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Leadership Soft Skills in Higher Education Institutions

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DOI: 10.15520/sslej.v3i7.2219

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 Social Science Learning Education Journal 3: 07 July (2018).

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SOCIAL SCIENCE LEARNING EDUCATION JOURNAL

Home page: http://innovativejournal.in/index.php/sslej

Leadership Soft Skills in Higher Education Institutions

Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi
College of Administrative Sciences, Applied Science University (ASU), Kingdom of Bahrain
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15520/sslej.v3i7.2219
Abstract: This study aims to explore the leadership soft skills are necessarily needed for leaders in universities from the views of the experienced
leader in higher education institutions. For decades, the focus of management and leadership was on technical skills, i.e., the so-called „hard
skills‟. Technical skills are critical to perform effectively within an organization. Nowadays, employees also need leaders with critical soft skills.
These soft skills are more generic in nature and are the keys towards effective performance across job categories. The main purpose of this study
is to answer the main question which is, what are the soft leadership skills required in higher educational institutions? Then, explain and interpret
the implementation of the nine components of leadership soft skills, namely social power, trust, mentoring and coaching, prepare successions,
supporting, intelligence, emotional intelligence, inspirational and cultural and diversity awareness. This study employed in-depth observation
with long experience in higher education leadership. Then, discuss on the effectiveness of the implementation of soft skills development.
Findings prove the importance and value of leadership soft skills in higher educational institutions. Additionally, provide information to assist
administrators in developing high-quality interpersonal relationships with their associates and support staffs.

Keywords: leadership, Leader‟s soft skills, higher education

INTRODUCTION make him”. Bennis Warren (1989) in his book on becoming

Educational institutions need to be fully responsible and
capable of achieving the objectives of these institutions. The
choice of the appropriate leadership style for each institution
needs to study the circumstances of the educational
institution in which the leadership is practiced the adequate
skills to the concern of the differences of staff and their
different levels of capabilities. “Higher education
institutions play a significant part in yielding human capital
to meet the requests and expectations of society and the
nation by producing skills for uptake by the respective
students”(Pachauri & Yadav, 2014).
According to Burns (2010),”the most powerful influences
consist of deeply human relationships in which two or more
persons engage with one another” (p.11, original emphasis)
and, thus, for a leader, the „„arena of power is no longer the
exclusive preserve of a power elite or an establishment or
persons clothed with legitimacy. “Power is ubiquitous; it
permeates human relationships” (Burns, 2010, p.15). From
this standpoint, I believe that leading in a higher education
organization is to generate a profound sense of linking so
that people not only have obvious recognition of their
organizational reality but also a more solid sense of their
role in how it functions and represent the challenge to
navigate. Equally, “organizational theory has observed the
essential change from systems thinking to relational learning
and the creation of a culture of learning built on
relationships” (Senge et al., 2007).
a leader, contended that Leaders are made rather than born
and he stated “The most dangerous leadership myth is that
leaders are born, that there is a genetic factor to leadership.
This myth asserts that people simply either have certain
charismatic qualities or not. That‟s nonsense; in fact, the
opposite is true”. Prominently, there is no doubt that leaders
develop their leadership skills through life learning
experience, training, coaching, mentoring and hardworking.
Leadership in educational institutions is characterized by a
continuous process of effectiveness and its impact on the
progress of the educational process, its success or failure is
linked to the type of relationship between the leader and
teachers, and therefore this relationship has a greater role in
the success of the educational process. The trust, mutual
respect, influence, caring, and appreciation, is making the
work environment better. The administrative and
educational leadership of the educational institutions derives
their importance from their ability to use all available means
of innovation and creativity to suit the objectives of the
educational process in order to improve the performance of
the human resources. Thus, leadership in educational
institutions differs from leadership in general institutions.
Because it derives its strength from the personality traits and
qualities of the leader, while the administrative leadership
depends on the available features and personality traits.
Therefore, the educational leadership is important in all
communities, to influence individual‟s behavior and groups
and to accomplish the tasks assigned to the leadership.

Sociologist Herbert Spencer (1896) suggested that the
“leaders were products of the society in which they lived”.
