Serious Soft Skills

SSM 158: Details, details, details

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 10:00:40 GMT

Tobin Porterfield discusses the soft skill of paying attention to details.

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75 Coaching With Neal Woodson Part 1

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:00:26 GMT

Bob Graham interviews author, trainer, and expert coach Neal Woodson Part 1

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SSM 157: Defaulting

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 10:00:32 GMT

Bob discusses the power of defaulting to YES rather than immediately saying NO

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SSM 156: Pivoting

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 10:00:28 GMT

Bob Graham discusses how that you need to know when to alter you agenda. Even what works for years may need to change for long term success.

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SSM 155: Celebrate Success

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 10:00:04 GMT

Bob Graham discusses the importance of celebrating successes

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SSM 154: Me Versus We

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 10:00:06 GMT

Bob discusses how important it is to shift the focus from "I" to "WE"

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SSM 153: Leading Change

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 10:00:09 GMT

If you are ready for a change - you might have to lead it - on today's podcast

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SSM 152: Involving Everyone

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 12:30:26 GMT

Bob discusses the value of involving everyone in the organization

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SSM 151: Good Listening

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:00:03 GMT

Bob discusses the importance of good listening skills.

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SSM 150: Delegation

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 10:00:36 GMT

Bob Graham discusses the high level soft skill of delegating

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SSM 149: Myth 5

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 10:00:14 GMT

Bob Graham goes after myth 5 - there is an end in sight

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SSM 148: Myth 4

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 10:00:22 GMT

Myth-ter Bob discusses busting myth #4 - there is a straight line to get you there

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SSM 147: Myth 3

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 10:00:17 GMT

Mythbuster Bob takes aim at #3 - we all have the same desires

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SSM 146: Myth 2

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 10:00:29 GMT

Bob attacks Myth Two - that we all care about the same things

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SSM 145: Myth 1

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 09:00:39 GMT

Bob Graham explores the myth that everyone knows what they need to do and have a clear pathway

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SSM 144: Pick a Spot

Mon, 28 Oct 2019 09:00:08 GMT

Improve your performance by knowing what you are shooting for

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SSM 143: Your Real Offering

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 12:00:32 GMT

Know what you do that brings value to your organization

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SSM 142: The Child Within

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 09:00:00 GMT

Let's talk about your core passion to get focus

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SSM 141: Game Face

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 09:00:14 GMT

Bob discusses the Jeckyll and Hyde side of having a game face

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SSM 140: Hate for Late

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 09:00:08 GMT

Being late is the latest topic on the serious soft skills minute

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SSM 139: Standing Out

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 09:00:48 GMT

Are you outstanding or just standing out - Bob's view on finding something unique

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SSM 138: Spelling Counts

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 09:00:59 GMT

Are there really any excuses for spelling errors - or is it a sign up something worse?

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SSM 136: Selling v. Solving

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 09:00:06 GMT

Are you a seller or a solver.

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SSM 135: Oversteering

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 09:00:41 GMT

Get comfortable and stop over-managing your work.

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SSM 134: Lost Sale

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 09:00:09 GMT

Were you so focused that you lost the sale? Oops - Get back on track.

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SSM 132: Connectors

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 09:00:00 GMT

Who are the people in your network that can get you to the next level - they are connectors.

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SSM 131: Really Work

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 09:00:01 GMT

How many hours do your really work? You know Productive work.

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SSM 130: People First

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:00:47 GMT

Bob Graham talks about the importance of prioritizing people

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SSM 129: Fall Arrives

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 09:00:02 GMT

Professor Porterfield welcomes fall and prepares to wrap up a successful year that wasn't yet

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SSM 128: Football Talk

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 09:00:42 GMT

Game on! Football season is back and you better be able to talk the talk.

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SSM 127: Robots take over

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 09:00:22 GMT

Humans have huge value in the era of artificial intelligence.

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SSM 126: Get in their Face

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 09:00:45 GMT

Bob discusses the value of face-to-face interactions in a world of assumed texting

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SSM 125: The Home Stretch

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 09:00:10 GMT

Bob Graham challenges listeners to make plans for progress in the last few months of the year.

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SSM 124: Morning Ritual

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:00:46 GMT

What is your morning ritual and how does it prepare you for a successful day?

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SSM 123: Fifty Percent Success Rate

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 09:00:38 GMT

Bob Graham discusses the difficulty in picking winners in the hiring process,

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SSM 122: Caramel Popcorn Skills

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 09:00:15 GMT

Tobin Porterfield discusses the recent news discovery of 5 of the 55 soft soft skills.

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SSM 121: Job Searching and Social Media

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 09:00:42 GMT

Social media shown to impact hiring decisions.

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SSM 120: Military Skills

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 09:00:06 GMT

Skills learned in the military services serve great careers on today's Soft Skills Minute podcast

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SSM 119: Performance Raises

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 13:52:31 GMT

Bob Graham discusses how work performance drives pay.

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SSM 118: Recession Emotions

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 12:00:21 GMT

Do we create our own anxiety - you are in control explains on today's Soft Skills Minute podcast.

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SSM 117: Emotionally Unintelligent

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:47:48 GMT

Bob Graham talks about the continuing need for emotional intelligence as part of organizational DNA

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SSM 116: 3-Day Weekend

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 09:00:06 GMT

Bob Graham talks about the benefits of a 3-Day weekend over a week off?

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SSM:115 More Older

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 09:00:04 GMT

Bob Graham discuss the changing landscape of the workforce.

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SSM 114: Customer Service

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 09:00:40 GMT

Bob reminds us that good customer service endorsements need to come from your customers - not you.

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SSM 113: Should I Reply or Not

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 09:20:00 GMT

Bob Graham is looking for your help - is it worth leaving message anymore?

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SSM 112: Mistaken Perception

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 09:00:01 GMT

Are faulty perceptions clouding reality?

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SSM 111: Its Just a Job

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 09:00:09 GMT

Do you have a J-O-B or a career? It matters on today's Soft Skills Minute.

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SSM 110: Lighthouses

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 09:05:46 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses the importance of people with positive attitudes in the workplace

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SSM 109: Mental Health Matters

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 09:00:08 GMT

Your mental health matters is today's topic with Bob Graham

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SSM 108: Really Committing

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 12:00:56 GMT

When you start your workday - what are you committing to? It better be the right things - on today's Soft Skills Minute podcast with Bob Graham.

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SSM 107: Under Pressure

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 09:00:55 GMT

How is pressure affecting your performance? Bob Graham discusses it on today's Soft Skills Minute podcast.

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SSM 106: Sunday Scaries

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 09:00:32 GMT

Are worries about Monday ruining your Sunday? Sunday scaries are today's Soft Skills Minute topic with Bob Graham.

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SSM 105: One Man's Weeds

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 09:00:33 GMT

Dr Porterfield discusses the value of things that you don't value

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SSM 104: Perfection Paralysis

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 09:00:56 GMT

Bob Graham talks about how an obsession with perfection can prevent progress.

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SSM 103: The Why and How Power

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 13:06:08 GMT

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SSM 102 Hot Desking

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 09:00:58 GMT

Does hot desking motivate your team or crush them? Bob Graham discusses it today.

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SSM 101 Text Only Please

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:00:41 GMT

Bob Graham discusses how communication methods can impact interactions with your coworkers.

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SSM 100 Hangover at Work

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 09:00:58 GMT

Is your social life negatively impacting your work - it might be time to take action. Today's podcast with Bob Graham.

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SSM 99 Are You All In?

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 09:01:56 GMT

Bob Graham discusses a recent study finding that teams impact employee engagement.

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SSM 98 Productivity Plummeters

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 09:00:29 GMT

Mental health may be impacting your work productivity more than you think.

#careersuccess #softskills #careercoach #breakthroughskills

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SSM 97 Thanks a latte

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 13:46:01 GMT

On this episode Bob Graham discusses practical and effective approaches to showing appreciation at work.

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SSM 96: 2 Keys to Graceful Delegation

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 09:15:38 GMT

Bob Graham shares two keys to gracefully delegating at work

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SSM 95: Snail Mail

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 10:00:19 GMT

Bob takes us back to the dark ages with a snail mail challenge to restart connections.

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SSM 94: Escalation Pause

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 10:00:11 GMT

Dr. Porterfield continues the discussion from Soft Skills Minute 91 - when should you escalate things to the boss?

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SSM 93: Everywhere is Nowhere

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 10:15:40 GMT

Bob Graham offers up a challenge on improving your networking opportunities.

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SSM 92: Do You Know SEDO?

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 10:00:25 GMT

Need a new friend? You gotta meet SEDO. Find out more about SEDO from Bob Graham.

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SSM 91: When Do I Escalate It?

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 10:00:08 GMT

Keeping the boss informed or unloading are discussed in today's podcast.

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SSM 90: Managing Up

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 10:00:00 GMT

Bob Graham discusses making good choices on what to take to the boss.

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SSM 89: Worst First

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 14:18:23 GMT

Professor Tobin Porterfield discusses the difference between Time Management and Project Management along with the benefit of doing the worst first.

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SSM 88: Golf is about Relationships?

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 12:50:27 GMT

Bob Graham discusses golf - and relationships?

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SSM 87: Really Getting Time Off

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 13:04:27 GMT

Bob Graham talks about time away from work - really away, not just out of the office.

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SSM 86: Better To Look Ahead

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 11:00:28 GMT

Bob Graham shares insights on getting past the current turmoil to make decisions that shape the future.

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SSM 85: Is Burnout Real?

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 11:00:04 GMT

Bob Graham discusses the medical view on burnout.

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SSM 84: Executive Advice

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 11:00:00 GMT

Dr. Porterfield shares advice from a recent advisory board meeting.

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SSM 83: Avoid Distractions

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 11:00:07 GMT

Jury duty for Bob Graham give new insights on the value of being sequestered

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SSM 82: Happy Summer

Fri, 31 May 2019 11:00:15 GMT

Bob Graham talks about the anticipation of summer vacation, be sure to take a break this summer.

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SSM 80: Lying is NEVER acceptible

Wed, 29 May 2019 11:00:38 GMT

Bob Graham discuss the results of a new study on lying on this episode of the Soft Skills Minute

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SSM 81: Unplug

Mon, 27 May 2019 11:00:25 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield's Memorial Day prescription - unplug

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SSM 79: Absent Minded is Totally Absent

Fri, 24 May 2019 12:39:16 GMT

In today's Soft Skills Minute Bob Graham reminds us how important it is to be fully present in the moment,

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SSM 78: Are You Kidding Me

Mon, 20 May 2019 11:00:52 GMT

Find out why conference rooms are the worst places for decision making.

