Blend hard and soft skills to fast-track a management career

Purpose – Highlights the importance of top people in an organization having both hard and soft skills. Design/methodology/approach – Connects hard and soft skills with left and right-brain respectively. Distinguishes between book-smart and street-smart. Findings – Argues that leaders with hard and soft skills are more likely to enjoy career success and to achieve organizational excellence. Practical implications – Observes how successful leaders treat others as partners rather than as subordinates. Originality/value – Demonstrates how leaders with soft skills along with hard skills handle knowledge workers who crave partnership rather than traditional command-and-control management.