In The Study of Sociology, Spencer wrote, “you must admit
that the genesis of a great man depends on the long series of
complex influences which has produced the race in which he
appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly
grown. Before he can remake his society, his society must
According to Dobbins and Pettman (1997), “leadership is
the ability to motivate people to work towards achieving
common goals, to make ordinary people display
extraordinary performance”. In short, leadership has been
related to a person's skills, abilities and degree of influence
to get people moving in a direction, making decisions and
doing things that they would typically not have embarked

1
 Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi /al, Social Science Learning Education Journal, 3 (07), July, 2018,
on.The contingency school (Fiedler, 1967; House,
1971;Robbins, 1997) suggest that what makes an effective
leader would depend on the situation. They tend to follow
the same pattern: 1. Assess the characteristics of the leader;
2. Evaluate the situation regarding key contingency
variables; and, 3. Seek a match between the leader and the
situation. This theory exhorts the idea that the leader needs
to help the team to find the path to their goals and help them
in that process. Path-goal theory identifies four leadership
behaviors: Directive leaders; Supportive leaders;
Participative leaders; Achievement-oriented leaders.
Based on this, it is necessary to put some views to start to
study some types of leadership to be a starting point for
discussion, and this is the objective of this paper, which
presents some special ideas about the leadership skills and
educational patterns necessary in educational institutions
and their role in the educational process in order to choose
the appropriate educational leadership style for these
institutions, which positively affects the development of the
educational process of these institutions. This paper focuses
on the following main question:
 What are the soft leadership skills required in higher
educational institutions?
 What is the role of leadershipsoft skills in the
educational process?
This study employed in-depth observation with long and
deep experience in higher education. Exploring the main
traits and skills are necessary for leaders in higher education
work environment. Then, discuss on the effectiveness of the
implementation of soft skill development and its reflection
to make outcomes in higher education.
From my experience, in leading, I depended on soft
leadership due to that all academic staff have their ordinary
job to teach, research in addition to their admin work.
Commonly, this kind of leading mission has no authority, so
it‟s hard to discipline subordinates and create an atmosphere
of order and command. In addition, from my previous
experience, in leading sections, teams, and conferences, I
have the capabilities which enable me to base on the soft
side of leading, especially I am dealing with an elite group
of people which they are highly educated and understanding
the nature of responsibility. Soft leadership ensures that task
done without diving in troubles and it helps in transforming
the attitude and behavior of people. It emphasizes empathy,
which is the ability to step into the shoes of the partners and
look at the issues objectively to achieve the desired
outcomes effectively. “Soft leaders adopt transformational,
democratic, servant and authentic leadership style, as well as
building trust and others-centered leaders” (Rao, 2016).
Consequently, soft leaders are people-oriented more than
task oriented and I believe that soft leadership is more
effective particularly when employees respect and support
me due to the friendly and cooperative relationship I had
with them. I emphasize to my team that we share the
responsibility to submit our work before the deadline. We
assigned to meet every week in fixed time in Thursday
morning to let everyone show progress he made and give the
opportunity to ones who need more support or have the need
to exchange thoughts regarding some details in his course.
Finally, at the beginning of the second semester, we
2
accomplished our task and I receives the final revised copy
of the courses and I submitted to the programme
coordinator.
SOFT SIDE OF LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
Scholars, who are interested in education, have tried to find
the more adaptive management methods and leadership style
consistent with the nature of the teaching profession
(Halpin, 1958; Gibb, 1983; Cohen & march, 1983; Stogdill,
1973). In modern pedagogy institutions, there is a great need
for the adoption of leadership tactics that achieve the
objectives of the Organization without prejudice to human
relations. In my view, the successful leadership approach
involves two dimensions that must always be taken into
consideration: one is the achievement of goals, the other is
the care and keep of the group of people.
