Durable People Skills for Success
Karla Brandau
Become a #Leader Others CHOOSE to Follow #Behavioral Assessments #DISC & #DrivingForces #EmotionalIntelligence #Productivity #DiscretionaryEffort #EmployeeEngagement
Recently I sat looking at the spectacular San Diego Bay licking a Crème Brule ice cream cone, a new flavor from Ben and Jerry’s which was just as spectacular as the Bay.
In the summer heat, the ice cream rapidly turned from hard to soft. In a most unflattering way, I tried to lick fast enough to keep the ice cream from dripping down my front. I even wished for a bib!
?When hired, technical skills, or hard skills, are looked at first to see if the candidate can handle the job requirements. Often after being hired, the hard skills rapidly melt in the heat of interpersonal relationships. The reality and importance of durable skills, or soft skills, comes to the forefront.
For instance, have you ever been on a team that was sabotaged by one bad apple who turned in their part of the project late, laughed at creative but a little “out-of-the-box” ideas aimed at innovation, or subtly refused to contribute?
No wonder the mantra has become: hire attitude, teach skill.
Our world moves so fast that your product could be obsolete by the time you get “ole Joe” whipped into shape and pulling his load.
Durable, soft skills are defined as the capability to communicate and interact with other team members in a positive manner. If these skills do not come intuitively (and they do for only about 25% of the population), they can be acquired with proper training and can become part of your arsenal of people skills.
As I have helped people build their soft skills, I have been puzzled why they are called “soft” skills. Soft conjures up non-assertive, mushy, and melted – like my Crème Brule ice cream cone in the summer heat.
Interactions with other human beings are hard and are never predictable. It takes creativity to make differing opinions fit on the same cone, much like having a scoop of chocolate mint and a scoop of butter pecan tottering one on top of the other.?
In fairness to their importance, soft skills should be renamed crucial career skills. Once mastered, crucial career skills move you rapidly up the ladder of success, permitting you to have greater impact on decisions and allowing you to flex your muscles in informal leadership situations, especially as you move into senior management roles.
Technical skills are learned by going to a classroom, either physically or virtually, having information explained, memorizing material or practicing steps, then demonstrating you can perform the actions in a test situation. ?
Durable, crucial career skills are often left to be acquired through the school of hard knocks. This is the worst choice an organization can make because the resulting conflict and miscommunication can take a nasty toll on bottom line profits.
Instead of letting employees learn personality skills through trial and error — i.e. difficult conversations that end poorly — focus on programs that teach the durable skills of interpersonal relationships and provide opportunities for application through a variety of reinforcement activities.
Program - Unleash Your Brilliance: See Others in High Definition
Unleash Your Brilliance: See Others in High Definition - Is a popular retreat or workshop. Every participant receives their personal 48-page assessment report and a world-class, in-depth education in understanding self and others.
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The concepts in the program enhance self-esteem and foster teamwork. Participants gain insights into how their behaviors are perceived by others, explore the motivations behind different personality types, and discover how to leverage their natural talents to achieve their desired outcomes.
The program highlights personal strengths and areas for improvement. Participants learn about their self-perception, how others perceive them, and why these perceptions may differ.
In an entertaining way, all participants unravel the complexity of human relationships and gain confidence in their relationship abilities as they learn how to:
The goal is to start facilitate learning conversations where each personality listens to the other team member’s viewpoints. The process of listening builds collaboration, cooperation and innovation.
Putting aside personality/egos and finding points of agreement is a strategic way to experience durable career skills.
If personality conflicts are happening in your workplace, let's talk. Call today to discuss the benefits of the DISC, Driving Forces, Emotional Intelligence, and 360-degree evaluations.
#personalities #TTI #DISC #retreats #conflictonteams #teamwork #leadership #managementdevelopment
About Karla
Karla Brandau is a leading authority on leadership for a more collaborative and productive workforce. She has educated leaders, mangers, supervisors, and individual contributors with her proven people skills and productivity systems in companies such as Motorola, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Panasonic, Siemens, and BYD America. Government agencies that have benefited from her programs include NIH, NIDA, the EPA, and IBB. Educational Institutions include Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Texas A & M, and Mercer University.?
Books that reinforce Karla’s messages
770-923-0883 | [email protected] | www.KarlaBrandau.com
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