Importance for Relating to Others

Many people have criticized business and engineering schools for not teaching any courses on how to wins friends and influence people.  Tom Peters and Dale Carnegie come to mind.

However the key success factor for people to be successful in taking a leadership role is their ability to relate and influence others not their technical capability.  

The trouble with teachung these skills is that the student must be ready and they must believe it is important.  One interesting point is that Einstein was not the greatest scientist of our time that makes us adore him.  He was more charistismatic than some of the others.

The leader of the Manahattan Project was not a great scientist but a great leader.  

I bet we all can think of the people we would follow because of the ability to lead as oppose to their technical ability.   I also believe that these skills can be learned if the student is ready.   Also when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

I think a good start would be reading and using "How To Make Friends and Influence People."   Check out a new version for the digital age.