Soft Skill that Prevents Expensive Mistakes
In business, we tend to separate ‘technical competence’ from ‘soft skill’.
Technical skills win contracts.
Soft skills help you ‘communicate better’.
That distinction is misleading.
Some of the most expensive commercial failures I’ve seen had nothing to do with intelligence, capability, or expertise. They were caused by something far simpler: assumptions.
Over the last few years, I’ve worked on multiple commercial cases where businesses were being materially overcharged. In one instance, by approximately £143k/yr due to a structural billing error. In another, a company had been paying invoices that later proved to be falsified by a third party, while the actual supply arrangements had quietly changed in the background.
These weren’t unsophisticated businesses. They had finance teams. They had leadership oversight. They had contracts in place.
What they didn’t have, when needed, was professional scepticism. That’s a soft skill.
Cost of not asking awkward questions
In both cases, there were warning signs:
But no one paused long enough to say: “Hang on, this doesn’t make sense.”
Not because they weren’t capable. But because, culturally, we are conditioned to move forward, not slow things down.
Professional scepticism requires something uncomfortable: You must be willing to challenge what appears settled.
Competence is not the same as clarity
One of the most dangerous things in business is when everyone assumes someone else has checked.
Layered assumptions create blind spots.
In the £143k/yr case, the issue wasn’t a hidden clause buried in legal jargon. It was a mismatch between how a supply was structured and how it was being billed. Once isolated and analysed, the error was obvious. But obvious only after someone asked the right questions.
Clarity is not automatic. It’s a discipline.
Documentation is a soft skill
We often treat documentation as administration. It isn’t.
These behaviours are protective.
In the case involving falsified invoices, the turning point wasn’t emotion or accusation. It was documentation. Timeline reconstruction. Cross-referencing. Evidence.
Soft skills are often framed as empathy and communication. They are also:
That is behavioural discipline.
Why intelligent people get caught out
Most commercial errors don’t happen because people lack intelligence. They happen because:
Professional scepticism doesn’t mean distrust everything. It means understanding that clarity is earned, not assumed. It means being comfortable saying:
Those are not aggressive questions. They are responsible ones.
Soft skills as risk management
If you frame soft skills as ‘being better with people’, they sound optional.
If you reframe them as ‘risk management behaviours’, they become essential.
In both cases I referenced, the financial exposure was significant. But the reputational and operational stress was equally serious.
The eventual resolution came not from technical brilliance but from disciplined communication, forensic questioning, and controlled escalation. All soft skills.
A practical reflection
If you’re responsible for procurement, consider:
Professional scepticism is not negativity. It is stewardship.
It signals that you take responsibility for the consequences of decisions; not just the decisions themselves.
Final thought
Often, the most expensive mistakes rarely announce themselves dramatically. They accumulate quietly.
A misunderstood clause
An unchecked invoice
An unchallenged explanation
A supplier change no one properly interrogated
Soft skills are not decorative. They are protective.
And in high-value commercial environments, they may be the difference between a minor oversight and a six-figure problem.