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SSM 77: Sweet Sound of Silence

Fri, 17 May 2019 11:00:40 GMT

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75: Morale May Be Lagging

Wed, 15 May 2019 04:18:54 GMT

Workers in a new study graded a large portion of their work as a B-, which suggests that they may not be as happy some executives would hope.

In this episode co-hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about the results from a new Kforce survey of 2,000 full-time employees.

Among the topics they explore are:

80% of workers said their day-to-day work, work-life balance, company morale and benefits packages rate a B-.
10% more men than women loved their job.
Half the people who were surveyed would give up as much as 29% of their salary to work at a job they enjoy.
Top office weaknesses were poor communication/feedback, employee retention, staff diversity/inclusion and lack of transparency.

Are you or is your organization stuck? Yes, stuck. As in can’t figure out how to proceed because of generational difference, infighting, missed deadlines or poor team dynamics? Or are you stuck, perhaps managing without a clue how to drive greater results, or unable to keep up with the changes in the workplace or your field? If you answered yes to any of these, we can help you. We coach and train people using a proprietary blend of breakthrough skills to achieve greater success. Want to learn more, then call 937-754-5575. You won’t be sorry, and pretty soon, you won’t be stuck anymore.

Like what you hear, then tell someone else and give us a review. Want to comment on something you heard, then tweet us at @RealSoftSkills or email us at podcast@serioussoftskills.com .

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SSM 76: Importance of Last Words

Mon, 13 May 2019 11:22:07 GMT

On today's episode of the Serious Soft Skills Minute, Bob Graham talks about the importance of choosing your last words well

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SSM 75: Getting More Done

Fri, 10 May 2019 11:45:00 GMT

On Today's Serious Soft Skills Minute, Bob Graham discusses what he learned about getting things done on a day that shouldn't have been productive at all.

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SSM 74 What Going From Worst to First Shows Us

Mon, 06 May 2019 12:00:39 GMT

Worst to First. We see it happen - how do we make it happen. Bob Graham helps us unpack it today.

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SSM 73: What Does It Take?

Fri, 03 May 2019 13:00:52 GMT

Dr. Porterfield shares insights from a recent meeting with leaders and a new hire.

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74: What We Want -- Now

Wed, 01 May 2019 04:57:34 GMT

The workplace is changing as more younger people move up in organizations big and small. Old ways and views are shifting, and a recent study from Gallup points this out. We’ll explore a few of those important changes in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast.

Among the topics Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:

Why millennials want development opportunities
Where coaching plays in their favor
Why annual reviews are not going to drive progress

Like what you hear, then tell someone else and give us a review. Want to comment on something you heard, then tweet us at @RealSoftSkills or email us at podcast@serioussoftskills.com

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SSM 71: Fessing Up to Move On

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 15:00:42 GMT

Bob Graham talks about the importance of owning your mistakes - immediately in this episode of the Soft Skills Minute podcast

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SSM:70 Commit to a Routine

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 14:30:23 GMT

Bob Graham discusses how a routine can help clear the path to productivity

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SSM 72 Administrative Professionals' Day Is A Really Bad Idea

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:35:02 GMT

Bob Graham, cofounder of Serious Soft Skills LLC, explains why he thinks Administrative Professionals Day is bad for any organization. See if you agree.

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SSM 69: Are You In A Groove? or a Rut?

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 17:59:50 GMT

Tobin Porterfield questions whether you are in a groove where you know your surroundings and are making progress or are you stuck in a rut.

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SSM 68: Call in the Experts

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 14:30:12 GMT

Bob Graham discusses when its the right time to go for HELP

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73: Overcoming Generational Differences in the Office

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 04:56:32 GMT

Generational differences are real in the workplace, as we have the broadest segment of age groups working than at any time in human history.

Among the topics Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:

How younger employees perceive older employees
How older employees perceive younger employees.
Who does the hiring and why it's important to know
The best strategy for helping someone learn something you know
Five tips for dealing with generational differences in the office

Looking for additional help in addressing the challenges of generational differences in your office? Contact Serious Soft Skills at 937-SKILLS5 or at http://serioussoftskills.com to learn how we can help you to become a more productive, collaborative and innovative team.

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SSM 67: Be Proactive NOW

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 21:06:14 GMT

Dr. Porterfield talks about the value of people who take initiative and are proactive

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SSM 66: Patience Power in Sales

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 14:30:49 GMT

Bob Graham talks about his experience as a customer when patience pays off for the salesperson

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SSM 65: Possibility Paralysis

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 15:53:22 GMT

Bob discusses how to deal with having too many options

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SSM 64: Innovation

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 23:53:15 GMT

Bob Graham discusses a practical approach to innovation.

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Episode 72 Elevating Your Elevator Speech and a Live Elevator Pitch Makeover

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 14:19:46 GMT

We talk to a resident expert about how to take an elevator pitch or elevator speech from boring to bright, bold and business-friendly.

Co-host Dr. Tobin Porterfield interviews his co-host, Bob Graham, who has helped thousands of people, from college students to CEOs, in a wide range of fields to build a powerful elevator pitch.

Among the topics they discuss are:

How long should an elevator pitch be
The roots of elevator pitches
The one-and-only objective of the elevator pitch
A results-focused approach that focuses on value
The keys to developing an ever-better elevator pitch
How you elevator pitch has to hue to the audience you are in front of
The structure of a great elevator pitch
Fixing up Toby’s elevator pitch live!
Getting them to ask for more
The ongoing trial-and-error that leads to a better elevator pitch
How to know when it's working

Look for a new long-version episode in about two weeks, and 1-minute versions of the podcast every few days, a few times a week.

If you want to talk to us about episode ideas, insights or guests, please email us at info@serioussoftskills.com or tweet us at @RealSoftSkills.

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SSM 63: Brackets Are Busted - Move On

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 14:30:25 GMT

Bob Graham talks about putting his NCAA college basketball brackets aside to focus on more important issues

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SSM 62: Why Not BOTH?

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:30:34 GMT

Bob Graham discusses a false choice that we should not accept.

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SSM #61: The What-If Game

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 14:30:19 GMT

Bob Graham offers a podcast challenge to open up your mind and consider new possibilities.

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71: Making Meetings Matter with the Rule of Fours

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 04:44:27 GMT

One study finds that only about 15% of meetings accomplish real results. This episode looks at how people attending meetings can make them matter more and some other suggestions for ensuring meetings achieve results.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss:

Why meetings don't work so well for most people

How to plan for who should attend meetings

What good meeting behavior is

The Rule of Fours fo making sure every meeting matters

Want to learn more about managing meetings or being more productive in your organization? Contact Serious Soft Skills at 937-SKILLS5.

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SSM 60: Leprechaun Crossing

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 14:30:03 GMT

R U 2 Serious? Dr. Tobin Porterfield takes a not so serious look at the value of lightening up.

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SSM 59: Daylight Savings Crashes

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:30:20 GMT

Bob Graham discusses the unexpected consequences of Daylight Savings Time.

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SSM 58: Winds Drive Focus

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 14:30:11 GMT

Bob Graham discusses how focusing can energize your work.

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SSM 57: Best Sleep Aid EVER

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 15:30:08 GMT

Bob Graham discusses how using simple task lists can keep you on track and ensure you get a good night's sleep without worry.

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70: Overcoming the New Year's Resolution Effect with Intentional Actions

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 05:40:06 GMT

As March begins many of us have already cast our New Year's resolutions to the side for another year, just like last year and prior years. What's lacking is intentionality, that ability to focus on what makes the most sense and way as a means of developing a plan to actually achieve it. That's our topic on this week's episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss many topics related to setting intentions, including:

What intentionality is and isn't
The project management perspective
How to bring new focus to your efforts
How intentionality differs from setting goals/prioritizing
The New Year's resolution effect
Its relationship to soft skills
Where tasks that can't involve intention fit in.

Join us in two weeks for the next Serious Soft Skills Podcast, where we will cover managing meetings for people who are attendees. In the meantime, you can always take in our Soft Skills Minutes, bite-size, actionable discussions of real-life situations where soft skills make the difference.

Does your organization need soft skills help? Call us at 937-SKILLS5 to learn how we can help you or visit http://serioussoftskills.com.

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SSM 56: The SCRAM Button

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:30:00 GMT

Dr Porterfield discusses the importance of knowing when you are off track - time to stop and rethink things rather than pushing blindly forward.

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SSM 55: Persuasive Or Pushy?

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 15:30:58 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses the value of being persuasive but not pushy.

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SSM 54: And The Winner Is - Recognition

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 15:30:10 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses giving recognition - This year's winner of best employee in a supporting role .....

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SSM 53: Happy Margarita Day

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 14:50:31 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses leveraging reflection - Breathe Out Breathe In Reflect

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SSM 52: Walks On Water

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 15:30:24 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses finding what holds you back from your potential to "walk on water"

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SSM 51: Be Conflict Ready

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 15:30:39 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses how being conflict averse does not benefit you, your colleagues, or your organization.

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69: How Different Generations Look at Sick Leave

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 05:31:27 GMT

Generational differences, something we also covered in Episode 68, continue to vex organizations, and today we look at the way different generations tend to look at sick leave.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss these and other topics in this episode:

Views of sick leave
Communication
Rules of engagement dealing with sick leave
Explicit and implicit sick leave
Hints for dealing with these situations

Don't forget to check out our Soft Skills Minutes, bite-size nuggets on soft skills in work.

Also, have you read our book, The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organizational Success.

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SSM 50: Don't Be "That Guy"

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:30:26 GMT

Dr. Porterfield talks about how to avoid becoming "that guy" in the office that you never wanted to become.

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SSM 49: Look for Signs

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 15:30:28 GMT

Dr Porterfield discusses the importance of taking time to be aware of what is coming up over the horizon so you can prepare for change.

