Its clear that being a successful software developer requires solid technical skills, but its also the case that truly successful software developers have to grow and master a whole host of so-called soft-skills in order excel in their profession.  In this episode of Hallway Conversations, we speak at length with return-guest Mike Wood about the importance of some of these skills, how to acquire them, grow them, and encourage them in other members of your team.

Mike Wood is a Technical Evangelist for Red Gate Software on the Cerebrata Team. He describes himself as a problem solving, outdoorsy, user group founding, dog-loving, blog writing, solution creating, event planning, married, technology speaking, father of one kind of guy. When he’s not living up to that title he’s an avid reader, (horrible) violinist and gamer. Michael is one of the Founding Directors of the Cincinnati .NET User Group as well as the founder of the Cincinnati Software Architecture Special Interest Group. He is also a Microsoft MVP in Windows Azure. You can catch up with Mike on his blog at http://mvwood.com/blog and on twitter under the handle @mikewo.