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The first step toward building a skill is to figure out exactly what type of skill you’re building. Every skill falls into one of two categories: hard skills and soft skills.
HARD, HIGH-PRECISION SKILLS are actions that are performed as correctly and consistently as possible, every time. They are skills that have one path to an ideal result; skills that you could imagine being performed by a reliable robot. Hard skills are about repeatable precision , and tend to be found in specialized pursuits, particularly physical ones. Some examples:
• a golfer swinging a club, a tennis player serving, or any precise, repeating athletic move;
• a child performing basic math (for example, addition or the multiplication tables);
• a violinist playing a specific chord;
• a basketball player shooting a free throw;
• a young reader translating letter shapes into sounds and words;
• a worker on an assembly line, attaching a part.
Here, your goal is to build a skill that functions like a Swiss watch—reliable, exact, and performed the same way every time, automatically, without fail. Hard skills are about ABC: Always Being Consistent.
SOFT, HIGH-FLEXIBILITY SKILLS , on the other hand, are those that have many paths to a good result, not just one. These skills aren’t about doing the same thing perfectly every time, but rather about being agile and interactive; about instantly recognizing patterns as they unfold and making smart, timely choices. Soft skills tend to be found in broader, less-specialized pursuits, especially those that involve communication, such as:
• a soccer player sensing a weakness in the defense and deciding to attack;
• a stock trader spotting a hidden opportunity amid a chaotic trading day;
• a novelist instinctively shaping the twists of a complicated plot;
• a singer subtly interpreting the music to highlight emotion;
• a police officer on a late-night patrol, assessing potential danger;
• a CEO “reading a room” in a tense meeting or negotiation.
With these skills, we are not trying for Swiss-watch precision, but rather for the ability to quickly recognize a pattern or possibility, and to work past a complex set of obstacles. Soft skills are about the three Rs: Reading, Recognizing, and Reacting.
The point of this tip is that hard skills and soft skills are different (literally, they use different structures of circuits in your brain), and thus are developed through different methods of deep practice.
Begin by asking yourself which of these skills need to be absolutely 100-percent consistent every single time. Which need to be executed with machinelike precision? These are the hard skills.
Then ask yourself, which skills need to be flexible, and variable, and depend on the situation? Which depend on instantly recognizing patterns and selecting one optimal choice? These are the soft skills.
If you aren’t sure if the skill is hard or soft, here’s a quick litmus test: Is a teacher or coach usually involved in the early stages? If the answer is yes, then it’s likely a hard skill. If it’s no, then it’s a soft skill. Violinists and figure skaters tend to have teachers; CEOs and stand-up comics don’t. The following three tips take this idea further, explaining the methods of deep practice that work best to develop each type of skill.