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68: Exploring Those Vexing Generational Differences

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 05:42:17 GMT

There’s a lot of head scratching and complaining in most offices centered around a major difference we are seeing in offices of all sizes. We’ll tell you what that big difference is and why it’s so vexing in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore this complicated area and discuss:

Differences among the generations

Why we need to find common ground

Where these issues most often crop up among the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and iGen

How marriage serves as a model for how to address them

Why failing to address generational differences is bad for business and innovation

Hints for dealing with generational differences:

1. Accept it is real and it can be a powerful force against success.

2. Build a system that constantly holds onto common interests and goals. 3. Get outside help.

It’s not going away, and when harnessed correctly, it could actually fuel growth and innovation in new and exciting ways. Well, Bob, I think that’s all we have for today. Next week, we’ll dig deeper into generational differences and how to address them. Until then, thanks for listening, good day and good soft skills.

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SSM 48: Intentionally Learn Something New

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 16:28:20 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses Soft Skill #54 from their book - its more than being "willing" to learn it is intentionally stepping out to learn something new.

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SSM 47: Respect in Action

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:30:17 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses examples of showing respect to others and calls for your examples.

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SSM 46: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 15:30:13 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses the importance of respect has actions we take to value people.

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SSM-45 Perseverance for Success or Failure

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 15:30:19 GMT

Dr. Porterfield discusses two key factors in whether perseverance leads to success or failure

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SSM-44 Communication Matrix

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 15:30:49 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield discusses using a communication matrix to make sure that the message gets through.

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SSM-43 Your Legacy NOW

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 15:00:36 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield explains how we are each already building our Legacy - what impact will you leave on your organization?

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SSM 42 One Word

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 16:15:33 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield discusses finding and applying that One Word that can provide focus for your year.

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SSM 41: Work-Life Balance Is A Crock

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 13:58:52 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, soft skills expert why work-life balance is not something we should be chasing.

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SSM 40: Addressing When Someone Constantly Talks Over You

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 15:15:37 GMT

Bob Graham, author, keynote speaker and workshop leader, explains how to address a person who constantly talks over you.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 39: Infusing Cultural Awareness into the Holidays

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 14:34:53 GMT

Bob Graham, author, keynote speaker and trainer on soft skills, explains why the soft skill of cultural awareness is of paramount importance at this time of year. For more podcast episodes, visit Serious Soft Skills website.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 38: Problem Solvers Aren't Magicians

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 19:58:08 GMT

Bob Graham, soft skills author, keynote speaker and trainer, explains how problem solvers do their magic, which isn't actually magic.

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Serious Soft Skills 67: Getting the Job, Interviewing Resources To Get You Hired

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 05:44:25 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield interviews his co-host Bob Graham on two new offerings to help people get jobs. Graham has created a free webinar, Acing the Job Interview, which details exactly how to go about using a job interview to advance your chances of getting the job. It's available for free at http://serioussoftskills.com/acing

This course is perfect for people who are struggling to get hired, don't know what to say at a job interview, get nervous at the job interview, or want to be more in command at the job interview.

He also explains a new online course, Telling Stories to Get You Hired, that details a new way to go about getting employers interested in you, using stories that tell them exactly how you will fit into their growth plans. It's available at http://serioussoftskills.com/story

For other episodes of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast or the Soft Skills Minutes, visit https://shows.pippa.io/5ab11850f433bbaf533d003e

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Soft Skills Minute 37: Networking The Easy Way

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 15:39:50 GMT

Bob Graham, a soft skills expert and co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, explains how networking can occur without trying. Just being real and talking to people can open great doors of discovery and opportunity.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 36: Thanksgiving Is All About Collaboration

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 16:57:12 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, explains how the soft skill of collaboration is evident in nearly every part of Thanksgiving.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 35: When You Can't Afford to Multi-Task

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 10:32:32 GMT

Learn the one time that you can't possibly multi-task from Dr. Tobin Porterfield, a soft skills expert and co-founder of Serious Soft Skills LLC.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 34: Tackling Things When Confidence Is Lacking

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 14:36:58 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills LLC, explains what to do to overcome brief bouts where you lack confidence.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 33: Set A Course for Daily and Weekly Success

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:32:23 GMT

Bob Graham, a soft skills speaker and expert, explains why putting together a list of priorities for the day and week can help you get things done more efficiently.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 32: Being Analytical In a Good Way

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 05:03:29 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills and a soft skills expert, explains how being analytical isn't bad, but rather a key to building any successful organization.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 31: Bad Openings Can Cripple Discussions

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 15:05:39 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, a soft skills expert, explains how a bad opening to a discussion can cripple the whole discussion.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 29: Strategically Traveling Toward End-Of-Year Goals

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:56:13 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, explains that his recent travels -- and time away for all of us -- provides time to clarify and codify the end-of-year goals we need to achieve.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 28: We Wear Our Halloween Masks All Year

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 04:51:39 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, talks about wearing masks, like many of us do on Halloween, all year long and its detrimental effects on developing teams, trust and respect.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 27: Stick to the Script

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 04:29:01 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, discusses how a big part of successful presentation is sticking to the guidelines.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 26: Leading Change Is All About the Leading

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 04:49:53 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, explains what's required to successfully lead change in an organization.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 25: Applicants Talking, But Employers Not Listening

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 04:08:42 GMT

Bob Graham, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, discusses research from HireVue indicating a disconnect between applicants and employers on soft skills.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 24: Rocks, Rockstars Both Benefit Organizations

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:22:13 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, co-founder of Serious Soft Skills, explains that the best organizations make time to cultivate rocks and rockstars.

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Serious Soft Skill Minute 23: A Broader Definition of Being Proactive

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 18:55:44 GMT

Bob Graham, cofounder of Serious Soft Skills, explains how he sees the soft skill of being proactive with a definition that's broader than most people's.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 22: It's All About Respect, Dude

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 18:34:55 GMT

Bob Graham, cofounder of Serious Soft Skills, explains why showing respect from the beginning sets the stage for a relationship between any two people.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 21 Setting Priorities to Ensure Success

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 13:15:28 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, talks about how setting priorities, one of the soft skills, can make or break success in our days, weeks, months and years.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 20: Do You Know Your Organization's Terra

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 04:30:10 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, talks about the Italian word terra and how it applies to business and management.

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66: Part 2 of Keith Daw Interview, Presentation and Soft Skills

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 04:10:16 GMT

Sales, whether of products and services or ideas, requires powerful presentation skills and Keith Daw, Vice President of Business Development and Trainer at Sandler Training in Baltimore, offers insights and tips for success.

Among the topics he discussed in an interview with cohost Bob Graham are:

Where sales and presentation, one of the soft skills, intersect
Tips and strategies for better presentations

Keith Daw, Vice President of Business Development and Trainer at Sandler Training in Baltimore is McDonell Consulting Group, a Sandler Training operation, based in Towson, Maryland. More information is available at mcdonell.sandler.com. If you aren’t in Baltimore, Keith will find you a Sandler Training program near you, both in the U.S. and internationally. If you are in the Baltimore area, he has some free local events that our listeners are free to attend. Find out all about them at mcdonnell.sandler.com.

Next week, another episode exploring one of the soft skills. New episodes come out every Wednesday.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 19 Being Flexibile

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 12:01:48 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explains in Half-Marathon Monday, his runup to a run in December, how he has to be flexible while traveling and how flexibility is critical to our success in work.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 18: Are You Really Listening?

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 14:52:10 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, gives an example of where he wasn't listening as well as he should have and he got called out on it.

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65: Part 1 of Interview with Keith Daw on Sales & Soft Skills

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 04:10:54 GMT

So many of us are involved in selling, either as a career or for our ideas. We brought in an expert to talk about the role of soft skills in sales. This week Bob Graham is talking to Keith Daw, Vice President of Business Development and Trainer at Sandler Training in Baltimore, for a discussion on soft skills and sales.

Keith Daw trains high-level executives on sales and training. He also is a strong advocate for the role of soft skills in business. Here is the first part of an interview Bob recently did with him.

Among the topics they discuss in this interview are:

Where sales and soft skills intersect
How good listening factors into sales
Where empathy plays a role
What sales is really based on

Next week, we will air the second part of Bob’s interview with Keith Daw, where they talk about presentation and an array of soft skills that go into dealing with other people in a sales situation. New episodes come out every Wednesday.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 17: Being Persistent and Resilient

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:55:08 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, discusses how resilience and persistence come into play in his preparation for a half marathon and our business lives.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 16 A Proverb, Jimmy Buffet, Crowded House and Soft Skills

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:14:36 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explores a proverb, and songs by Jimmy Buffet and Crowded House, and what they say about the soft skill of having a positive attitude.

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64: Should Accepting Compliments Be a Soft Skill?

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 04:15:45 GMT

A listener suggests that we add accepting compliments as a soft skills since we have one that is accepting criticism in our list of 55 soft skills people can use in the workplace. The cohosts debate the merits of the suggestion in this episode.

In this episode, cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the following:

Why accepting compliments is important in business
Why it matters
Whether accepting compliments is a good addition to the soft skills list
An alternative proposal
A critique of The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organizational Success ignites our own issues with accepting feedback
A few hints for better accepting compliments

Hints for Accepting Compliments

Acknowledge it.
Thank someone for the praise.
Don’t blow it off. Reflect it back.
Be someone who gives compliments so others will give it back to you.

Next Week

We will discuss the soft skills that go into successful selling with an expert, Keith Daw of Sandler Training in Baltimore, Maryland. New episodes every Wednesday.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 14 What Virtual Reality Tells Us About Soft Skills

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 16:05:01 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explores what new findings in virtual reality mean for soft skills.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 13 Planting Seeds and Perseverance

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 14:59:15 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, discusses how perseverance is really about planting seeds without knowing what will grow.

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63: Part 2 of Interview on Teamwork, Leadership with Bestselling Author Michael Rodgers

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 04:10:06 GMT

In this episode, we air the second part of our interview with Michael Rogers, bestselling author of You Are the Team—6 Simple Ways Teammates Can Go from Good to Great.

Cohost Bob Graham interviews Michael, who is a consultant on teamwork and leadership and is working on his second business book, Heart Based Leadership. If you missed the first part of the interview, visit Episode 62.

In this episode, Bob and Michael discuss:

The differences between teamwork and team building
How to give and receive criticism
One-on-one meetings to ensure a proper feedback loop
His book on leadership

Next week

We will tackle the issue of how to accept compliments in a manner that encourages team success. New episodes every Wednesday.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 12 Being Self-Motivated

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 12:56:06 GMT

Serious Soft Skills Podcast Cohost Bob Graham explains how his effort to stay self-motivated when preparing for a half marathon mirrors what every employee needs to do to succeed at work.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 11 You Aren't Good or Bad at Soft Skills. Really!

