The people paradox: Why ‘soft’ skills deliver the hardest numbers | Best at Work Insights

“Honestly, this job would be a breeze if it weren’t for the people part.”

A regional sales director made that joke after recounting missed targets, two resignations and a turf war between product and marketing. The room laughed — tired laughter, the kind that comes when you recognize a hard truth. Plans obey Gantt charts; people do not. People bring worries, ambitions and moods into every meeting. And that unpredictability? It’s both your biggest headache and your greatest leverage point.

Most companies react in two ways: tighten the screws with dashboards and compliance modules or slap on another “culture initiative” poster. Neither works because they ignore the real issue: Managers lack a reliable method for turning human potential into performance. They know better collaboration and faster problem-solving would change everything — they just don’t have a repeatable path to get there.

The costs hide in plain sight: a quarter delayed because two teams argue definitions; a launch postponed while stakeholders haggle; high performers leave quietly, and replacing one costs up to two times their salary once you add recruitment, lost productivity and training. Those numbers swallow budgets — even R&D (Research and Development.) Yet our P&Ls (Profit & Loss) list “labor market pressure,” not “managerial unpreparedness.”

Here’s what the data shows: identical teams — same pay, same tools — routinely perform 10 to 20 percent better under managers who systematically build trust, clarity and growth. They get ideas, overtime and cost-saving fixes that no Six Sigma project ever uncovered. Meanwhile, teams led by unchecked command-and-control churn at the first better offer.

Managing people is a discipline, not a personality trait. No one would let an accountant close the books without training. Yet we promote top performers into supervision and hand them a policy handbook. Then we wonder why they learn on the job — at everyone else’s expense.

Consider risk management: a $10 million capital project gets pilots, approvals and contingency plans. But your manager controls a similar sum annually in wages and benefits, with zero oversight of how that investment is activated. If managerial interactions dampen initiative by just 10 percent, you quietly forfeit a million dollars — every year.

Some companies get it. They assign internal coaches. They pair new supervisors with veterans. They treat one-on-ones as the core production unit of engagement. Others run workshops that translate research into daily habits. Our Management Fundamentals Bootcamp condenses two decades of field data into “observe, reflect, act, repeat” — a framework you can apply tomorrow morning. Believe me, because I’m the one delivering the bootcamp: It evolves managers overnight.

The very thing leaders wish away is the same thing that makes an operation exceptional. Invite it in. Give it direction. And suddenly, the breeze you crave isn’t because the people part vanished — it’s because it finally has a path to follow.

Want to learn how our bootcamp can level up your managers? Reach out to me at jzepeda@bestcompaniesgroup.com to set up a time to talk.

Editor’s note: This column was written by Jaime Raul Zepeda, EVP, principal consultant for Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine, part of BridgeTower Media. Best Companies Group can analyze your organization’s health, team dynamics and leadership’s effectiveness. It has helped more than 10,000 companies understand and improve their workplace using data-driven strategies.