The Importance of Soft Skills in Children’s Upbringing

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“Abraham, you’re the kind of student we want here. I know you’ll do very well,” Professor Hawkins said when I interviewed for admission to NYU’s PhD program. While I didn’t have a high GMAT score, my ability to connect with Professor Hawkins and demonstrate that I was a capable individual with a track record for successfully navigating challenges turned out to be the key.

I recognized the power of soft skills from a young age. These skills helped me lead my troops in the military, navigate America’s higher education system, and successfully run a business in the United States. Whether it was interacting with classmates and employees, helping with family matters, or stepping up as a leader, the ability to communicate and empathize with others allowed me to stand apart. To be clear, I’m not saying technical knowledge or education wasn’t necessary, or that they didn’t help me, but my soft skills were more often vital to achieving what I set out to do.

Companies seek good communicators and team players. It is usually easy to find individuals with strong technical skills but challenging to identify those with good soft skills. Even as a software engineer (a technical position), communicating well with superiors and teammates, being timely and organized, having a positive attitude, and other soft skills will help one get ahead professionally.

When hiring for my company, for example, those with good interpersonal and communication abilities, leadership qualities, the right mental attitude, and empathy towards others were the ones I could always count on. They could address and solve complex challenges while having the ability to explain the solutions to others and execute ideas. Throughout my professional career, this fact has remained true, and even more so as I turned my attention to philanthropic ventures.

At Shanti Bhavan, we strive to impart both hard and soft skills among our students. Besides high academic achievement, strong soft skills have helped them get ahead when applying to good colleges and looking for jobs. And more importantly, these skills have enabled the students to stand out among their peers and coworkers. With their humility and compassion, they are well-liked by others.

We take a deliberate approach to developing these skills in our school children. This development takes shape in various ways: empowering students to conduct functions, such as school day, graduation, and celebrations; public speaking every day at assembly to share world news; greeting and providing tours to visitors; managing household chores around the campus; overseeing younger children to ensure discipline; taking on leadership roles in the classroom and during extracurricular activities; and generally promoting an environment where students are encouraged to think outside the box and speak freely.

For example, 11th graders form committees to organize various events for the graduation of their seniors, such as entertainment, sports, award ceremonies, stage management, and other events that take place over three days of fun and excitement. By empowering students to make decisions and organize, they learn the soft skills that go into managing a major event.

Our students mature into engaging and thoughtful young adults by the time they are ready to leave the campus for college. Shanti Bhavan prepares them with the hard and soft skills they need to go after their dreams. We see the results in the jobs they get after they graduate from college — employment at global companies like Amazon, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Microsoft, and others. We are all excited to see what the future holds for them and the mark they will make on their communities.