Board with the words Soft Skills

Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)  reflected that:

“These findings (in the Adult Skills Gap report) should act as a wake-up call for employers to look a lot harder at how they are developing their workforce for the future.

Building skills at all levels and roles is essential to improving productivity and performance, for engagement and retention of employees, and to highlight and support progression opportunities. However, many of these are longer term out”.  

Soft skills are the deal breaker.

Hard skills will get you an interview, but you need soft skills to get (and keep) the job.” Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is clear.

The Savvy Factor is the one stop shop for all things soft skills-wise. Check out the portfolio of what is offered. As always if what you really want isn’t there The Savvy Factor is superb at the bespoke.

The Savvy Factor is integral to your, your people and your organisations success.

Discover how to be

  • sassy in designing what sits right for you
  • savvy in how you create your successes
  • switched on as to what works well & could work even better

Uncover the tools & techniques to

  • explore the information so finding the right fit for you
  • experiment because finding out what doesn’t work is great learning
  • enhance your leadership potential

Get with The Savvy Factor … featured in its portfolio are the 4 C’s within which are the following:

Communication

How to ask Thought-provoking Questions

  • gain insights, information, inspiration
  • use the power of the ask
  • what or a how imbedded somewhere in them

Understanding ‘Brand You’ & how to showcase your profile

  • design your iconic brand
  • discover what your superpower really is
  • explore the key elements that make an impact

Career Development Planning – the how to’s

  • set up a Professional Development Plan (PDP)
  • use a PDP & make it work for you
  • create an evidence base for your appraisals

Leadership skills in an uncertain, unexplored, unknown present & future

  • reflect on your leadership style & research styles of leadership
  • explore what works well for you as a leader & what could work better
  • ask your team/s, colleagues, stakeholders, customers which element is essential

Networking nicely

  • only 4 seconds to make an impression – how to make 4 seconds’ count
  • let go of what you want, pay attention & make others feel special
  • focus on everyone else with the intention of listening & making them feel heard

Creativity

Influence with VIM – Visible, Impact, Memorable

  • Visible – how can you be seen, how are you seen
  • Impact – what is the effect you want to have
  • Memorable – what makes you worth remembering

Magic Flips – the Mindset Miracle with the Most-est

  • growth or fixed? open or closed? How to make the shift?
  • investigate how your mind works & choose how you’d like it to work
  • knowledge is a powerful antidote

Be in this moment – managing time

  • understand how your clock works & how it can work
  • awareness of how you use time, spend it, invest it
  • strategies to enable every moment to count and used to the full

Words Change Minds – language in the dock

  • get with the programme that words are never innocent
  • words are hugely influential & layer on tone, inflection, body language, volume
  • how to make every word count to create the desired effect, result, outcome

Collaboration

Top tips for making teams work effectively

  • how to develop the trust factor
  • create an agreement, a protocol
  • play to & exploit strengths + uncover potential strengths + shore up weaknesses

Solutions focused approach to problem solving

  • discover strategies for solutionising which use everyone’s capabilities
  • plan in place to help implement the inquiry process
  • decision making at each stage to test the robustness of the solution

Learning orientated culture for essential Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

  • What does a learning culture mean?
  • How to introduce a learning culture?
  • What is essential CPD for yourself, your team, your organisation / business

Confidence

Inside track in all aspects of Influence & Impact

  • What does influence & impact mean to you & how do you see it used?
  • How to use influence to impact effectively & appropriately?
  • How might your brand of influencing have most significant impact?

Investigating those Mindsets to stretch & shift to the ‘can do’

  • Growth or fixed? Open to possibilities or closed? What are your mindset muscles doing?
  • How to identify different mindsets & what strategies can shift them?
  • What is most useful to development & how to plan for that?

Presentations – how to wow! your audience

  • set the scene: who are your audience & why should they bother to listen?
  • a picture is worth a 1000 words! Ditch the powerpoint unless …
  • fascinated by the content, why should they? Be brief. Involve them. Get them talking.

The Big Con – confidence crisis debunked

  • Act as if … no one knows you don’t feel confident unless you tell them!
  • Collect a portfolio of strategies to make you feel safe and grounded
  • Practice, practice, practice

 

All of these soft skills elements introduced above have ‘How to’ media the content of which is being created. It’s the bite sized chunks approach that you can pick & mix as needed. Enjoy developing a portfolio of support on demand.

Remember soft skills are what employers are definitely looking for.

Definitely an investment with significant ROI.

What soft skill isn’t listed here that you know is the crucial one for you, your team & your business or organisation? Take action and let me know so that it can be developed for you.