Fri, 14 Sep 2018 12:59:05 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, suggests a new way to look at our adeptness with soft skills.

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62: Part 1 on Teamwork With Bestselling Author Michael Rogers

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 04:10:04 GMT

Teams cannot achieve results without teamwork, and we found an expert to talk about teamwork. Join us as special guest Michael G. Rogers, author of the bestselling business book, You Are the Team—6 Simple Ways Teammates Can Go from Good to Great.

Michael Roger’s is a 2014 Inc. magazine Top 100 Leadership Speaker who is working on his second book, Heart Based Leadership, and his blog Teamwork and Leadership regularly ranks in the top 10 of leadership blogs and has a monthly following of more than 30,000 people. He is at MichaelGRogers.com.

In Part 1 of our two-part interview Serious Soft Skills Podcast Cohost Bob Graham speaks to Mike Rogers about a host of topics related to teamwork, including:

Selfishness
Lack of trust in teams
Vulnerability
Peer-to-peer accountability
How sports works better than business at teamwork
Creating a vision

To obtain Michael Roger’s book or to read his blog posts, visit MichaelGRogers.com.

Next week

Part 2 of our interview on teamwork with Michael Rogers.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 10: Self-Motivation

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 12:35:35 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, starts a new Monday feature on soft skills that he finds in preparation for a half marathon he is running in December. Here's a new way to look at soft skills.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 9: Empathy

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 16:34:53 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, describes empathy in easy-to-understand terms. For a more detailed discussion, check out Serious Soft Skills Podcast Episode 9.

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61: Able to Work Under Pressure

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 04:10:14 GMT

Pressure is one of the realities in today's fast-paced business environment. To not be able to deal well with pressure is to practically guarantee you will be ineffective in performing your job. Today, we will discuss dealign with pressure and give some tips for handling pressure at work.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss:

Finding the sweet spot in handling pressure
The "Yerkes-Dodson Law"
Pressure and control

Some suggestions for dealing with stress:

Accept that stress is a part of life and work. Don't fight it. Don't complain about it. Just acknowledge it.
Anticipate stressors. If you know a deadline is coming, make sure you eat well, get a good night sleep and clear as much as possible in advance of that day.
Don't take on other people's stress. Different things cause each of us stress. Listen to others, but don't make someone else's stress yours.
Make time for daily stress-busting activities. Taking a walk, deep breathing, meditation, journaling, exercise are among the strategies many people use to combat stress.
Don't make stress worst than it is. Stress will come and go. Can you remember the stressors in your life two months or two years ago? Probably not. Just let them go.

Have you joined The Soft Skills Revolution? We are giving resources out for free to people interested in better understanding their soft skills. It's free and it's easy. Just provide your email and away you go. Nothing to buy or sell. Jut go to thesoftskillsrevolution.com.

Next week

Next week, we will tackle another soft skill. New episodes come out each Wednesday. Until next week, thanks for listening, good day and good soft skills.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 8: Soft Skills Are Like Air

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 13:37:02 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, opens our eyes to how we often see soft skills and why it hurts our chances of achieving real success.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 7: Switching Things Up For A Better Result

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 04:03:31 GMT

Today, Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, talks about how changing things up, whether in running or how you approach your day, can improve your situation. He suggests people try changing their attitude, with a positive attitude being one of the soft skills, to derive a different result at work.

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60 Managing Relationships

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 04:36:19 GMT

Relationships are at the core of all business these days, so our ability to manage them is paramount if we are going to be successful in practically any job.

In today’s episode, cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss:

How changes in the work world necessitate building more relationships
How to manage relationships
Examples of well managed and poorly managed relationships
The benefits of managing relationships with workers, former colleagues, bosses and others

Here are some hints for better managing business relationships:

Make amends. If you have a bad business relationship, fix it. Now.
Scroll through your phone contacts every week or two. I sometimes see someone's contact information that I haven't talked to and have called or emailed them right away. Everything happens for a reason.
Find beneficial ways to interact. I like to send articles to people that I think they might find valuable. They seem to like it. It shows I am thinking of them, and it's easy enough to send an article.
Just say hey. Sometimes it's great to hear from someone who you haven't heard from in a while. I had a former coworker who I helped mentor contact me recently out of the blue. She told me she missed “my first mentor.” It made my day.
Use LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn. It allows me to know what other people are up to, to be able to contact them when they change jobs or locations and it's all free. I like to see who is celebrating birthdays, job anniversaries or whatever else. I respond often, and it pays off. Ten minutes in the morning or evening can yield great fruit with LinkedIn, or do it every Sunday night.
Be grateful. If all else fails, contact someone at least once a week who has had a profound effect on your career and tell him or her that. Believe me, if that's where the conversation starts, it will end much better – for both of you.

Have you joined The Soft Skills Revolution at thesoftskillsrevolution.com? Why not? We are giving resources out for free to people interested in better understanding their soft skills. It's free and it's easy. Just provide your email and away you go. Nothing to buy or sell. Jut go to thesoftskillsrevolution.com.

Next Week

Next week, we will tackle another soft skill. New episodes come out each Wednesday. Until next week, thanks for listening, good day and good soft skills.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 6: Getting Soft Skills into Your Resume and Cover Letter

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 04:05:16 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explains how to integrate soft skills into your resume and cover letter to make yourself a more appealing candidate to employers.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 5: Doing Your Homework

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 04:03:59 GMT

Bob Graham, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explains how doing your homework on a job search makes a huge difference in your results.

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59: Why Are We Leading The Soft Skills Revolution

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 04:20:34 GMT

People ask us all the time how we got into soft skills so today, we’re going to explain how each of us came to this place and why we know soft skills are so important. All that and more in a few seconds.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss:

Their individual paths toward leading the soft skills revolution
Why they feel compelled to lead this charge
Examples from their lives, including one from supply chain work, where soft skills made all the difference

If you liked what you heard today or in another episode, then give us a great review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Share our podcast with someone you know.

And by all means, go to TheSoftSkillsRevolution.com and join our revolution. We want to change the world’s view on soft skills and you can help us.

Next week

We will look at another one of the soft skills. New episodes are posted every Wednesday.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 4: Hiring With The Wrong Focus

Mon, 20 Aug 2018 04:05:10 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explains how talent management and hiring managers are focusing on the wrong skills when evaluating candidates for jobs.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 3: Thinking about a Portfolio

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 04:39:04 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, cohost of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explains how we look at soft skills more robustly than others who have written about them.

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58: Dealing with Ambiguity

Wed, 15 Aug 2018 04:15:40 GMT

The world is changing faster and faster. What seemed clear yesterday may not be clear today and who knows what tomorrow will bring? Dealing with ambiguity is not just a soft skill but a necessity in today’s workplace. We will discuss dealing with ambiguity and even give some hints for how to handle it.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the following topics:

Life isn’t predictable and it can get boring
How clock speed affects our ability to succeed
Dealing with not knowing
Decisions have consequences and making bad decisions can be costly.

A few hints for how we can ensure that we can deal with ambiguity.

Accept that ambiguity is real. Easy choices don’t always exist.
Keep a compass. Know what you are trying to accomplish and keep true to it.
Call in the reinforcements. Find people and other sources of information and support that are solid no matter what else is happening.
Heed the signs. When things appear to be faltering, recognize it and react.

That’s it for this episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast. Look for new episodes every Wednesday. And if you liked what you heard today or in another episode, then give us a great review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Share our podcast with someone you know. And by all means, go to TheSoftSkillsRevolution.com and join our revolution. We want to change the world’s view on soft skills and you can help us.

Next week

We will explore why we are leading The Soft Skills Revolution.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 2: What We Mean By Soft Skills

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 04:49:15 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield, one of the cohosts of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, explains what we mean when we say soft skills.

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Serious Soft Skills Minute 1: Introduction

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 21:46:28 GMT

Bob Graham, one of the hosts of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, introduces the new Serious Soft Skills Minute.

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57: Willingness to Learn

Wed, 08 Aug 2018 04:30:25 GMT

A willingness to learn is a powerful tool that recognizes that the processes, software and techniques that you know are just the foundation for your success.

Among the topics cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:

How changes in the workplace necessitate the need to be willing to learn
How do you tease out a willingness to learn in an application
Employers want to see a willingness to learn
Curiosity is key
Hints for learning new things to promote your professional benefit

Next Week

We will look at another soft skill, dealing with ambiguity. New episodes every Wednesday.

Join The Soft Skills Revolution at SoftSkillsRevolution.com

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56: Accepting Criticism

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 04:13:07 GMT

Accepting criticism can take the wind out of our sails and hurt our ability to advance in our careers, relationships and in life. We will discuss this complicated soft skill and give hints for delivering and responding to it better in this week’s episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about a number of important issues, including:

Why the soft skill of accepting criticism can be difficult to hear
How accepting criticism can benefit us and our development
What happens when we don’t accept criticism
Helping you versus hurting you with criticism
When to discount people’s criticism
Filtering out the good criticism and retaining ownership
Finding people to trust and value who give you constrictive feedback
How to give constructive criticism
When to table someone’s criticism
“The Sandwich Method” of criticism
When a cooling off period pays off for everyone
Preventing criticism from paralyzing us
Why organizations need to integrate feedback and criticism into their operations to become better
Making a case for writing down suggestions, rather than speaking them

Next week

We will address another soft skill and its implications. New episodes come out every Wednesday

Have you joined The Soft Skills Revolution?

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55: Soft Skills and the Hiring Process

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 04:15:59 GMT

A Forbes.com article, How to Hire the Right People to Help Your Organization Success by Sally Percy, suggests that employers are undervaluing soft skills, which seems silly in this low-unemployment business climate. We will discuss the technical skills fixation and why it hurts employers in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

Among the topics cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:

Why focusing on technical skills is comfortable, but difficult to enable proper hiring.
Why combining technical skills and soft skills is the key to business success
How employers have become lazy when it comes to soft skills
Job qualifiers and job winners
Why employers need to get past the fishing expedition in using soft skills to hire
How hiring with a soft-skills focus helps create a better cultural fit

Next week

We explore one of the more complicated soft skills: accepting criticism. New episodes every Wednesday.

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54: Starting the Soft Skills Revolution

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 04:12:38 GMT

In this episode we launch The Soft Skills Revolution. We discuss why it matters, what it means and how you can help.

