Communication can be a soft skill or a hard skill, depending on where it is applied rather than on the skill itself. The question came up when the Bodhih team met a communication trainer at an IAF conference in Mumbai who called himself a soft skills trainer.
Last updated · Bodhih Insights team · reviewed by Siddharthan VGJ, Founder
I’ve often met trainers who call themselves soft skills trainers. We met a trainer last week at the IAF conference in Mumbai. After discovering that that he was a soft skills trainer, our next question was “What area of soft skills?” He said communication. So we were forced to ask him if communication was still a soft skill. He said, “Why not?” and went on to justify the important role that communication plays in the corporate world. The real point is that whether you call a skill a soft skill or a hard skill depends a great deal on where you apply it rather than the skill itself.
– Team Bodhih
Quick answers
Why is communication sometimes called a soft skill?
Communication is often grouped with soft skills because it supports other work, and many trainers describe themselves as soft skills trainers when they teach it. The post argues that the label depends on where the skill is applied: when communication is central to a role, it behaves more like a hard skill.