Similarly, Lorenz (2009) refers to soft skills as “a cluster of
personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that
make someone a good employee and a compatible
coworker”. Gibbons and Lange (2000) maintain that the
term “soft” skills are synonymous with core skills, key
competencies, and personal skills. Empirical studies have
been carried out to the concern of hard and soft sides of
leadership. For instance, enhancing individual employability
found that hard formal and technical vocational skills were
considered to be of declining importance. Generally, these
hard skills are considered less important in relation to
individual employability and performance compared to
different forms of soft skills. This indicates a connection
between employees‟ soft skills and performance. A study on
the importance of soft skills in the workplace found that the
soft skills gap caused the high unemployment statistic of
graduates Seetha (2014). Soft skills played an important role
in determining the success of a project or work performance,
and they are required for the success of the organization.
Generally, teachers are academically proficient but lack in
soft skills such as ethics, moral and professional skills,
communication skill,critical thinking and problem-solving
skills, teamwork skill and leadership skill (Tang & Tan,
forthcoming). The increasing globalization of the workforce
and job market imposes much more competitive skills on
our graduateteachers. “Soft skills can be typically
categorized into three major categories namely personal
attributes, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving and
decision-making skills” (Shakir, 2009).
The term “hard skills” normally refers to technical or
administrative procedures related to an organization‟s
business (Maniscalco, 2010). On the other hand, the term
“soft skills” refers to the personal qualities, habits, attitudes
and social graces that make someone a good employee and a
compatible co-worker (Lorenz, 2009). To be competitive in
the business world presently, one needs to possess soft skills
in addition to hard skills. It is often said that hard skills get
one a job but soft skills keep one in the job.
For example, skills such as communicating, listening,
dealing with people, managing people, etc. play a large role
in relating to people. Some people make friends easily, for
instance, which would be considered a valuable skill in the
world of sales. In fact, soft skills include competencies that
 Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi /al, Social Science Learning Education Journal, 3 (07), July, 2018,
span a wide range: self-awareness, one‟s attitude towards
managing one‟s career, handling critics and not taking
criticism personally, taking risks, getting along with people,
etc. (Marci, 2008).
“Soft skill acquisition among the executives stimulates the
discovery of effective approaches and solutions and
innovation with increasing potential to improve the
organization wellbeing” (Massaro et al., 2016). In fact, some
managers have misconceptions about soft skills itself
,therefore, this study will explain the main soft skills are
extensively important to the leaders in higher education
institutions:
Social Power:
There is a significant agreement on the view of „social
power‟ argued by Verderber and Verderber (1992), in which
they declare “social power is a potential for changing
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of others” (p. 280).
Therefore, I trust that making a positive and respectful
relationship with colleagues in the heart of leadership. I
assert that personal values have great influence on the
academic staff member‟s role to lead students or lead other
colleagues. In this context, I conducted the research on the
relationship between personal values and innovation in the
academic sector. In this study, I concluded that personal
values play a significant role in forming beliefs, attitudes,
expectations, and perceptions of people. Furthermore,
“values affect employees‟ beliefs in any community”
(Aldulaimi, 2016a). Alongside, I designed a model of
Islamic Work Ethics, which I believe that it is shaping the
organizational culture and dominating the relationship
among the people in work atmosphere (Aldulaimi, 2016b).
Research into social networking suggests that people can on
average manage a maximum of 150 strong connections and
a much larger number of weak connections (Dunbar, 2010).
“Solidassociates tend to be categorized by a higher quality
and regularity of communication, superior trust, the larger
sense of shared objective in one or more areas, and more
possibility of tapping oneself out for the advantage of the
other party”(Aldulaimi, 2018). “Studies of company
networks show that geographical separation is not a major
impediment to the creation and nurturing of informal
networks” (Casper & Murray 2002). This study uses the
social network as a mediating variable to test its effect on
the relationship between leadership development and
succession planning.
Employees may use their strong connections in other firms
either to identify career opportunities directly or to gain
access to these people‟s own strong or weak connections.
Although there is little empirical evidence to support the
proposition, anecdotal evidence suggests that people, who
devote time and energy to building career-oriented social
networks experience faster career progress.
During my leading role, I build strong relationships with
colleagues and contribute to successful achievement and
making progress of mapping courses and other tasks. My
experience in pedagogy accelerated the growth of work due
to increased demands for consults and mentor process.
Accordingly, they appreciate my mentorship throughout the
process.
