The cost of poor ‘Soft Skills’

We have a little tool on our website called the 'Difficult People Calculator'.

It asks you various questions about a difficult person you are dealing with, such as how much of your time they are taking up per week, how many sales you have lost as a result of their behaviour and so on.

The cost is always at least twice what you think it is. Last year I ran a client through some figures on an extremely difficult person in his department who had some serious behaviour issues including that he bullied some of his staff.

At the end of the discussion he totted up the figures and said the cost was £1m. I asked how long she had been there. “12 years.” He responded.

“So that’s about £80,000 a year.” I said.
“No.” He answered. “I meant she’s costing us £1m EVERY YEAR.”

He was pale as he checked his figures. He recognized that they were correct. He just hadn’t really added it up before.

The trouble with ‘soft skills’ is that you often just put up with the problem and don’t realise how much of a problem it is. You’ve lived with it for 12 years, so what’s another year?

Soft skills problems can be fixed

Soft skills can be improved, often without much effort. The individual just needs some help. Sometimes it can be as simple as making sure they get the feedback they need. Other times it can be a bit more tricky. But remember to balance up the cost of doing nothing before you complain about the cost of a cure.

Difficult People Calculator  Try it now.