I have recently been asked what ‘soft skills’ actually mean to the average individual and how sometimes it can sound very demeaning So I thought the best way to describe it was through a casestudy.
Meet Joe, aged 35, in a senior management role in a medium sized company. Joe has been with the company for just over a year and it is his first real role at this level. His background is in the military and he has spent the past few years working in similar sized organisations to get a feel for life outside of the army.
He’s a really nice guy, with a lot of great qualities. He also has great enthusiasm to do a good job and to make quick progress in the business. He is studying for a management qualification and really puts his heart and soul into the job.
But Joe can be short tempered, and doesn’t take criticism well. He lacks in confidence with some aspects of his role and can therefore react badly in challenging situations and when questioned about certain decisions he has taken. He wants to do a great job in managing the team, but often his management style is autocratic and he is seen as aggressive dominant which is isolating his staff, but Joe doesn’t realise the impact his behaviour and the way that he is commun icating has on the team. So the conswquence of this repeated cycle isthat the staff start to work in silence, do not make suggestions for fear of being shouted down and made to feel inadequate and avoid conversation that may provoke a negative response from Joe. Things continue on and whilst progress is made operationally, not much changes in terms of his style or behaviour, and staff relations start to break down.
Does this sound familiar to you?
Do you know someone like Joe whose intentions are good and may have a wide range of skills to run a plan or a business but who lacks those soft skills that actually keep the team together or motivate them to improve?
Soft skills are even more important than the job-specific skills but are so often over looked, and usually with negative consequences. It is so true that a happy positive team with a basic plan will outperform a miserable team with a brilliant plan, every time.
If you have individuals or teams who could benefit from some soft skills training and or including 1-1 coaching, in-house, then contact me today. I only have a few training/workshop slots left in February and early March, so if you want to invest in your business and grow your teams then act today.
