Body Oriented Leadership
Insights and reflections for an authentic leadership
Soft skills are intrinsic to human nature and experiences, shaping one's character and essence. Because of these intrinsic characteristics, understanding soft skills is not merely rational but primarily intuitive.
According to the somatic learning paradigm, which integrates mind and body, soft skills need to be experienced, felt, and understood through the whole body. They are embodied experiences.
Soft skills are crucial for both personal and professional success. As cross-functional competencies, they can make a difference within various contexts and industries.
Unlike hard skills—tangible and measurable technical abilities such as using software, programming, or operating machinery—soft skills are harder to measure because they involve personal traits, social abilities, and behavioral characteristics. These include effective communication, teamwork, stress management, leadership, empathy, critical thinking, active listening, emotional regulation, assertiveness, conflict resolution, and creativity.
Artificial intelligence acknowledges the importance of the body—a unique aspect of human experience—in developing soft skills. If you were to ask AI, "Who is best suited to help me develop soft skills?" the response would be:
“No tool or technology can fully replace human interaction in developing soft skills. Humans offer empathy, understanding, and personalized feedback that AI cannot provide.
For developing soft skills, working with a coach, mentor, or other humans who can fully grasp the context and provide tailored, direct support is often preferred. These professionals can guide you through practical exercises, coaching sessions, and individual feedback to help you develop the necessary skills.
Therefore, if you are looking for targeted training in soft skills, consider involving qualified human experts who can offer more personalized and interactive support.”
Reflecting on this, it's clear how crucial the role of the body and experience is in developing soft skills.
Can you truly understand the meaning of listening if you have never actively engaged in the act of listening? Or, conversely, can you grasp the frustration of being ignored while trying to communicate?
The answer is NO.
Soft skills require a type of learning based on experience and active immersion in the surrounding world.
We perceive the world not only through our minds but also through our bodies.
Soft skills must be learned through the entire body, integrating them into our muscle memory and experiencing them at a sensory level.
Each soft skill has a “muscle,” a somatic component that requires training, though the intensity and approach depend on everyone’s starting point. Therefore, learning soft skills is not only experiential but also individualized and personalized.
When I mention a muscle and somatic component, I’m not referring to a specific organ or body part. Ironically, discussing listening skills doesn’t mean training the ear for better hearing but addressing something broader, intangible, and profoundly human.
Beyond personalization in soft skills training, there are common somatic characteristics (mind and body together) that need to be trained and are relevant to almost all soft skills.
Which practices are useful for training these common muscles?
Being centered involves not only mental experience but also bodily perception, technically called the felt sense of centering.
This concept aligns with the mirroring effect of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are a class of neurons in the brain that activate both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing the same action.
This ability to "internalize" others' experiences and imagine them within ourselves allows us to better understand others' experiences and develop empathy.
Mirror neurons suggest that the more aware you are of your inner world—comprising sensations, emotions, vibrations, and internal dialogues—the better you can understand others.
Developing soft skills represents a journey of growth, involving the whole human being. It is a process that embraces a deep and intricate development of both cognitive and somatic self-awareness. Soft skills development cannot occur through pre-packaged courses or simple theoretical-practical exercises. For effectiveness, this process must involve the development of the human being through somatic experience to achieve profound and lasting changes.