3
Trust:
Successful leadership is the one that combines high the
consideration and care to his subordinates, on the one hand,
and the high capacity to take the initiative to organize the
tasks and structure and directing efforts towards the
achievement of the goals of the organization. “Trust is
defined as an expectation or belief that one can rely on
another person‟s actions and words and that the person has
good intentions to carry out their promises” (Bernerth and
Walker, 2009).
The prevailing style of leadership in the various types of
education organizations is an authoritarian approach based
on the principles that McGregor has revealed in his Theory
of Theory X. The reason for assigning this mode is fear and
distrust, one finds himself in a vicious circle: afraid and
dominating others, and then growing fearful of their
reactions becoming more dominant. The solution lies in
rooting out fear and instilling feelings of trust. Also,
confidence generates trust, love generates love, and respect
generates respect.
Leaders‟ probably become charismatic who have confidence
in themselves. This confidence makes them strong and not
fearing losing their position. They rely on becoming
creative, innovative and collaborative and strongly believe
in their teams. It helps followers to deliver more effectively
under the climate of trust and transparency. In fact, building
trust and generating optimism in the place of work helps
engage employees effectively.
Mentoring and Coaching:
According to Daloz (1999) “mentors give us the magic that
allows us to enter the darkness; a talisman to protect us from
evil spells, a gem of wise advice, a map, and sometimes
simply courage” (p. 18). Basically, mentors as people with
advanced experiences and knowledge who are willing and,
in most cases, committed to providing upward mobility and
support to their Protégés career development (Ragins, 1997).
I am really aware of mentoring in my specialization.
Therefore, rather than being left to „find their own feet‟,
typically, I give advice to new colleagues on how to prepare
the course material and to upload it on Moodle early to
enable students to download and use it. Second, I always
suggest that they retain a list of objectives for each chapter
because it keeps students thinking on track and lets them see
why every step is important. Third, I encourage them to use
real case studies from the business environment because this
makes the concepts of the subject more understandable.
Fourth, I work with colleagues to coach them how to
manage their time and activities between classroom and
office to extend their learning activities and give the
opportunity to students to communicate with their tutors
over different issues. Fifth, the most sensitive aspect is
understanding cultural values in this community, therefore, I
explain in details terms, actions, and behavior which affect
the acceptability of teacher in the student‟s eyes, including
communication with women, Islamic deeds and how to
control discussion in class which might lead to political
argument. In general, I believe that mentoring is a never-
ending process whereby an experienced staff member offers
support to someone in the early stages of a new
appointment, particularly during the probationary period. As
 Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi /al, Social Science Learning Education Journal, 3 (07), July, 2018,
Hall (2002) asserts “mentoring is anintentional relationship
focused on developing a self of relatively unseasoned
protégé through dialogue and reflection; an implicit focus on
the development of the next generation in the context of
interpersonal relationships” (p. 147). He emphasizes the
primary function of such a relationship is to develop the
protégé‟s learning capacity by transmitting knowledge,
culture, wisdom, and experiences. Accordingly, I voluntarily
offer help to all academic staff. I believe that the informal
relationship gives great outcomes in the mentoring
relationship. As a result, those colleagues get accumulated
experience which strengthens their professionality and
continues their progress until now.
Mentoring is dependent on establishing friendly links
between the mentor and mentee. I am always ready to
provide applicants with detailed information on the progress
of the ongoing writing activities. Good planning combined
with effective mentoring can play a major role in enhancing
the effectiveness of development programs and projects.
Providing training to the employees to enables them to
understand and explore this perspective. They can come
forward wholeheartedly to work as a team. When employees
are provided with a resourceful environment, they can be
engaged effectively. Hence, leaders enhance employee
engagement thus achieving organizational productivity and
performance.
Prepare Successions:
Many of the executives report their worry about the shortage
of bench strength in their organizations. They are afraidof
theabsenceof sufficient “ready” well-prepared candidates to
replace justified and unjustified lay off of key leaders.
Therefore, this problem constantly forming tense and
affecting organizational performance. Throughout the
succession planning conference that planned by Abu Dhabi
University in 2013, there was a great emphasizing on the
leadership important. They illustrate the role of planning the
replacement of leadership in a different level and there is a
lack of applying the planning process. HR practitioners
asserted that 15% of companies in the Middle East don‟t
have a clear plan for coming leadership. In addition, the plan
rotates around the highly performed employees and ignore
the talented employee with high capabilities which possible
to develop them to be within the human capital for future.
