...are prizing people skills, the so-called soft skills, more highly than before.” Jason Baumgarten, a search consultant at Spencer Stuart, advises leaders to attract today’s top talent by “making people feel they’re part of an organization that matters.” Adds HR chief at Intuit, Sherry Whiteley, people today “want to make...
Read post »An editor for a major Information Technology (IT) publishing firm contacted me for an interview on how the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and IT staff have a tendency to focus narrowly on technology and down play teamwork, communication, and “people issues.” But, as she rightly pointed out, “soft skills are...
Read post »How frequently and effectively do you recognize, engage, and coach the people you lead? Are these strengths or weaknesses? How do you know? What’s your awareness of your self-awareness? As organizations rebound and rebuild for the coming years, these “soft skills” are key to higher performance. A Towers Watson study...
Read post »...principles that guide their development – are critical to the success of an organization or team. Of course, there are some people who remain unconvinced of the value of these “soft skills.” They’re typically managers with minimal leadership qualities, who prefer to focus on being bottomline driven, strategists, marketing aces,...
Read article »...Team Leadership, Organizational Awareness, Self-Confidence, Achievement Drive, and Leadership.” Of course, there are some people who remain unconvinced of the value of these “soft skills.” They’re typically managers with minimal leadership qualities, who prefer to focus on being bottom-line driven, strategists, marketing aces, technical experts, “snoopervisors,” and so on. These...
Read article »...reasons they’re not listening. A large sub-set of leadership “soft skills” involves selling our ideas to others. What are you learning from the discipline of sales skills to get more people to listen — and to act? Further Reading: Thoughts That Make You Go Hmmm… on Influencing Others A selection...
Read post »Emotions are the heart of life and leadership. Health, happiness, and high performance are highly dependent on emotions. In their seminal book, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee explain the book title by pointing to emotional impact as being at the...
Read post »Developing Critical “Soft Skills” to Drive Hard Results Jim Clemmer delivers a fast paced and information-packed 60 minute webcast, outlining the major learning he and his colleagues’ gained through thirty years of working with hundreds of organizations and the latest research on culture change. Learn How to Boost Your Organization...
Watch webinar »...CIO and CSO magazines. She also interviewed Daniel Goleman and other leading EI researchers and writers. The resulting article (“Soft Skills for CIOs and Aspiring CIOs: Four Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence”) is excellent. You can read it online at http://www.cio.com/article/121200/Soft_Skills_for_CIOs_and_Aspiring_CIOs_Four_Ways_to_Boost_Your_Emotional_Intelligence/1. I’d love to get your experiences with personally...
Read post »...Skills — “Soft skills are the essential interpersonal skills that make or break our ability to get things done. We think of them as foundational and every professional should be working to build them.” The top five soft skills are creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. This is a...
Read post »...out of your office and meeting with people throughout your organization, telling others about your accomplishments, or taking a “soft skills” training program. Use feedback or coaching to identify those areas where you most need to grow to build on your strengths and overcome weaknesses to move you toward your...
Read article »...Wiggins, EVP, Chief Information Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina; coauthor, Picasso on a Schedule …lifting leadership effectiveness from the (somewhat pejorative) realm of ‘soft skills’ to a plane that equates these competencies with ‘harder’ disciplines in two ways: not only can these skills be learned, but they...
View page »...Technology tools allow us to leverage strong leadership skills or broadcast our lack of “soft skills.” AchieveGlobal’s study found that problems with virtual teams often come from lack of planning, and communication that isn’t a true two-way conversation. This is all too symptomatic of poorly used technology such as e-mail,...
Read post »...typical of many technical team and project leaders who were promoted for their technical skills, experience, and ability to get things done, not their people leadership or “soft skills.” We discuss how coming up with strong solutions that aren’t well supported by team implementation often sputter and too frequently fail....
Read post »...lead teams, and the like. Prescription: Strengthen your Emotional Intelligence Emotional Intelligence research shows that up to two-thirds of a manager or professional’s success depends on their ability to understand and manage themselves and their own emotions, read the emotional tone of others, and build strong relationships. These “soft skills”...
Read post »...needs to be, these reasons often emerge this look in the mirror: “Soft Skills” are Hard – technical and management skills are easier to define, measure, and apply. Comfort Zone – most leaders were promoted for his or her technical and management skills. Many aren’t given a cross-training map on...
Read post »...everyone. Leadership is clearly the key to success. Strengthening those “soft skills” to build high-performing management teams and organizational cultures has always been important. In today’s turbulent times it’s critical. Despite all the talk about leadership and change, many “change fatigued” leaders struggle with just how to strengthen personal effectiveness...
Watch webinar »...everyone. View Now! Why Watch? Leadership is clearly the key to success. Strengthening those “soft skills” to build high-performing management teams and organizational cultures has always been important. In today’s turbulent times it’s critical. Despite all the talk about leadership and change, many “change fatigued” leaders struggle with just how...
Read post »...the “soft skills” that produce hard results. Bolt-on Programs versus Built-in Process To avoid the high failure rate, leadership and culture change efforts must move from partial and piecemeal plans and programs to integration and alignment up, down, and across the organization. This includes reducing priority overload and building stronger...
Read post »...decades of accumulating research showing that roughly 70% of organizational change programs fail. Central to that high failure rate are huge shortfalls in developing the “soft skills” of leadership and culture. This is what the authors mean by going beyond performance (“what an enterprise delivers to its stakeholders in financial...
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