Most Important Skills For A Vice President Business Development At Propy
Tanya believes that soft skills are paramount to success in business development, a sentiment that evolved from initially prioritizing hard skills in college. Soft skills, like "being able to work with everybody, including difficult people" and strong time management, are now considered more important than hard skills because they facilitate teamwork and initiative, and because "hard skills are not very hard and difficult to teach someone to" especially with the help of AI.
Soft Skills, Time Management, Self-Learning, Teamwork, Communication
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Tanya Solati
VP Business Development
Propy
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey
University of Miami MSF
Finance
Education, Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Business Strategy
Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Soft skills are more important than hard skills in the workplace, enabling effective collaboration and navigation of interpersonal dynamics, even with difficult individuals.
2. Time management is a crucial soft skill that contributes significantly to success in any career or field.
3. Employees with strong soft skills and self-initiative are highly valuable, as hard skills can be taught more easily, especially with the help of AI.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
I think soft skills. If you had asked me this question when I was back in school, I would have definitely answered hard skills.
I used to have this mindset, and I think it's common for almost every college student until they enter the workforce. I used to think that if I knew my stuff, I would get a job anywhere and be promoted to the highest place.
Long story short, I started my first job and realized that's not how everything works. Especially now, as I'm managing people, I see this even more. I get someone out of college who's working, has great hard skills, but no soft skills, and it just doesn't work.
It doesn't work in companies. It's not just my company; it's any company you go to. If you don't have soft skills, even if you're the smartest person in the room and can do anything, I don't think you'll be able to succeed.
When it comes to soft skills, it's about being able to work with everybody, including difficult people. If you're working with someone who isn't very easy to get along with, don't complain. Just find a way to work with that person.
Later on, you'll be telling people, "Oh yeah, I worked with that person." If someone else has worked with that person and knows they're difficult, they'll have a lot of respect for you. So that's number one.
When it comes to soft skills, I think time management is very big, and that doesn't really fall into hard skills. Everything that goes into soft skills is more important than hard skills.
To share an experience, recently I hired a social media manager who didn't know anything about our industry but had incredible soft skills and was very self-driven. I didn't have to tell her what she needed to do; she always took the initiative and did it herself.
To me, an employee who has soft skills and is a self-learner is much more important than a hard skill employee. At the end of the day, hard skills aren't that hard or difficult to teach someone. Especially with AI in today's world, it's not that difficult.
So, I definitely think that soft skills are way more important in any career or any field you are in.