Among the topics cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:
*Why the soft skills revolution must occur
*How a successful revolution would change the workplace.

Join the revolution at TheSoftSkillsRevolution.com.

Next week

Why hiring is all wrong and what soft skills could do to help it. New episodes every Wednesday.

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53: What Cobots Serving Lemoncello Means for Soft Skills, Really!

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 04:15:00 GMT

Cobots, robots working collaborating with people to accomplish specific tasks like deep tissue massage and other tasks, and what they mean for soft skills are our topic this week.

Among the topics cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about this week include”

How robots learn tasks
How robots are learning new steps and the latest in robot technology
Robots are becoming a bigger part of the job world
How new technology is changing our soft skills
Examples of when soft skills exceed the capabilities of a robot
Why humans will always be needed

Next week

Another soft skill will land front and center in our discussion. See which one every Wednesday.

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52: Celebrating a Year of Podcasting

Wed, 04 Jul 2018 04:25:17 GMT

We celebrate our first anniversary of the podcast with a celebration, with lessons learned, and even some hints of what’s in the pipeline for the podcast and soft skills on this week’s Serious Soft Skills podcast.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the following:

What they didn’t expect about podcasting
How they and the podcast has evolved over the year
Why the podcast is so topical
What the Soft Skills Revolution is
How soft skills fit in with technical skills
More soft skills in more ways

Next Week

We will be discussing the emergence of cobots and what they mean for soft skills. It’s cutting edge and you won’t want to miss it. New episodes come out every Wednesday.

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51: Being Culturally Aware

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 04:44:52 GMT

A growing list of cultural differences -- from generational to technological skills, from social and political, to religious and lifestyle differences -- are realities in today’s workplace. In this episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, we will discuss what being culturally aware means and how to avoid being culturally unaware.

Among the topics Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss in this episode:

Dealing with diversity in the workplace and how it affects performance, innovation and meeting customers’ needs
The example in computers and how they look differently for a 60 year old vs. a 20 year old
Why we need to try to see the world more broadly than only through our own eyes
How opportunities are lost when we go blindly or avoid situations
Awareness of where diversity issues arises is the first step
When we put people in a place of being an outsider and how it hurts us
Something as simple as food can raise issues or diffuse them
How Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence set the stage, but does not full cover cultural awareness
Individual and organizational responsibility for recognizing and leveraging people’s differences
How mentoring and one-on-one interactions, and even our peers, can help us become more adept
Finding similarities can overcome great challenges

Hints for Being More Culturally Aware

Avoid doing anything that could marginalizing one or more individuals.
Ensure your organization is setting a tone for inclusion
Engage in self-reflection to become better (see Episode 14)

Next week

Serious Soft Skills will celebrate its first anniversary with a look at the last year, what’s coming up for us in the new year and a celebration.

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50: LinkedIn, Networking and Soft Skills

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 05:01:57 GMT

Mike Shelah, an expert and early advocate for LinkedIn’s ability to connect people for business, shares his wisdom on LinkedIn, networking and soft skills in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham are joined by Mike Shelah, head of Shelah Consulting (http://mikeshelah.com) for a discussion of the following:

How to use LinkedIn to make quality connections
What not to do on LinkedIn
How to gain permission to ask
Mike’s formula for using LinkedIn effectively
What soft skills come into play
Examples of good networking
Tips for being a better networker

Also, Mike talks about a side project, Pathfinders for Autism (http://pathfindersforautism.org), where he serves as a board member and helps families like his own who have children who have autism.

Next week

We look at cultural awareness and why its importance only grows in our current workplace. New episodes every Wednesday.

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49: Understanding Ethical Implications of Decisions

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 05:15:57 GMT

Whether we know it or not, our actions usually align with our ethics, and people with good ethics tend to be trusted and respected more than those whose ethical decision making is questionable. We are going to look at the ethical implications of decisions we make in this weeks’ episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast.

Among the topics cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:

A definition of ethics and how it applies to work

The value of virtue

How questionable ethics can erode trust of team members

Questioning cripples progress

The societal effect on our ethics

Are ethics black and white?

The Golden Rule

Short-term versus long-term benefits and how they relate to ethics

The personal nature of ethics

How our ethics set a tone for an organization

Tips for Good Ethics at Work

Don’t be deceived by short-term benefits
Matching your ethics to your organization’s ethics

A good book on ethical decision-making, The Power of Ethical Management by Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale, with three guiding questions on ethics

1. Is it legal?

2. Is it balanced?

3. How will it make me feel about myself? Unethical acts erode self-esteem.

Next week

We will talk to Mike Shelah, an expert at LinkedIn on how soft skills play into that social media platform, as well as networking in general. New episodes come out every Wednesday.

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48: Bringing a Positive Attitude to Your Work

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 05:05:45 GMT

Positive outcomes derive from a positive attitude, but why do we say that, and what do we do when we don’t have a positive attitude at times. We’ll tackle that saying and how to maintain a positive attitude in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore a variety of topics related to the soft skill of having positive attitude.

Among the topics they address are:

What if we bring a negative attitude to a situation
The negative effects of creating a hero among teams
“Faking it until you make it”
Pushing forward despite stumbles
Moving past problems
Confidence in myself and my team
Finding ways to overcome challenges
Being honest and open and how to leads to trust among team members
How sparks and cobbled together ideas can fuel better outcomes
Naysayers never get promoted
Not falling into the unrealistic and non-optimistic perspective

Tips for keeping or restoring your positive attitude

1.Set realistic goals and recognize when you achieve them

2.Don't let setbacks dig into you

3.Be grateful – we all need others to succeed

4.Smile

5.Sleep well and eat well

6.Laugh at yourself

7.Populate your life with positive people

8. Don’t get stuck in the weeds

Next week

We will look at the complicated soft skills of understanding the ethical implications of our decisions.

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47: The Super-Short Explanation of Why It Pays Off to Know More About Soft Skills

Wed, 30 May 2018 05:05:13 GMT

47: The One Paperback Soft Skills Book You Have to Read

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham celebrate the long-awaited release of the paperback version of The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organizational Success and explain how reading it will help anyone who works.

Among the topics they discuss in this short episode are:

How they came up with all 55 soft skills

Their surprise at how many soft skills employees use

The logic of the book

Where employees and leaders can benefit from reading the book

How to get the book

Want to buy our book, The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organizational Success? Visit Amazon.

Next week

We will go back to our list of 55 soft skills to explain how another one of them works and why it matters in the workplace.

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46: Being Able to Work Independently, Or With Minimal Supervision

Wed, 23 May 2018 05:05:38 GMT

This week’s Serious Soft Skills podcast explores the soft skill of working independently, or with minimal supervision, and how it fosters better teams and trust.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham, authors of The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organizational Success, talk about a variety of aspects of this soft skill, including:

Letting go of micromanagement

The idea of ownership of projects and knowing when to share a project or take it to completion ourselves

Strategies for ensuring independence and appropriate intervention

The tug-pf-war between independence and either delegating or drawing on others

Independence varies by role and by supervisory style

Where entrepreneurs can overcome inherent independence to ensure greater success

The power of proper delegation

How we can take monkeys and push them away to get work done

Working with minimal supervision

How to ensure that minimal supervision yields maximum results

How more meetings may enable greater employee independence

Does your organization or team need help in putting soft skills to work for them? We want to help you. We do webinars and workshops, online, on the phone and in person, to help teams become more successful. If you or someone you know could use our help, contact us at podcast@serioussoftskills.com today. Or call 937-SKILLS5.

Next week

Next week, we will explore the soft skill of being able to work under pressure. Relax, we will make it easy. Look for new episodes every Wednesday.

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45: A Five-Step Process and More for Attacking New Situations

Wed, 16 May 2018 05:01:06 GMT

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore the soft skills of adapting knowledge to new situations, what it means and how it helps build teams and careers.

Among the topics they discuss are:

How companies are relying more on people who can apply knowledge to solve new problems
Why this soft skill is so important to company growth
What other soft skills are included in this ability
Employers want people with new ideas, not the same old perspectives they already have
How successfully applying it can make someone a team leader, intentionally or unintentionally
Why compensation and opportunity follow good adapters
An example of adapting to the new situation of tariffs on products coming from China
A five-step process for applying knowledge to new situations
We can draw on others’ experiences to help us adapt to new situations
How multiple sourcing can help us find better solutions
Drawing on relationships and those we trust

Next week

We will explore the soft skill of being able to work independently or with minimal supervision.

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44 Using Storytelling to Engage Your Audience Emotionally

Wed, 09 May 2018 05:01:48 GMT

Today’s episode isn’t about writing the Great American Novel, but rather how we incorporate the powerful aspects of storytelling into how we explain our work and our ideas so we connect emotionally .

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore this important aspect of success, looking at it helps us at interviews, in meetings and when working with any other group. Storytelling can work in any situation where we talk about our work.

Among the topics they cover in this episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast are:

Defining how storytelling fits into explaining ourselves
Making an idea “sticky”
How widely this approach can be used
The value of storytelling in a meeting as simple as a daily or weekly status meeting
The right preparation for storytelling to succeed
Understanding our audience’s needs
Why less is more in some cases and why more can be valuable at other times
Self-editing our stories to meet specific needs
Why writing the story out in advance or developing great themes and plot lines won’t work
Building the story from two or three key elements or takeaway you want the audience to learn from your story
Planting words to make things sticky
Sticky versus stinky
How to prepare for an interview to ensure you’re sticky
Making experiences become sticky through storytelling
Developing an emotional connection
Real examples of how storytelling can make us look better to employers and others
How anecdotes and stories about what you do in a job can help others understand the value you can bring to their organization
Going from a worker to a worker who did important work
Finding stories to explain how our skills can be transferrable

Next week

We’ll delve into another one of the 55 soft skills in an episode coming out Wednesday.

