Focus On Soft Skills:
A Leadership Wake-up Call
by Carole
Nicolaides © 2002
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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
Carole is President and Executive Coach of Progressive
Leadership, offering executive coaching, organizational development consulting
and leadership development training. Improve your business relationships,
communication, team performance and bottom line starting now. Visit
http://www.progressiveleadership.com for more info and to subscribe to her
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