Tech Skills Are In Demand, But Companies Can't Lose Sight Of Soft Skills

It's a fact that all businesses today are trying to become technology companies--and digitally enabling the workforce is a challenge we all face. Businesses of all kinds are responding to new demands in a variety of ways, all with an eye to keeping pace with customers' demands for better products and services with a greater digital experience. The pressure is on for us leaders of companies to infuse technology throughout our business to get smarter, faster and more efficient. I'm a former English major who now lives in the heart of Silicon Valley, and I often worry that amid all this bright digital change, business leaders risk forgetting about the importance of soft skills or emotional intelligence--communication, relationship building, writing, persuasion and the art of storytelling. Digital skills are powerful, but without the human-to-human connective tissue that makes business and society function, we will actually lose out on many of the benefits of technology. Here is why we can't lose sight of cultivating communications skills in the digital world: Digital skills alone won't grow your business.