Teaching Soft Skills (Was: System Administration Certification & Capabilities)

[pomeranz@netcom.com (Hal Pomeranz)]

A lot of people in this thread have mentioned a preference for
candidates with good "soft skills" (customer service attitude, desire
to learn, motivation, enthusiasm, et al) over a first rate technical
candidate who might lack some of these skills.  I must say I tend to
agree.

One thing that's always frustrated me, however, is an inability to
initially instill these qualities in an individual.  I know plenty of
techniques for increasing motivation and enthusiasm, improving 
customer service, etc. but none of them work to create these desires
in an individual who doesn't have them in the first place.  And
frankly I'm having a hard time finding people who have these skills
and I need to manufacture some.

Do people generally agree that the person has to be born with a
customer service attitude and some of the other skills I mentioned?
Has anybody had success in instilling these qualities in somebody, and
if so when in their development did you do it (childhood, grade
school, college, in the workplace)?

Hal Pomeranz, Principal        Deer Run Associates        hal@deer-run.com
      Network Connectivity and Security, Systems Management, Training