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Podcast 43: Managing Multiple Projects

Wed, 02 May 2018 05:05:00 GMT

Podcast 43: Can Manage Multiple Projects

People think that being a good multi-tasker, something research says is impossible, means you are able to manage multiple projects. Most employees need to be able to manage different projects at the same time, meeting deadlines and working with others, to be effective.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham dig into this important soft skills. Among the topics they discuss:

The difference between multi-tasking and managing multiple projects
Why we believe multi-tasking works
Technology’s role
Are we using our time more effectively?
How to get ahead of multiple projects
What to do when things are not being well managed
Why looking at the Big Picture too much hurts being able to manage multiple projects.
A real example of managing a project to ensure it can be managed with other projects
How computers switch better than humans
Blocking out your day to ensure projects are managed well
More tips for ensuring you can juggle multiple projects
The other soft skills incorporated into managing multiple projects
Addressing the fact that things may go wrong once in a while

Next week

We will be looking at the role of storytelling. While not a soft skill, storytelling plays a huge role in being effective in a job search and in being successful in work situations.

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Podcast 42 Being Responsive

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 05:05:00 GMT

Being responsive is a soft skill that can spark creativity, trust and innovation in teams big and small. Learn how and why in this week’s episode of Serious Soft Skills. Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explain how the soft skill of being responsive sets teams up to succeed.

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Podcast 41 Able To Escalate

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The decision on when to escalate a situation to a boss or supervisor is an important one, for which rules are rarely clear. In today’s episode, cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham are going to explain this soft skill and how and when we should be escalating a situation to a higher-up, and why successfully using this soft skill can help an organization’s culture and trust.

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Podcast 40: Being Mature

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 05:10:00 GMT

Being mature is a heavily sought-after trait, but what is being mature and how to we identify it and look for it in people. That’s the topic for this week’s episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast.

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Podcast 39: Being Client Focused

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 05:04:00 GMT

Being focused on the client, whoever that is — both internal and external to the organization — is a critical component of any successful business and a soft skill that we need to understand and incorporate into any business.

Co-hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore client focus from two different perspectives — one looking at external customers and the other looking at internal customers. It's sure to help you better work with whatever clients you have, no matter what your business.

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Podcast 38: Complying With Standards and How It Benefits Organizations

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 05:43:00 GMT

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham will tackle the soft skill of complying with standards. Sounds boring, right? Well, they’re going to make it interesting. We promise.

Among the topics they will discuss this week are:

Why complying with standards is a soft skill
The difference between internal and external standards
Written and unwritten standards
How the subprime mortgage industry breaking key rules caused a financial collapse
When standards need to be challenged or questioned
How time can require the need to evaluate old standards
When to question standards
The expectations that organizations have about complying with standards
How organizational culture can help with complying with standards

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Podcast 37: Details, Details, Details

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 05:15:00 GMT

Paying attention to details can help an individual, the team and the organization. Yet most of us struggle with this important soft skill. Learn why it matters and how to do it better in this episode of Serious Soft Skills.

Cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore the many important benefits of paying attention to details.

Among the topics they cover:

Who benefits from our attention to detail
What happens when we don’t pay attention to details
How to pay attention to details more effectively
Eight hints for better paying attention to details

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

Bob Graham: In this week's episode, we're going to talk about paying attention to detail. That's right. Paying attention to all that little stuff that sometimes drives us crazy with what matters and how to be better about it. All that and more, coming up in just a few seconds.

Welcome to Series Soft Skills. We're here to help you unleash the power of soft skills with Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham. We write books, conduct academic research and are working on vehicles like this podcast to help people better understand soft skills.

Can you set us up here?

Dr. Tobin Porterfield: I can, but I have to say the same thing is that we always talk about soft skills and how you need to develop a strategy to ensure when you're hiring into your team that you hire new people with soft skills that can fill gaps in your own soft skill list. Companies have failed miserably at this.

I'm sure we'll get some feedback from some of our listeners and folks who read our ebook and say, "Hey, you guys clearly are not experts in this detail thing because I see some errors here and there." It's humbling,

We have some people in our circle who are very detail oriented and are able to help us with a lot of those gaps. But you and I can get so so engaged in the big picture and all, understanding the goal we're trying to reach, that some of the details can get lost and that can create a almost an embarrassing situation, where there's errors. If there's oversight and someone from the outside might looking go how can you even talk about this item or or provide this report and had made of you know this type of a mistake, it's clear that you don't know what you're doing and that's not always the case.

It's a a person who may be quite the expert in an area but failed to pay attention to detail. So I think there is hope for us and others who don't always catch all the details and I think we can cover some of those things and ways to combat that in this episode.

Graham: Just to be really clear at the beginning, paying attention to detail does not mean that there will not be mistakes. It just means that there are fewer mistakes. Every organization, every employee, every person is going to make mistakes and I think when I see we first started talking about the attention to detail with myself, I read it to be no mistakes, eliminate all mistakes. That's a popular misconception that we should probably just get out in the open. That's not what we're saying here.

What we're really saying, in my mind, is we're trying to minimize mistakes and minimize opportunities to make repeated mistakes. Does that sounds sort of logical to you?

Porterfield: I agree and I think there's the that parallel. I think it manifests itself in mistakes, but also it's that combination between the tactical and strategic. The strategic is the big picture. Somebody though needs the detailed plan of how we're going to get there so it's connecting those two things together. I often work with colleagues who clearly have the vision or have the direction of what we want to do, but they're lost in what details what would be required really to get that done. And if they attempted to do it themselves, I know that they would forget all of these steps. Will this person need to be contacted and you had to update this document and and so there are some important things that have to be done and it they can often be overlooked. I think that's part of the details they often say that old adage, the devil's in the details.

I think that's what they're referring to is that you really can fail to accomplish what you had set out to do because you weren't aware of all of the details, the the finer points of what had to be done in order to accomplish it . So you're talking about the steps in the process so a strategic person's thinking we want to accomplish acts to achieve the big goal.

Graham: There's gotta be someone, whether it's that person or someone else who's got to say A. B. C. D. E. F. G. in this sequence will lead us to that objective. Is that correct?

Porterfield: That's my view on it and and I agree with what you're saying also when it comes to making mistakes is also kind of fits well with that and like many soft skills, this also overlap some with the soft skill that we describe as project management skills because project management is all about combining that scope of what we're trying to accomplish and in making sure you've got an excusable plan to get there. This one of the kind of combines that and I think when we frame it as a soft skill, we are trying to remind people that it's everyone's responsibility to be aware that there are details and that they do need to be addressed. And how we address them, sometimes it's bringing someone alongside of you that can check things and make sure and run it past them. Sometimes, it's mapping out a vision and even bringing a group together, then mapping it out on the whiteboard to say this is what we're trying to get there. Hey don't forget we need to do this and and who's going to take it that means we quickly can figure out the path.

It also brings up another one of our soft skills. We can delegate some of those activities to the appropriate person, who can manage. Some things we need more attention to detail for and some need less. We can determine when we need more and we can also see it as a differentiator among employees.

Graham: Well, I have a situation that I actually have run into. I'm going to change it a little bit so it doesn't damage me, but this goes way back in my career. A manager receives a report on monthly statistics from an employee and that manager is pressed for time. The report needs to go up the ladder to her boss and her boss's boss so she doesn't check those numbers. She just passes them along without looking closely. Next thing you know, a few hours later, she finds out from one of her bosses that there was a really egregious mistake in there.

We see this happening all the time and I know when it happened to me as the employee, it real eroded trust with my boss in the short term. She thinks, Bob, I count on you to do these things. Why wasn't this done correctly?

We get to the idea of trust as you're building teams. If everyone's paying attention to detail, your team's going to probably flourish more so than when there's a constant need to go back and check work. Who wants to spend time figuring out if he did everything he said he was going to do.

The more we can spend our time as a team looking at the big picture, the better we can be. I agree and I love that team focus. If I had my team where I wanted them to be acting as a group, they would certainly start with a recognition of the importance of the details and that failure to address the details will result in not fully accomplishing or end up causing us a lot of additional work in the long run. So having a team that recognizes it and each addressing it in their own way means they are going to be more able and skilled at doing that than others. But everyone's recognition of it and then knowing that is key. As I put this together, before I send it around the entire group, I'm going to send it to one or two people to just double-check and see if I'm missing any major points.

So getting getting conscious of enough that they can solve problems and also rely on others to provide some feedback, it is finding the people the team that are some sort of backstop who can guard us from ourselves.

Graham: That's really critical so in our case with you and me. You started keeping a list of what we agree to what our weekly meetings, which has really made me pay attention to detail because I can't forget it because it's on a sheet of paper that you email to me. So finding things like that is one strategy.

But Toby we should probably take a break because I've got some other hints for how people can be a little better detail oriented.

Porterfield: Welcome back. We've been talking about details details details and how important they are to teams. Bob, we want to get kind of a more application oriented here. You have some helpful hints on not letting those details get past us.

Graham; I came up with a list from my own experience in talking to a couple of people. These are not any great order but they're sort of some of the things that when I'm on my game and paying attention to detail I'm following. The first one is keep a list. I know that sounds really elementary and many people say oh I can keep it in my head. I'm fine. But that's really easier said than done and I find one of the ways that help I can sleep at night, believe it or not, is to actually write a list of what I'm going to do the next day before I go to bed. If I don't have that list, I roll around in bed thinking about all the things I have to do because I know that paying attention to detail can be a challenge for me.

The second thing is create a schedule and stick to it. So if you check your email at 9:00 every morning, do that at 9:00 every morning you're gonna check your email and that's built to your schedule. And if you need to do something else -- exercise for me is one of those things -- I try to schedule it into my day to make sure that I do it because otherwise, it falls off that list. That's part of the attention to detail.

The next thing is probably the most foolish one and the most logical on at the same time. Avoid distractions. Now that is not the easiest thing for me and distractions come from things that are essential that you have to deal with. Someone comes and says we need to deal with this problem right now. But what I'm talking about is the distractions of listening to music or watching TV while you're working or goofing off with your friends when you really should be working. I find that when I make mistakes, it's often when I'm distracted by something out of the ordinary so closing my door and focusing on my work tends to help me with avoiding distractions and being more focused on details.

Another one that we deal with that has really come on the last 10-20 years is the idea we all think that we can multi-task, which is doing two things at one time. There's a great deal research now that says that's just impossible; you can only focus your mind on one thing at a time. So figure out what that focus is going to be, focus on that one thing, get it done and then move to the next thing.

I mentioned exercise. Believe it or not, there's research that shows that exercise will actually help build your concentration and your attention to detail so getting regular exercise gets the brain working and the synapses firing so that's real good and then conversely, believe it or not, it's good to take breaks. We tend not to be real effective when we work for long periods of time. The Perreto Rule is 25 minutes of hard work and then take a five minute break. You can look that up.

