[KKKKkkkk1]

I don't understand what are these soft skills the author is talking about. To me, it seems like he's talking about manipulating and deceiving people. Why is it good for a manager to be skilled at creating the impression that he/she respects his reports?

[skybrian]

It's certainly vague but that's an uncharitable interpretation. I'd say it's more like not inadvertently offending or demoralizing people, not accidentally starting arguments, and so on.

Mistakes in communication happen easily, so it's good to be skilled enough to avoid them or recover quickly.

[zunger]

No no, not at all! One of the key things a manager needs to do is create a culture of mutual respect within the team, between everyone and everyone else. If the manager doesn't actually respect people, that's going to be a disaster.

This is tied to one of the core categories of soft skills: getting a group of people to work together as a team and trust each other.

[alexandercrohde]

I think this is a fair question because you sincerely are asking.

I think you have to admit that a manager who can make the team care about work, enjoy it, feel like a team, feel like they're working on an important problem together (even though none of this emotional stuff is objectively true/false or valid/invalid) is an asset to the company.