Soft Skills Revolution: A Guide for Connecting with Compassion for Trainers, Teams, and Leaders

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

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

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.