Then the last one I would give, Toby, would be don't beat yourself up when you don't pay attention to details. I'm a perfectionist; every mistake I made is a major incident in my mind and I find that when I can get away from that just say you know what I made a mistake what and build a system to recover from that so when I do wrong, I try to find where the breakdown is and how to fix that breakdown. That's when I find that I'm actually more successful going forward and I think you told me you liked my list because you saw a preview. But you want to add one or two to it.

Porterfield: I want to add number eight because I knew this is where I get myself into trouble and it fits with some of things you're talking talking about. But let me get out a little more specific. For me, I really have to allow time for drafts and revisions and proofreading. I find that if I'm working on a two o'clock deadline I will have everything mapped out a be working and I always fall behind because there was a piece of data I needed. Then I have to go get it and sure enough I deliver the product at two o'clock as promised out in the email. And I immediately get a feat a response from someone saying I forgot to attach something or I forgot to change the date. If I had just finished it an hour earlier and sent it out to those couple people, asking them to take a look at it before I send it out, then everyone wouldn't see there's anything glaring that I'm overlooking. So I get so tied up to my deadlines and and people will probably say about me all yeah he always makes his deadlines, but if I pressed a little harder, they'll say a yeah there's so many times you know he needs to redo it. We find something in these to be fixed and and so I really have to map into my timeframe to include having time to send it out and allow that person whatever time they need to look at it and provide some additional input. So that goes into the scheduling and the avoiding distractions.

Graham: It sounds to me like your task might be remember time for revision and build that into your schedule.

I think we've given some people some helpful hints. We've put a face on one of the soft skills that people tend to overlook. Next week we're going to discuss another the soft skills complying with standards, which is when the people fear will be boring, but we're going to make it come to life. Until then, thanks for listening, good day and good soft skills.

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Podcast 36: How Setting Goals, Prioritizing Sets Up Individual, Team Success

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 05:36:08 GMT

Co-hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about setting goals and prioritizing, which together make an important soft skills for managers, leaders and any employee.

Setting goals, as in organizing and prioritizing your work, is critical for team success. To make sure everyone is working toward the same overall goal, we need to assign tasks. Those tasks have to be completed on time or else others will be waiting.

Among the topics they address:

Examples of where setting goals and prioritizing are critical to achieving results.
How most of us have deadlines each day, week or month.
Why these goals have to be in sync
Tips for setting goals
Being SMART

We can set our own priorities in a day, evaluating what needs to be done, what others might need from us, what we need from others. The best employees are updating their priorities as situations change throughout the day. They don’t write a list in pen, but rather in pencil, with an eraser.

Good leaders and managers set realistic priorities and goals for their staff, ideally with their consent and buy-in. Rather than telling people what to do, they work with people to align personal and organizational goals to be the same. This shared vision can be powerful, especially when things go wrong. And they will.

No matter how much we prioritize, things go wrong. How we deal with it — by readjusting — can make or break us and our organizations.

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Podcast 35: More Questions like How Come Few People are Discussing Soft Skills?

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 06:41:51 GMT

Responding to listeners questions the co-hosts explain why people don’t talk much about soft skills and how often we call on our soft skills, often without even being aware of it.

Co-hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham answer questions about soft skills from some of their listeners in this episode.

Among the topics they discuss:

How soft skills tend to be overlooked
Why people fail to recognize the role of soft skills
How combining soft skills with technical skills makes employees and organizations better

Don’t miss our free ebook offer for our ebook, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, using a special coupon code that we mention in the middle of this episode.

Next Week

We will be exploring the soft skill of adapting to change and prioritizing and how it helps people be more successful in their jobs.

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Podcast 34: Enthusiasm Is an Overlooked Soft Skill That’s Infectious

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:51:00 GMT

Enthusiasm is not just a soft skills; it’s an attitude, a choice we make that is often heavily influenced by our workplace culture, but more importantly, success. We’ll discuss how and why enthusiasm is important in every workplace.

Co-hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the following:

The value of enthusiasm and why it’s a soft skill
The Fake It Till You Make It reality
Enthusiasm is a form of professionalism
How optimism fuels enthusiasm
Tips for how to look enthusiastic, even when you aren’t
Why enthusiasm is infectious and how the opposite is cancerous
How team members can help a person who lacks enthusiasm
Winston Churchill’s view of enthusiasm and its effect on success
Why managers and leaders have to bring the enthusiasm
Where journaling and daily reflection can help you retain the enthusiasm
Making sure failures don;’t pile up
Portraying things to encourage enthusiasm
Avoiding manufactured enthusiasm

Next week

We will answer more questions from our listeners on soft skills in their workplace.

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Podcast 33: Becoming a Networking Ninja Using Your Soft Skills, Part 2

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 06:26:04 GMT

More than four-in-five jobs come from connections, making networking a critical piece of any job search or path toward promotion. And at its core, any kind of networking calls on our soft skills.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss:

Why focusing on the perfect customer during networking can ruin any event
How every contact you make could be a vitally important one someday
How networking differs from speed dating
Building value through networking is the name of the game
Some examples of good and bad networking
How natural discussion can do more for networking than anything contrived.
Opening doors to discovery
The serendipity of networking
How you can’t make a customer from networking
The art of graceful exits from discussions and how to do it without seeming like a jerk
The do’s and don’ts of networking
Bob’s Three-Card Rule
Toby’s rules for giving out business cards
Methods to manage any followup
The Rule of Threes

Next week

We’ll explore the soft skill of enthusiasm and how it makes a major contribution to any business.

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Podcast 32: Becoming a Networking Ninja by Relying on Your Soft Skills, Part 1

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 06:02:26 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explain how to become more effective as a networker, what soft skills you should be applying and how you can overcome your fears and reluctance to make connections that can enhance your career.

LinkedIn.com in 2016 found that 85% of all jobs come from networking. Therefore, our ability to be successful at formal and informal networking can play a huge role in our career enhancement and opportunities.

Among the topics they discuss are:

How to approach networking
Networking for introverts or reluctant networkers
Negotiating your way through formal networking events
Ways to win at informal networking events
Networking as a means of building trust, which can may lead to business
What your network can do for you and others in your network
How networking can help you better understand your customers
Taking advantage of opportunities that come through networking
Getting ready to be successful at networking
The soft skills that underpin successful networking
Why “I can help you” won’t work
The wingman approach to networking
Six things help you to gain trust in seconds

Order our book, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, from http://serioussoftskills.com. Use the coupon code “six weeks” to save 50% on the price. But act before the coupon code expires.

Next week

We will dig deeper into becoming a Networking Ninja by playing through some typical scenarios that face people who are networking like how to end a discussion without upsetting anyone.

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Podcast 31: Helping Applicants Use Soft Skills to Make Hiring Decisions Easier

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 06:17:18 GMT

This is the last week of our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy and this week we look at a specific job posting and talk about how the employer could have better integrated soft skills into the job posting, valuable information for employers and job seekers.

In this week’s episode, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss various aspects of integrating soft skills into a job announcement.

Among the topics they discuss are:

Getting soft skills into the competencies and qualifications an employee needs
How to combine soft skills into one bullet in an employment announcement
Taking what’s in the job add and adding a story about your soft skills
Talking about a situation that covers lots of soft skills in the cover letter
Why a story is worth a thousand promises of what we can do
Using an employment advertisement to set good candidates up to succeed
How to show growth, not experience, at a job
How applicants can read between the lines of a job posting
Being a rock versus a rock star
Using soft skills to develop the fiber of your organization

Next week

We start the first of two weeks of how to become a Networking Ninja. Networking is an important career skill, encompassing many soft skills. We’ll break it down and give you some real good hints for networking effectively, even if you are an introvert.

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Podcast 30: Leveraging Soft Skills to Hire Better Employees

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 06:20:04 GMT

In Week 5 of our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, we look at how to implement soft skills into the hiring process, which will provide valuable insights into the process for hiring managers and job applicants.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham, co-hosts of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, cover the following topics:

Avoiding the trap of only looking at technical skills
Evaluating applicants’ functional skills along with soft skills
How applicants can articulate how they can blend soft skills with technical skills are the gold standard
How the best applicants can explain how they transfer technical information into actionable skills in the workplace
Why open-ended questions encourage good applicants to talk about their soft skills
How standard questions can help compare candidates and specific soft skills you are seeking
Gearing questions around soft skills
Why it might help to provide foundational questions in advance of an interview
Why checking of qualifications is not the best way to interview
Asking “how” questions
What are the best methods for evaluating technical skills outside of the interview
Proven tips for conducting a good interview for you and your interviewee

Next Week

In Week 6, our final week of our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, we will dig deeper into how to integrate soft skills into the hiring process so employers can find better-fitting candidates who can help their organizations grow.

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Podcast 29: Highlighting Your Soft Skills to Nail Every Interview

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 06:47:44 GMT

It’s Week 4 of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, where we will be looking at how to incorporate soft skills into a job interview. Armed with this ability, you will zoom to the top of every job search list.

In Episode 29 of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham continue to put soft skills to work for you in your quest to obtain a better job or a promotion. This week, we're going to talk through how to use soft skills as an interviewee.

Among the topics covered:

Soft skills are best conveyed in storytelling, which is a soft skill.
Rather than reciting facts, give context.
Show passion, show initiative, show you did more than what was required.
Why you want to be sticky to the interviewer
How long an anecdote or story should be
Dealing with open-ended questions
Highlighting your transferrable skills
How you want to be remembered by the employer or search committee
How to take control of the interview and make sure you get to explain your soft skills
Dealing with behavioral questions
What you need to do in advance to be ready to integrate soft skills into an interview
Why you should take EVERY interview offered

Next week

Next week we will be starting the last part of our Six Weeks of Soft Skills Strategy. For the next two weeks, we will look at the soft skills and interviewing from the employer's perspective. Not only will this help people looking to hire, but potential interviewees will obtain even more insights into how to integrate soft skills into their job search. Coming up next week on the Serious Soft Skills Podcast.

And don't forget to download your copy of our ebook, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, with the coupon code “sixweeks” to get it for free. Until next time, good day, thanks for listening, and of course, good soft skills.

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Podcast 28: Using Soft Skills to Get Your Cover Letter and Resume Noticed

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 06:10:59 GMT

Soft skills can hold important role in getting noticed in a job search, especially when integrated into your cover letter and resume. We'll discuss how to get that notice by beefing up your soft skills in these materials.

