MOSCOW, October 21. / TASS /. Over half (63%) of small and medium-sized business leaders in Moscow and the Moscow region believe that an entrepreneur needs to develop so-called soft skills, while 37% believe that it is more important to work on the development of professional skills, according to the survey of the Moscow regional branch of the Russia's Support made available to TASS on Wednesday.
"37% believe that an entrepreneur needs to develop hard skills in order to be able to keep a business in a crisis, 63% - soft skills," according to the survey.
Almost a quarter (23%) of entrepreneurs noted that communication skills help to keep a business in a crisis, another 24% believe that efficiency contributes to this, 11% - honesty, 5% - confidence. Optimism is considered important by just over 4%.
When asked whether they improve their own qualifications and the qualifications of management personnel, 42% of respondents answered positively, 58% - negatively.
"As the survey results have shown, it is not financial resources that help to maintain the viability of enterprises in a crisis, but rather the flexibility of the owner or manager, the ability to negotiate, find a compromise, reorganize. All this is impossible without developed emotional intelligence, which is the basis for the development of the so-called soft skills. Russian business is gradually realizing the importance of these fundamental qualities, which allow them to stay on the crest of success even in the most difficult, sometimes stressful situations," the founder of the Working Emotional Intelligence platform Elena Khlevnaya told TASS.
The survey involved 526 managers and owners of small and medium-sized companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs from Moscow and the Moscow region. The study involved entrepreneurs from various business sectors - trade (42%), services (29%), Internet business (19%), manufacturing (8%) and some others (2%).