One of our most responded to blog entries was when I recently mentioned (Feb 12^th) the need for soft skills. I am proud to say I began with a discussion on humility. (o-; Today I want to introduce a soft skill Paul calls the greatest of all. It’s an awkward one to bring up in a business environment but it has the most transformational power.

I am talking of course about “love.” Talking about it is far less important than actually demonstrating it and there are countless ways we can do that. For example, love lays down its life for another. That’s what service is… laying down your life for the benefit of another. If you do this particularly well in business, you will generate high customer satisfaction and an incredible reputation.

As an example, my friend Wes Cantrell, the former CEO of Harris 3M and Lanier Worldwide told me when he became the CEO of Harris 3M he was in the position of actually chartering the purpose and vision for that company. That’s when they decided to build their purpose and business around the Scripture that says, “A good name is rather to be chosen than riches….” They focused on customer satisfaction and as a byproduct of that quality decision had tremendous growth and tremendous profits. He assumed the reins of a $93 million company and retired leaving behind a $1.5 billion company built on loving your customers.

P.S. By the way, if you’d like to hear more from Wes Cantrell, ChristianBusinessDaily.com is holding a teleseminar featuring him this week called “Insider Information - A Retrospective.” It gets underway on Thursday at 1PM Eastern, and is a fascinating look into the world of a major CEO who integrated his faith into the world of publicly-traded companies. Learn more about this event here.

For the next while, I want to address the great need in the body of Christ and certainly in my own life for what I call the “soft skills.” Hard skills include things like workmanship, oratory ability, logistic ability, planning skills, and many, many more. But without soft skills, we are in great danger of a fall (Prov 16:18) and the loss of all we have worked so hard for. Worse yet… we may keep what we worked for and lose our family, our friends, our soul. (Mark 8:36)

Soft skills are so important that Solomon names two key soft skills (humility and the fear of the Lord) and claims they are the way to riches and honor and life. But then there are the fruit of the Spirit with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. These are exactly the kind of soft skills I am speaking of.

I think it best to begin with humility because when we succeed in business (or even sometimes in our efforts to succeed), we can easily become prideful, boastful, and self-important. I know that is something I must fight. I don’t like to admit that, but it is true and I fear the consequences of a proud or haughty spirit. So what are the signs of lack of humility or pridefulness? We shall examine a few. But today I ask you… Will you walk on this journey with me? Will you contribute to the discussion? Specifically, will you share your insights on the telltale signs of pridefulness in our own life? I look forward to your thoughts…