So, this week my daughter was honored at her middle school for getting all 1's in Effort and Citizenship. There was a special evening ceremony and everything. Strangely enough, there is more excitement and support for the "1's club" than for honor roll (all A's and B's).

It got me thinking. While I don't like the idea of removing rewards and recognition for achieving results, I do think there's merit in the business world to develop performance evaluations and bonus programs based on the premise of the 1's club- citizenship and effort. If it's true that soft skills are more valuable than hard skills - due to the difficulty of teaching soft skills vs. hard- than why not put more emphasis on rewarding the manifestation of those skills? Isn't it logical to believe that if every employee put forth maximum effort, and was a superior citizen of their workplace and company, success would follow? Of course, that's one end of the question- the other being, will success follow a company as long as all employees are performing their hard skills at a superior level, without regard to soft skills?

Okay, a little off track- I was just wondering if anyone in here systematically evaluated employees, or potential candidates that you're trying to place, in regards to those soft skills, and, how important that evaluation is compared to hard skills?