The 5-Step Strategic Soft Skills Curriculum for Productivity And Happiness
By Sherri Malouf, Chair and Principal of Strategic Soft Skills Institute
Having a soft skills curriculum in place should be a simple decision for organizations, and many think that they already have a good one. However, I bring a human development perspective to the discussion and 35+ years in the field. First, here’s what I consider to be some simple organizational truths, some may even say common sense!
Truth #1: Happy people are productive people. But what makes people happy? According to my doctoral research, positive work relationships that are based on the Implicit Social Elements® of mutual recognition respect, trust, self-control, status, reciprocity, fairness, and empathy.
Truth #2: Investing in and developing people leads to better organizational performance. There are many academic studies that have proven this theoretically and quantifiably. Given the great resignation and the competitive labor market, it seems to make sense to invest in an organization’s most expensive resource: humans.
Truth #3: People fuel your organization and bring visions, missions, and strategies to life. Without people you have nothing, maybe some chunks of machinery or billions of miles of cable. After all, people and their relationships with each other create your company culture more than processes and procedures, unwritten rules, or operating “values”.
After so many decades of creating curriculums based on needs analysis and competency development, and using this information to “train” people and develop leaders, we are still left with many human relationship-based issues. Now it’s time to develop human beings using this 5-Step Strategic Soft Skills Curriculum!
Step 1: AQai (Adaptability Quotient): Develop a Love for Change. There’s some crazy research that was conducted somewhere that purports that 98% of human beings hate change. The brain is a heavy consumer of energy so to compensate, repetition and habits are preferred as they use less energy. If change is hard and stressful because we have to think and learn new habits, we get tired. So, for many it is best to avoid any kind of change at all costs. Wrong! Instead, we all need to do the following:
- understand our relationship with change and being adaptable
- become aware of what fears we have that get in our way
- learn how to crave and love change
- create a change mindset that powers advancement and happiness and increases your emotional intelligence through increased self-awareness.
After all, would you rather be fearful or happy?
Step 2: Be Powerful. Be Positive. Be Impactful. Positive human interaction is the key to productive relationships. The Positive Power and Influence® Program teaches the Situational Influence Model (SIM): the 5 pillars of Human Interaction and builds on Step #1 by holding people accountable for the impact they have in the world. No more blame and no more drama! We use this very practical model, which many times results in immediate application of the skills and thus strengthens people. This step increases emotional intelligence through self-awareness and behavioral tools for managing the strong emotions of oneself and others. It also increases self-control and reduces avoidance of conflict.
Step 3: Influencing Change, Change, Change… If you’re lucky, you have hired brilliant people. Those brilliant people have brilliant ideas. Most of those ideas die a slow (or quick) death in suggestion boxes. Getting brilliant ideas implemented requires the ability to analyze the value of an idea, influence others, identify stakeholders, be Organizationally Street Smart, deal with resistance, and create an enticing vision. Building on Steps 1 and 2, Step 3 takes you into the territory of Organizational Influence and Change. My advice always… start small!
Step 4: Leading Through Adversity! There’s always a difficult personality to deal with. There’s always someone who is very challenging – maybe even adversarial. What happens inside of you when you have to deal with someone like that? Do you want to run away or go to war? The proper mindset and pathway for guidance of difficult conversations and a big heaping of self-control can turn these challengers into allies if handled correctly. Building on the prior three steps, you begin to understand that every moment has the potential to be awesome or to go right down the tubes. Learn how to harness the energy of others and turn conflict and adversity into creativity and productivity.
Step 5: The Art and NeuroScience of Intuitive Selling. Everyone sells – their ideas, plans, projects, and mostly... themselves. Adaptability and intuition are the secret sauce that work together and bring about the magic. Learn what happens in the first few seconds of meeting someone. Use prescriptive questions to discern how to make your pitch. Follow a path that builds the relationships, garners needs, and hears everyone out. All of this through an understanding of how people respond in the first few seconds of interaction based on science.
There you have it! Encourage your people to go through these 5 steps of soft skills development, and they will be powerful and influential. Mostly because they have taken the time to look at themselves, identified their superpowers, their kryptonite, and have grown and developed their ability to interact with others to the benefit of everyone and the organization.
In terms of time investment – the first two steps are the ones in which to invest the most time. We strongly recommend a 3-month investment in Step 1 with one-on-one coaching, forming cohorts, using a platform for microlearning, and establishing accountabilities. For Step 2, we suggest a three-day F2F residential program. The remaining steps can be in a virtual, blended, or F2F format. They can all be customized and can vary in length depending upon organizational requirements.
Make this investment in your people now and you will reap substantial rewards over time.
