide transparent, value-driven commodity market advisory services.

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