Billionaire investor Ray Dalio is putting a premium on soft skills and says one quality in particular is “more powerful than just about anything.”
Ray Dalio’s Emphasis On The Most Important Soft Skill
In a new post on X, the Bridgewater Associates founder wrote, "Love is the most important soft skill…" and shared a 56-second video urging leaders to show care during difficult moments.
In the clip, Dalio highlights what he calls the power of empathy in practice, "The ability to touch people when they're going through a difficult time… could be helpful advice or… just putting a hand on their shoulder."
A Soft Skill That ‘Made A World of Difference’ In Dalio’s Life
He adds, "When I lost my son, the kindnesses of different people made a world of difference… I will forever appreciate that," concluding, "Love is a great power. Love is more powerful than just about anything. So those soft skills are important skills."
Dalio's views arrive with the weight of his résumé. He founded Bridgewater in 1975 and built it into one of the world's largest hedge funds. He's also the author of the bestseller "Principles," which codified his management philosophy.
Why Most Business Leaders Laud Compassionate Management
Other business leaders have argued that compassion and empathy are core to performance. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, at a Vanity Fair summit in 2017, said, "Empathy makes you a better innovator," and has called it "the hardest skill we learn."
LinkedIn's former CEO, Jeff Weiner, says, "Managing compassionately is not just a better way to build a team, it's a better way to build a company." Psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Goleman famously wrote in Harvard Business Review that emotional intelligence is the "sine qua non of leadership."
Dalio's soft-skills post fits a broader pattern of using social media to dispense leadership and economic advice, from diversification to building a disciplined "gameplan," commentary he's amplified across interviews and posts.
Photo Courtesy: Vitalii Vodolazskyi on Shutterstock.com
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