EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE - those quantifiable "hard" skills on your resume that "validate" your suitability for a certain job or career - are important to achieving professional success. But the benefits of education and experience can be neutralized if not complemented by another, just as essential set - that of "soft" skills. Soft skills are those that, when acquired and applied, influence attitude, behavior, and character in a positive way. They work synergistically with hard skills to create a powerful vehicle that moves you toward your goals. However, while hard skills are easily measured, soft skills are more difficult to assess and sometimes perceived as "open to interpretation" - a common rationale used by those who tend to apply these skills on a "sliding scale." In Living Well Working Smart, authors Sue Mackey and Laura Tonkin remove any ambiguity surrounding the validity and application of soft skills. For each soft skill they cite - forty-one in all, ranging fro