When it comes to taking soft skills seriously is that most bosses think they are just about ‘touchy-feely’ people skills. Soft skills are powerful in creating great workplace environments, happier relationships and better communications. Encompassing listening, sharing with clarity, heightened awareness, both personal and communal, we raise the bar on being self motivated and professionally respected as a value to any team. In a world where getting, keeping and succeeding at work is imperative, anything we invest in that can make us irreplaceable has to be worth learning. Good leaders are forged from the fire of engagement at every level of the business rockface. Great CEO’s build on the strength of their people. The dot’s aren’t difficult to connect.

Among Peggy’s important workplace lessons are the following:

•Knowing yourself is as important as knowing how to do the job.
•Learn when to stick and when to shift or the details will hang you.
•Your procrastination is trying to tell you something.
•Get smart about asking dumb questions.
•You don’t need to be everyone’s best friend—that’s what dogs are for.
•Know where to draw the line between self-improvement and self-destruction.
•When it comes to gossip, learn the art of deflection.
•Keep your visibility when you’re not face-to-face.
•Don’t take it personally.
•Stop stereotypes from sinking you.
•You’re the boss, stupid, that’s why they hang on your every word.

And, perhaps, most favorite of all: Get out of your own way.

Peggy Klaus reveals The Hard Truth About Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner (Collins, January 2008). Peggy is a world class communicator who understands why important soft core competencies are invariably ignored and reveals the fact that soft skills can be the key to enduring success.

The art of good communication is priceless in social and professional settings. How often has poorly conveyed information been the predicator of a failed outcome. Delivering your message with humour and clarity will earn the attention of your intended recipient, no matter who they are. Be willling to take an extra moment to ensure that the message has been heard correctly and check with the party that they acknowedged the key points you sought to transmit. Just this act alone with effect an outstanding upgrade in obviating the need to rectify inaccurate execution. Witness the chaos of ‘insufficient information’ in the following video:

Leading Insight is a management consulting company, based in San Clemente, California.  Its purpose is to provide services that help companies increase the effectiveness of their human capital, resulting in  greater productivity and revenues. They understand how to help organisations build valuable and sustainable relationships, as articulated in this article:

Research shows that even with the best products and business practices, you still need strong relationships to succeed in this marketplace.  The following is a roadmap to turn personality differences into positive business results.

Respect is at the heart of building business relationships. It is the glue that holds together the functioning of teams, partnerships and managing relationships. ( Up and down, peer-to-peer, internally and externally). Respecting the right to differ is a concept like apple pie and motherhood. We all agree with it  but can we truly foster it?

The first step is to identify the specific areas of difference. Many people see things in terms of rights and wrongs. “My way” is right and therefore “other ways” are wrong. When a situation is viewed through this lens, a power struggle ensues. When, however, a situation can be seen through the lens of difference, and a position is simply a matter of opinion not fact, then cooperation and compromise is possible. Identifying and understanding differences allows people to shift their position to one of compromise and negotiation.  The following steps are the roadmap to success:

* Respect leads to accepting a person for what he/she is.
* Accepting a person where they are, creates an environment of trust.
* Trust, leads to a willingness to be open to:
new opportunities

new collaborations

new strategies

new ideas

new products.

Once you understand the above you can use the following list to avoid power struggles, which drain energy from your effectiveness.  Here is our top 10 list for type of differences to look for:

1. Communication Styles. All people do not communicate in the same fashion. There are many inventories available to identify differing styles. Once you understand a person’s style, this knowledge can lead to respect not conflict.
2. Non-Verbal Communication. All forms of communication must be considered. This form of communication is more covert, but not any less important. Non-verbal communication includes; body language, and tone.  Non-verbal communication may differ from the verbal.  With this additional understanding of what is really being communicated more effective collaboration is possible.

3. Learning Styles. People learn in different ways. When this concept is in the forefront of understanding then communications can be geared to various styles and will meet with greater success.

4. Differing Values. This concept can be a little tricky. While values need to be identified and respected, there are times when conflicting values can be so different that they cannot coexist on the same team. When mutually exclusive values are encountered, collaboration is not recommended.

5. Boundaries. We all have different space needs and boundary needs. (Boundaries are the limits you place on the behavior of others around you.)  The first step is to be aware of peoples’ boundaries and then to use this understanding to approach them respectfully. This new behavior often avoids conflict and strengthens relationships.

6. The Self. Self-respect is a vital and primary building block that supports the formation of relationships. By being aware of your own needs and styles you create a healthy foundation and the ensuing relationships are more solid.

The remaining categories are variations on the theme of Cultural Differences. The need to understand, respect, and integrate diversity is a must in today’s market:
7. Company Culture. Seasoned employees have come from different companies and each company has a culture. This must be identified and respected in order to insure successful integration into the current company. This concept is especially pertinent to mergers and acquisitions.

8. Culture of the Country. With the global nature of our business, employees often come from different countries, each with a different culture. In order to successfully integrate multicultural differences, these differences must be understood, articulated, and respected.

9. Family Cultures. The influence of our backgrounds is great. Often we ignore these differences because they “do not belong in the workplace”.  However the reality is that people cannot keep who they are out of the work environment.  The key here is to recognize when the source of the conflict is based on someone’s family/personal issues. This allows you to choose not to engage in a battle that is based on their family history.

10. Individual vs Team. Balancing the individuals needs with team needs is always an interesting dilemma. However, if this healthy balance is not reached, problems are certain to follow.  Taking the time to identify and then address both individual and team dynamics are at the core of this balancing act.  Business success is directly related to getting this right.

Is the prime motivation of  social networking behavior  an attempt reduce risk when making those important decisions that affect our lives? Success in professional services depends on developing and retaining the highest quality relationships. Having a benchmark for what qualitative exchanges look like, is where we are today, in so far as each of us seems to be learning more about.

Reaching out to trusted friends or peers for guidance, information or recommendations around topics that bring confirmation and confidence, such as someone you might need to build a website or provide a service, has been generally restricted to people we have known or met socially. However, since the exponential expansion of virtual socialisation, it is now commonplace to solicit the opinions of those who exist within your extended network despite the fact you might barely know them. If you are lucky enough to get worthwhile responses from people who take the time to reply and guide you to some valuable providers or some new opportune connection, this is the genesis of a trusted relationship. They have stepped up and generated some ‘relationship capital’ with you.

It is important to understand how relationship capital is developed because it is along the same lines as Keith Ferazzi’s clear vision of enterprises as networks. It is a daily practice of providing a goodwill gesture to someone who maybe a friend or a complete stranger, a sort of ‘pay it forward’ philosophy at work. Trust is a beautiful yet fragile creation. Guard it well by only commiting to that which you truly believe you can execute or recommending an excellent service, person, business. This is what makes the world a better place and restores our confidence in one another against a tide of lies and corruption that have driven us to the brink of cynicism.

Trust-based Networks In this first of four segments, Myra Gorman, President and CEO of Community Analytics, explains how trust plays a role inside networks. You can find all the videos in this series on the same Blip TV link.