The conference focus on the idea of the importance of
succession planning to guarantee the organization
sustainability.
A true leader is not the one with the most followers, but the
one who creates the most leaders,‟‟ said US author Neale
Donald Walsch.Whilst a solid body of research illustrates
the regularities that exist in leadership. However the
question also arises here, are the leadership development
programs crucial to bring adequate leaders which represent
successful replacement process. In the similar vein, we can
borrow the traditional argument, are the leaders born or
made. To answer this question, there is need to follow the
traces of the term "Great Man" was used because, at the
time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality,
especially in terms of military leadership. The great man
theory of leadership became popular during the 19th-
century. The mythology behind some of the world's most
4
famous leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar,
Mahatma Gandhi and Alexander the Great helped contribute
to the notion that great leaders are born and not made.
Wolfe (1996) states that succession planning is “a defined
program that an organization systemizes to ensure
leadership continuity for all key positions by developing
activities that will build personnel talent from within” (p. 4).
More relevant the definition of Austin Community College
(2005) “Professional development is the continuous process
of acquiring new knowledge and skill that relate to one‟s
profession, job responsibilities, or work environment, and
plays a key role in maintaining trained, informed and
motivated employees regardless of job classification” (p. 1).
Lowther and Dexter (2002) write that “leadership
development is a long-term solution addressing the needs of
the firm ... as part of a strategic plan” (p. 16).
Supporting:
I believe in supporting my colleagues by enhancing their
understanding and application of standards through training
them to get the necessary information about mapping and
explaining the main objectives of pedagogy process. I
developed a series of face-to-face professional development
workshops to empower them to get on the right track.
Consequently, decide which level fitting for this course.
Later, supervising their progress in redesigning courses. In
addition, to make sure the consistency between courses and
qualification which mentioned in the description for every
level. Then, providing clarification of learning pathways and
progression at the periodical meeting for programme
leaders. Being the leader, I confirmed operative channels of
communication, an important role for academic leadership
(Bryman, 2007). I made myself available via email, phone,
and face to face meeting to answer any question and provide
any document or support materials they need as well as
additional information that enable them to do their job
successfully.
Over time, I worked hard to provide the important
instructions individually and collectively to my colleagues‟.
However, I am always keen to be close to them and sent out
the updates, inviting feedback and constructive criticism, not
only to keep my colleagues informed of progress but to
make sure that I was carrying them along with my plans. I
was receiving the work of my team and review the two
forms of mapping scorecard as well as the amended course
specification as a new version. Apparently, my team was
unfamiliar with the best method of applying the standard, so
I deliberately worked on preparing an ideal model and make
it available to follow the procedure of doing the redesigning
process. These approaches encourage course teams to follow
a customized course development framework based on an
existing model (Analysis, Design, Development,
Implementation,and Evaluation). I facilitate an open
discussion of ideas and assimilate their subject material
from the outset, advising on suitable development
approaches.
In all my leadership roles, I am inspired by the pedagogy
research of John Maxwell (1987), who writes in his
book, Be All You Can Be, “We can either work with people
or war against them”. However, I struggled with the further
demands of my team in working on course development and
 Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi /al, Social Science Learning Education Journal, 3 (07), July, 2018,
the deadline for submission. In this positon and to achieve
the mission, I didn‟t rely on the authority, instead, I earn my
good relationship with them to spend the time to finish the
job besides their teaching and research tasks.
Intellegence:
Furthermore, the acquisition of critical thinking and
problem-solving skills are identified as an essential soft
skill. It is important for leaders to understand the role they
play in developing critical thinking and problem-solving
skills.Leaders need to work as facilitators to tolerate for
discussion and to boost a free thought process, in addition,
to encourage an understanding that thinking critically does
not always end with a right answer, but supports others to
learn proper reactions to conflicting evaluations and
opinion.
