“There’s not one specific thing or skill people have to have to work for us. But I can tell you why we fire people: soft skills. We hire for hard skills. We fire for soft skills. The ability to interact and communicate with others or behave ethically and take responsibility for things tends to be where people tend to break down.”

Rick Stephens, Senior Vice President of HR, The Boeing Corporation

Soft skills are those interpersonal attributes key to getting you places. Employers value candidates with the ability to get along with everyone in the workplace, be resilient, confident, adaptable, present well and show leadership ability. In your personal life being able to communicate effectively, manage change, motivate and lead yourself will only mean a happier life.  

Soft Skills Training 

At Yourcoaching we know that listing all the soft skills you might need can be daunting. Our approach is to focus on 5 Key Soft Skills that will give you a kick start; here they are with an explanation of how they embrace other soft skills, always focusing on continually learning.  

Confidence  

• Stepping into your personal power 
• Rediscovering your self-esteem and self-worth 
• Core strengths – courtesy, co-operation, enthusiasm, honesty 
• Expressing yourself confidently – humour, respect, friendliness 
• Showing your best self 
• Managing challenge and criticism, spinning to the positive 

Resilience 

• Managing your emotions and behaviours through difficulties, uncertainty, change 
• Learning self-awareness and awareness of others 
• Finding the leader in yourself, inspiring and motivating self and others 
• Being able to make good decisions and resolutions, thinking critically 
• Adapting, flexing, creative problem solving, resourcefulness 

Mindfulness 

• Maintaining emotional and physical equilibrium 
• Understanding your natural state, response to stress, triggers 
• Finding calm and balance to rise above stress and challenge, and contribute to better relationships with others 
• Applying simple techniques to improve mood, enhance memory, mental stamina and performance 
• Creating valuable ‘me-time’ for reflection and consideration 

Communication 

• Communicate more effectively at all levels, with all people, in all media 
• Preferred ways to communicate, yours and theirs 
• Listening – doing it really well, attentively and productively 
• Speaking, your message, your story, your words
• Non-verbal communication
• Negotiating, persuading, influencing, collaborating 
• Having difficult conversations, managing expectations 

Presenting Your Self  

• Knowing what you need to know to showcase yourself articulately, powerfully 
• Speaking to a group, speaking in public, how context matters 
• Modelling and mirroring – being a great presenter 
• Being engaging and compelling, story-telling, your personal pitch 
• The power of the Ask 

My brilliant win was learning about myself from someone who doesn’t really know me…First impressions or what one sees in the corridors can go a long way to informing someone’s perceptions of you”

The Process is… 

For organisations, the option is modular training with 5 workshops covering the 5 Key Soft Skills. You can pick and mix although for optimum results the whole series provides a great learning programme for your career progression and development objectives. 

For individuals we incorporate the delivery into a coaching programme with focus on the key skill or skills you want to develop. 

The Soft Skills training works really well in conjunction with creating your Personal Development Plan, as a platform for building talent and skills and uncovering excellence.