Rights Contact Login For More Details
More About This Title Soft Skills Revolution: A Guide for Connecting with Compassion for Trainers, Teams, and Leaders
English
Soft skills are the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people. In increasingly competitive environments, soft skills training can be a vital resource.
Soft Skills Revolution offers trainers, organizational leaders, and HR professionals a handy guide for building their soft skills through a variety of methods including individualized exercises and activities and structured training programs, as well as informal learning, mentoring, and coaching. The book offers readers information on the background of soft skills development, and suggestions for enhancing soft skills through traditional learning programs as well as informal learning approaches.
Soft Skills Revolution contains practical guidance for creating an engaging learning experience that highlights such important concepts as:
Components for Clear Communication
The Power of Yes
Listening and the Language of Acceptance
A Nine-Step Model for Problem Solving
Interventions for Moving a Team to Results
Giving Helpful Feedback
Moving from Conflict to Cooperation
In addition, The Leader's Connection section is designed for upper level management and facilitators who want to help organizational leaders integrate the book's important concepts and skills into their interactions with team and staff members.
"Kamin's engaging writing style, deep and down to earth at the same time, makes this book an easy learning experience of the 'hard' soft skills we all need to master. By developing these soft skills we can make our world a better place!"
—Isabel Rimanoczy, Legacycoach, Director Minervas, Women Changing the World and author of Big Bang Being
"Kamin has mastered the challenge of bringing soft skills to life. Her simple definitions, clear examples, references to seminal authors, focused questions, conceptual frameworks, and helpful hints invite and encourage the reader to make these soft skills her/his own."
—Ernie Turner, president, LIM LLC and author of Action Reflection Learning
English
Maxine Kamin, M.Ed., is the founder and president of TOUCH Consulting, Inc. (Training for Organizational Development, Unparalleled Customer Service, Communications, and Human Resources) headquartered in Plantation, Florida. Learn more at www.touchconsulting.com.
English
Tables, Figures, and Activities xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
1. What Are Soft Skills? 7
A Simple Definition 8
The Importance of Soft Skills in Business 8
Soft Skills in Practice 10
A Progressive Defi nition of Soft Skills 12
The Evolution of Soft Skills 13
Teaching Soft Skills 14
Soft Skills for the 21st Century 15
The Leader’s Connection 16
2. The Hidden Side of Communication 19
Behind Our Human Interactions 19
Aligning and Clarifying Your Motives 25
Unpleasant Organizational Players 29
What Is Clear Communication? 31
Removing Communication Barriers 34
The Leader’s Connection 37
Activities 39
3. The Power of Positive Intentions 43
The Law of Attraction 43
Kindness, Positivity, and Self-Esteem 46
The Reciprocity Effect 47
Why “Yes” Is So Powerful 51
The Rewards of Altruism 53
The Leader’s Connection 54
Activities 56
4. Tact and Diplomacy 61
What Diplomacy and Tact Accomplish 62
Ten Ways to Invalidate Others 64
The Language of Acceptance 68
Five Steps to Effective Listening 69
The Power of Questioning 75
The Leader’s Connection 79
Activities 81
5. The Challenge of Problem Solving 87
A Model for Problem Solving 88
The Nine Steps to Effective Problem Solving 88
The Role of Intuition in Decisions and Problem Solving 99
Other Elements to Consider 100
The Leader’s Connection 102
Activities 104
6. Soft Skills and Teams 111
Types of Teams and Their Uses 112
The Two Sides of Teams 112
Four Stages of Team Growth 115
Interventions That Encourage Results 122
Team Member Roles 123
The Leader’s Connection 129
Activities 131
7. The Personality Factor 137
Understanding Personality Styles 137
Finding Your Source of Energy 141
Discovering How You Gather Information 144
Identifying How You Make Decisions 148
Describing Your Personality 150
The Leader’s Connection 153
Activities 155
8. Taking the Sting Out of Feedback 159
The Challenges of Feedback 159
Types of Feedback 162
Giving Helpful Feedback 162
Receiving Feedback 166
Making Feedback Positive 172
The Leader’s Connection 173
Activities 176
9. Conflict and Cooperation 181
The Stages of Rage 182
Dealing with Difficult or Angry People 185
Assertive Behavior Techniques 192
Take Care of You 194
The Leader’s Connection 196
Activities 198
10. Conclusion 205
How Philosophy Grounds Practice 205
Your Purpose 205
Content Review 207
Parting Thoughts 212
References 215
About the Author 219
Index 221