Leaders should always think at a big picture level, take a
long-term view, and entertain wide-ranging possibilities in
developing a vision for the future. In addition, gain
agreement to proposals and ideas; stand ground in the face
of opposition; negotiate skillfully‟
Emotional Intelligence:
Actively create a pleasant human environment for work,
show empathy, accountability, humility, friendliness,
unselfishness‟
It is defined as the ability of a person to manage and control
his emotions and to select the best ones that are appropriate
to the situations to which a person is exposed. One of the
most famous people associated with this term is Daniel
Coleman, who defined emotional intelligence as a person's
ability to know his or her emotions fully and also to know
the emotions of others so that one can deal with himself first
and with others by moving between his emotions and
expressing his emotions In proportion to the situation and
the situation in which it is imposed
Therefore, the world is now characterized by exceptional
leadership, which gives emotional intelligence a great
importance in the process of making administrative
decisions because of the material and moral impact on the
work and workers is followed by some countries in their
government institutions, given the importance of emotional
intelligence and affect at all levels of leadership, Or even at
the level of individuals working at the same level.
Emotional intelligence is not a new concept of general
psychology. Thorndike wrote about social intelligence in the
late 1930s (Thorndike & Stein, 1937). In the early 1980s,
Gardiner began to write about "complex intelligence" and
mentioned two pillars of general intelligence: interpersonal
intelligence and interpersonal intelligence as models of
traditional IQs. Bar-On developed the pillars of emotional
intelligence, such as the cognitive abilities, Are very
important and sensitive to positive adaptation (Douglas,
2004).
The first to publish a study using emotional intelligence
(Salovey& Mayer, 1990), and by following the concept of
intelligence and its relation to emotion, we conclude that
researchers linked intelligence with emotion as
complementary concepts rather than opposites. During
5
1930- 1920 Thorndike argued that social intelligence is the
ability to understand others and to behave wisely in human
relationships is a manifestation of intelligence and is
published in Harper's Magazine. Psychologists have
interpreted intelligence as the ability to make others act as
they want.
In 1985, Sternberg addressed the concept of social
intelligence, saying that it was independent of academic
capabilities and that it was a key to successful performance
in life. In the same year, Gardner emphasized in his book on
multiple intelligences that human understanding of oneself
and others,his ability to use and employ this understanding
of personal intelligence and intelligence in relationships
with others, both of which are valuable skills in life.
In 1995, Goleman published his book "Emotional
Intelligence," which means more than intelligence. In the
same year, Jack Block, a researcher at the University of
California, studied some of the personality variables
associated with intelligence independently of emotional
intelligence, its relation to emotional intelligence
independently of intelligence, The results of the study
showed that those with high intelligence independent of
emotional intelligence were more distinguished in the
mental aspects, and less distinguished in the personal
aspects. However, those in emotional intelligence were
independent of intelligence, were more distinguished in
social aspects and had positive attitudes towards themselves
and others.
The importance of emotional intelligence has emerged at the
beginning of the third millennium. The society faces many
problems related to many fields such as political, social,
cultural and economic. The global financial crisis and its
strong impact on many companies are an example of this. Of
anxiety and disorders and even reached the extent of suicide.
Although these problems cause distress and concern for
society, there is no doubt that the solutions to most of them
are centered on the individual's intellectual capacity as well
as social and emotional skills, and the importance of these
skills and ability to deal with and manage them effectively
and this contributed to the concept of emotional intelligence
Which has a strong influence. (Pfeiffer, 2001: 138-142)
Inspirational:
Leaders with soft skills believe in motivation and
empowerment by appealing to higher ideals, values, morals
and ethical values while hard leaders believe in rewards and
punishment. To inspire others, leaders must be a good an
example of commitment. Motivation comes best when the
leader commits himself to his promises, duties and tasks,
and works alongside the rest and explains to them that there
is no high obstacle that can be traversed. Thus, leaders gain
respect from their subordinates and motivate them with
energy and enthusiasm to win. Leaders are committed to the
duties they make, which makes them fair and trustworthy. It
also motivates their team to bring more to the team.
