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Focus_On_Soft_Skills_A_Leadership_Wake up_Call
| Focus On Soft Skills: A Leadership Wake-up Call
By Carole Nicolaides, Copyright © 2002, All Rights Reserved
http://www.progressiveleadership.com The rules for succeeding in
business are changing daily. Yet people are still asking for the
magic formula that contributes to a successful organization. Is
it talented, knowledgeable people plus innovative products?
That's a great start, but something vital is missing from this
equation. More and more corporations around the world recognize
that, in order to gain a competitive advantage, they also need
to make sure their people know how to handle themselves at work
and how to relate with their customers and peers. From showing
empathy and optimism to extreme self-awareness to knowing what's
going on around them, these vital competencies are an integral
part of a progressive organization. They fall under the umbrella
of Emotional Intelligence (EI). These soft-skills, or emotional
intelligence skills, revelations open the door to a lot of
discussion. The western civilization and our traditional
management theories tend to lead us in the direction of
individualistic promotion. They display our strengths rather
than the demonstration of our humanness. These ideas have been
so tightly woven into our leadership mentality that they can be
challenging to break. Unfortunately, most graduate schools don't
teach you how to cultivate your soft skills. While courses such
as Business Writing and Public Speaking are offered, I have
never seen a course entitled, "The Effective Art of Listening to
Your Customer." We live in a society that measures intelligence
through quantifiable metrics. A professor will give you good
grades once you know XYZ, but he or she will not increase your
grade for being able to deal with a difficult situation, showing
compassion, or solving an unexpected problem. Yet most
compliments that you or your employees receive deal more with
the use of soft skills than with your actual knowledge about a
particular situation. Most customers appreciate a "willingness
to help" and the fact that "she listened to my complaint." The
use of these skills is what elevates your organization above the
competition. You don't compete only with products anymore,
rather with how well you use your people. Too often we focus on
what employees need to "know" when evaluating and hiring them
instead of "who they really are." I will illustrate this with an
example. John was promoted to Technical Project Manager at his
consulting company. Some people wondered why John had risen to
this level of management. His educational level was lower than
others in the firm and his degree wasn't in an area that
pertained to consulting. However, one of the strengths that was
nowhere on his resume was his ability to be positive in all
situations and to naturally motivate people. He was quick to
smile and see the positive side of every project. He was
generous in praising people and was consistently happy. These
were his strengths - his natural attributes. They made up the
sum of who John was. These soft skills are just as important as
what John knows. The challenge nowadays is to introduce a
program that will allow your leaders to learn and capitalize
fast on their soft-skills competencies. Soft skills are
important and always have been. It seems we have laid them aside
and opted to emphasize too much on expertise and credentials.
Let's get back to our values and the basics of good internal and
external customer service. Soft skills are the underlying
principles that trademark a company for professionalism and
excellent customer service. They provide differentiation between
all the cookie-cutter look-alikes and play a vital role in
customer loyalty. In today's working environment, where
customers and employees are demanding more, instilling the use
of soft skills in your team members is something you simply
can't survive without. When it's time to focus on soft-skills
training as a tool to improve performance, leadership potential,
and bottom line organizational success, consider the following:
1.Start Slowly - Instead of getting a large number of people in
a room and preaching to them about their soft skills - move
slowly. Introduce the concept with an informative and fun
workshop. The program should also be designed to enhance their
skills. 2.Involve Your People From the Start - Involve as many
employees as you can on the decision to create a program, what
to include within the program, and how to maintain the program.
People support what they help create. Engage them, give them the
possibility to make changes with your training curriculum, do a
pilot program with key people, and use the pilot program as an
introduction to the group. 3.Hire Expert Help - Coaches and
Organizational Consultants are experts in building rapport and
establishing the right culture for these initiatives. With the
right culture and the appropriate training, managers can
continue the task of training and cultivating good
relationships. 5.Recognize Individual Achievement - There is so
much talk about teamwork today that we forget to emphasize how
important it is to praise individual achievement as well. From
time to time praise your stars. Recognizing personal
contributions to the team is an excellent morale booster.
6.Discover the Group's Soft-Skill Identity - All people are not
the same, so their soft skills and strengths are not the same
either. Once you know who you have on your team, leverage their
strengths and differences because these are the facts that will
help distinguish you and your organization from the competition.
Illustrate how they can leverage each other's strengths inside
the team to develop a new group "identity." The essence of your
business is your people. Making soft-skills development a
priority will bring your team to a new level because it focuses
directly on them. By allowing the human aspect of your employees
to shine through, you are encouraging them to do what comes
naturally to them. Don't overlook these all-important skills
when evaluating areas of improvement for your team. Find a way
to incorporate soft skills into your leadership development
programs and see results immediately.
About the author:
Carole Nicolaides is President and Executive Coach of
Progressive Leadership Inc. who thrives on helping individuals
and organizations achieve results by coaching them on how to
discover and build upon their strengths and cultivate their
soft-skill set. Visit http://www.progressiveleadership.com for
more info & subscribe to her FREE Ezine.
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