Firstly, just what is Soft Skills Training?
Soft Skills Training is the difference between qualifications and the maximum performance a person can deliver, either as an individual, or as part of a synergistic team.
Put simply, it maximises the return on investment in the education you paid for to get the qualifications that got you your job. That set the minimum benchmark for what you could do, like all the hundreds or thousands of other people with your qualifications. Soft Skills Training is what can set you – or them – apart, and make you – or them – more valuable to your organisation than anyone else…
When you look at it that way, can you afford to ignore the potential that Soft Skills Training unlocks?
OK, so now you may be thinking, “Well, perhaps I should look at it. But what really is Soft Skills Training?”
Qualifications vs Real World Soft Skills
Soft Skills, in contrast to the qualifications and ‘hard skills’, are the skills that make you a better communicator, a better leader and team player, better at resolving conflict, coming up with new and creative ideas for marketing, problem solving, new products and services and new ways to bring business through the door and to increase profits. Whilst some of these ‘topics’ are covered in traditional education and in the curriculum for certain qualifications, nowhere do those curriculums teach you how to think under pressure, to be creative when it matters, and to bounce back after setbacks and challenges that would leave most people and businesses floored forever.
How can you access Soft Skills Training?
There are a few ways. Most people start in their library. “How to Win Friends and influence People” by Dale Carnegie is one of the best reference books on almost everything covered under the umbrella of ‘soft skills’ and the title pretty much says it all.
Ready for a new idea?
However, the reality is that we learn through experience and through emotional anchoring. You can read through Mr Carnegie’s book and be fascinated by it, but not necessarily become emotionally aroused by it. However, during a presentation on exactly the same topic by a brilliant presenter, you can feel and experience what he meant in all those wonderful examples in the book. It’s not just about reading it and learning to remember the wording; it’s also about experiencing and feeling it and anchoring it in your psyche for when you need it!
Emotional anchoring?
If you look back into your memory banks, the most vivid memories are always the ones where you had an emotional experience – either good or bad. It’s much harder to recall a boring day than one where you were excited, thrilled or just plain scared out of your wits! That’s because those events emotionally anchored in your subconscious.
The best Soft Skills Training is done this way, through Accelerated Learning, and using the principles of the Emotional Tone Scale.
First, lets consider Accelerated Learning.
Whole brain learning, utilising left and right brain capabilities, as well as Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic learning modalities, and utilising subtle NLP techniques to communicate the lessons in an experiential learning environment where whole mind and body learning is possible. This just means a training environment where sound and colour and experiential exercises are included as well as the lectures and handouts and theory.
Now, the Emotional Tone Scale. Follow this link to open the scale as an image on the page you get, and consider where you spend most of your time. Are you an “under the line” or “above the line” person?
Human beings move through a linear emotional range as they go through their day. When high on the range, in areas where they are interested or excited, they have the potential to learn, think, create and rationalise. However, if something upsets them and puts them ‘below the line’, they enter the world of anger, fear and reactive thinking, where logical response and learning are not possible.
The key point about the emotional tone scale is that once we know it exists and understand how to move ourselves through it to where we are most productive – and that’s not hard – we can have incredibly better days.
We can also help other people have ‘above the line’ days too. And this is where synergistic teamwork becomes evident. Leaders appear, performance explodes off the chart.
And all of this is gained through Soft Skills Training.
Experiential, Soft Skills Learning
Follow the links in this post to learn more…
See you on the other side…
Ray Jamieson
Soft SkillsTraining Specialist!