Not only motivation and hard work, leaders around the
world recognize the importance of reaching the deep level
and the feelings of the masses. Leaders generate enthusiasm
among their teammates, helping to focus on future goals and
current issues. The knowledge of human behavior, failures,
 Saeed Hameed Aldulaimi /al, Social Science Learning Education Journal, 3 (07), July, 2018,
and efforts on a personal level are some of the sources of
inspiration shown by every leader in the world in the past.
The inspirational leader is a person with insight and charms
around him. He undoubtedly has charisma. Charisma as the
personal attractiveness of a leader that enables him to attract
and attract loyalty and team affiliation. Which draw the way
for people to lead the leader and instill enthusiasm for the
way it works, and although these qualities can be innate, but
it is possible to acquire and develop as well.
Cultural and Diversity Awareness:
Leaders should appreciate team diversity (career stage,
language, culture, gender), interconnect well with different
people, and realize concerns from the perception of others,
display respect for values of other people from different
culture.One of the strengths of today‟s progressively diverse
worldwide workforce is the fact that diversity transports
innovation, fresh perspective, and creative problem solving
to the workplace. In order to use the variety of skills and
perspectives employees bring to the table, leaders need to
scrutinize their personalsetting of reference or paradigm
through which they observe the world and keenly pursue to
extend it in order to shape more effective work teams and
generate an inclusive work environment. Every society has
their own National values and it is generally accepted beliefs
about what is good, desirable and useful, or what is
undesirable and unacceptable in a particular state
(Aldulaimi, 2012).
Modern higher education institutions are multicultural
organizations and leaders within this diversity should accept
others values, believes and traditions rather evaluate it and
make use of it. The process of acculturation need to create
and build cohesion work climate and therefore sees that
pluralism is necessary for the organization. All
organizations follow this model and have begun to
incorporate diversity policies in their programs, including in
employment, including minorities.
Enhancing human and organizational capital through its
ability to attract and retain talents and those with cognitive
abilities through the opportunities offered to them to realize
them and to be able to benefit from each other through
education programs and training courses. Multiculturalism
leads to creativity because difference leads to the
introduction of diversity of ideas and perspectives and
multiple options and creative alternatives to enable the
organization to choose the best and it is not related to the
number, but the quality of alternatives offered and thus the
ability to solve administrative problems through the
competitive environment resulting from
multiculturalism.Multiculturalism believes in the so-called
organizational flexibility among staff.Adopting the "learning
organization" standard as a principle and acknowledgment
of its ability to learn how to manage its culturally diverse
human resources. Finally, it can be said that
multiculturalism is an added value within international
organizations to benefit from its positives and as a strategic
long-term management.
Leaders should also have potentials to respond urgently to
the problems that may arise from cultural differences, which
6
necessitates the embodiment of respect for others in
organizational practices, especially as a moral obligation.
CONCLUSIONS
Soft leadership is the future leadership because the leaders
will need nontraditional skills to shape the future
andtraditional approaches will no longer sufficient to meet
the challenges ahead. Hence, softleadership is the need of
the hour to resolve various challenges globally and helps
greatly for the leaders to achieve organizational excellence
and effectiveness.
This study aimed to explore the leadership soft skills are
necessarily needed for leaders in universities from the views
of the experienced leader in higher education institutions.
For decades, the focus of management and leadership was
on technical skills, i.e., the so-called „hard skills‟. Technical
skills are critical to perform effectively within an
organization. Nowadays, employees also need leaders with
critical soft skills. These soft skills are more generic in
nature and are the keys towards effective performance
across job categories. The main purpose of this study was to
answer the main question which is, what are the soft
leadership skills required in higher educational institutions?
Then, explain and interpret the implementation of the nine
components of leadership soft skills, namely social power,
trust, mentoring and coaching, prepare successions,
supporting, intelligence, emotional intelligence, inspirational
and cultural and diversity awareness. Findings prove the
importance and value of leadership soft skills in higher
educational institutions. Additionally, provide information
to assist administrators in developing high-quality
interpersonal relationships with their associates and support
staffs. Even though this study highlights several leadership
soft skills, but still, there is a great need to investigate a
practical implication in generalizing these skills to other
higher education institutions. In addition, to prove the
theoretical implications for this study, there is a great need
to prove that soft skills acquisitions are will directly
influence the organizational performance.
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