As employers and organizations look more at soft skills, applicants need to articulate their soft skills in the cover letter and even the resume. So in Week 3 of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss a number of strategies for integrating soft skills into resumes and cover letters.

Don’t forget, you can still get your own copy of our ebook, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, for free, using the coupon code “six weeks” at http://serioussoftskills.com/resources/the-55-soft-skills-that-guide-employee-and-organizational-success/

Among the topics they address in this episode are:

Why we approach cover letters all wrong
Helping employers include you, not exclude you, from the interview list
Why finding a passion match matters and where it goes in the cover letter
Putting you as a person in the process
How to connect the dot for the employer in your cover letter
An example with a manager’s cover letter
A great word to include in your cover letter
How repetition helps you score points with employers
How specificity in what you are looking for in a job helps not just you, but your circle of friends and family
Making sure your resume is quantified
Matching your soft skills to the job specifications and the unwritten components of the job
Blending the tools you use and they mention with your soft skills
Why being concise, using strong verbs and documenting outcomes helps employers
How storytelling fits in
Key tips for resumes that will make your resume zoom to the top of the pile

Next Week

We will be in Week 4 of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, where we look at how to put soft skills to work to help employers see your value in the interview process.

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Podcast 27: Using Soft Skills Effectively in Your Job Search

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 06:59:56 GMT

In the second week of the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about integrating soft skills into cover letters and resumes.

Most employers continue to focus on technical skills, which are critical in their hiring decisions. But applicants who look for matches and exploit those matches can position themselves ahead of other candidates and show employers why they are perfect for a position.

Among the topics they discuss in this episode are:

Why job searches usually mean short staffing when they need to make the right choice when short-staffed
How to make an employer see how you fit into an organization
Understanding a company and how to be a perfect match
Storytelling and being “sticky” in the process
The categorization effect on hiring
How to cut through the stack of resumes
Why employers are looking to eliminate applicants
The difference between job qualifiers and job winners
A practical application of what we are discussing with an actual job posting
How storytelling is key to getting interviews, especially if you are age 40 and above

Next Week

Week 3 of Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy will explore how to integrate soft skills into cover letters and resumes to improve your chances of getting a job interview.

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Podcast 26: The 55 Soft Skills Book Launch Starts Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:29:09 GMT

To launch the Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss their new book, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, its origins and how it will help every employee and leader be more effective this year.
Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham have released a new ebook, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, that offers the first comprehensive look at the 55 soft skills they have uncovered through their research of academic research and business.
The hosts also offer a special code to make the $4.99 ebook purchase free. Listen to uncover the discount code.
Get our new ebook, The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success, at http://serioussoftskills.com/resources/the-55-soft-skills-that-guide-employee-and-organizational-success/ Use the coupon code “sixweeks” to get the ebook for free.
In this episode, they also discuss:

Their Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, where they will share specific ways to use the 55 soft skills they have uncovered to improve your career and your organization’s success this year and beyond
Why they wrote The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success
Who can benefit from reading the ebook
How to obtain a free copy of the ebook
How to leverage the 55 soft skills contained in the ebook to improve your career
Where the 55 soft skills can help organizations grow and innovate

Next week
A discussion of how the 55 soft skills addressed in The 55 Soft Skills that Guide Employee and Organizational Success can boost your success in a job search.
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Podcast 25: Is Soft Skills the Right Name for These Critical Employee Skills?

Wed, 27 Dec 2017 06:51:53 GMT

A discussion of the pros and cons of the name “soft skills” and whether other names are better and avoid relegating them to second-class status in the workplace.

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore the name “soft skills” and if it’s a good moniker for all of the skills employees and organizations use in combination with technical skills.
Among the topics they discuss:

Why some people think soft skills is derogatory and minimizes the role these skills play in the workplace, job hunts and other aspects of work
The roots of the name “soft skills” and why those roots may make it the right name
What “hard skills” are and how they have evolved
Using the language that fits the culture you are working with
Should soft skills be called non-technical skills, professional skills, communication skills, critical skills, emotional intelligence
The complexity of soft skills doesn’t match the name
The subjective nature of soft skills and how that further complicates naming them
Technical skills alone don’t serve us
* Blending technical skills and soft skills make the difference in all workplaces

Contact us at podcast@SeriousSoftSkills.com or tweet us at @RealSoftSkills if you have an idea for a better name
Next Week
We start our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy. Just in time for the new year, we provide employees at all levels with the strategies to put their soft skills forth when looking for a new job — or looking for the right new hire.
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Podcast 24: Why Good Writers Are Their Readers’ Advocate

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 14:35:53 GMT

Written communication is an important skill, for it is often our first — and potentially — lasting impression of a person. We’ll discuss good writing and give tips for how to write better.

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about the important soft skill of written communication in this episode. Among the topics they cover are:

How our writing is often where people first encounter us
Why writing conveys what’s inside our minds
Writing tells us about how someone sees the world, sees his or her role in the world and what he wants to accomplish.
Understanding audience and its role in writing well
How writing in our own language may not be the best way to write
The writer’s role as a “reader’s advocate” and taking the reader’s perspective on your writing
Putting actions steps early in writing
Good writing encourages reader action
How writers inadvertently discourage their readers
Why the pile of emails to get to exists and why it’s the email writer’s fault
The 3-sentence and 4-sentence email pledge
How getting away from typewriters has spawned worse writing
The deadly action of Reply All and what it says to your reader
Respecting and using your awareness of your audience to improve your writing
No matter where you are in your writing life, a list of easy ways to dramatically improve your writing today
The value of spell checkers and grammar checkers
Why big words might not be your writing friend
Why great words should not be overused
How verbs really do drive sentences
Self-editing and outside editing help
An easy, fun way to edit your writing
The financial equivalent of wasted words in your writing
Tips for helping readers find key information
Making your writing “sticky”
How subject lines and file names can help the recipient of your communication
The number one worst thing to do with email

Next Week
We’ll be looking at another soft skill on our list of 55 soft skills. Email us at podcast
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Podcast 23: Does Collaboration Spark Innovative Problem-Solving or Curtail Creativity?

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 07:29:13 GMT

Some see the soft skill of collaboration as a valuable soft skill, while others say it stunts creativity. The hosts give their views on these divergent points of view.

osts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explore the various views regarding the soft skill of collaboration as a followup to their discussion in Episode 22 of what collaboration is.
Topics discussed include:

Does collaboration kill creativity, as Geoffrey James suggests in an Inc. magazine article, Collaboration Kills Creativity, According to Science?
Do teams add or distract from collaboration?
Taking academic research to real-world situations
How collaboration empowers us to solve problems in this complex business world
Can collaboration fall into “group think”?
Does collaboration fuel our need for socialization?
What problems are better solved as individuals
How collaboration creates holistic and effective solutions to complex problems
What’s the line between a situation needing collaboration and individual creativity
When does collaboration fit into problem-solving
When creative processes should call in collaboration
Headline writing and collaboration
The cost benefit evaluation of collaboration
Exploring Morten T. Hansen’s views in the article, When Internal Collaboration Is Bad for Your Company
When the cost benefit should be evaluated and what the assessment can accomplish
When to quit a project

Next Week
We’ll look at another soft skill, written communication, and how it plays a critical role in relationships and effectiveness.
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Podcast 22: The Soft Skill of Collaboration: The Rallying Point and Other Keys to Success

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 06:11:24 GMT

Collaboration among workers can be the jet fuel for teams, pushing them to solve problems and achieve results that they could not have accomplished separately.

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss what collaboration is, why it is so beneficial to organizations and what it can deliver to teams and organizations.
Topics discussed include:

What collaboration is
How people’s perspectives have to align for collaboration to occur
Why collaboration gets us to a better spot
How collaboration stokes problem-solving
The distinction between collaboration for creative endeavors versus collaboration in getting products developed
Why collaboration is vital to supply chains and other services
What’s a “rallying point” and why do we need it to have successful collaboration
A “reel” example of collaboration
What underlies any effective collaboration
The soft skills that underpin all good collaboration
What mutual interdependence is and why it enables good collaboration
The best ways for collaboration to start
The role of the leader in facilitating collaboration
How passion can ignite collaboration

Next Week
Digging deeper into collaboration in the workplace.
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Podcast 21: Should Being Appreciative Be a Soft Skill?

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 08:07:17 GMT

Just in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays, a listener suggests that we add being appreciative to the list of 55 soft skills and how it affects organizational culture.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham weigh whether being appreciative or thankful should be added to the list of 55 soft skills.
Topics they address include:

How the suggestion came up.
How the original list of 55 soft skills were developed.
A case for adding being appreciative or thankful.
Some soft skills that aren’t job-description items, but still important.
Where appreciation ranks on employees’ considerations at a job.
What happens when we aren’t appreciative.
The drain on organizations from a lack of appreciation.
How appreciation helps build a strong core work structure.
A discussion on the “core” skills that go before soft skills development.
How the creative process works to develop these skills.

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Podcast 20: Being Persuasive Is a Soft Skill Every Employee Must Use

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 13:41:27 GMT

Being persuasive is a foundational soft skill that everyone in an organization has a responsibility to use, although it’s vitally important to being a successful leader.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the soft skill of being persuasive and how it use can spur an organization’s growth.
Among the topics they discuss are:

Why being persuasive makes our list
How to differentiate between manipulation and persuasion
A working definition of persuasion
How persuasion leads to “buy-in”
How persuasion is about attraction
Identifying what makes a proposal fit the goals of an organization and how being persuasive fits in
When to set aside an idea because the buy-in is missing
Knowing when to move things forward
When persuasion becomes office politics and how to avoid it
Examples of persuasive arguments
How to ask for a raise using persuasion
Tips for what any
persuasion ultimately needs to include
When persuasion can run amok
When persuasion reaches coalescence
How understanding your audience is critical to any effective persuasion
Where an organization’s history plays into persuasion

Next week
We will explore a listener’s timely suggestion for another soft skill to add to our list of 55 soft skills.
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Podcast 19: How Intentionality Sparks Good Delegation and How to Avoid the Monkey

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 04:32:37 GMT

Delegation, one of the 55 soft skills, helps determine which human resources to delegate to specific tasks to ensure organizational effectiveness.
In this episode, the hosts, Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham, discuss:

What delegation is
The intentionality of delegation
How return on assets (ROA) plays into deciding when to delegate
How delegation can build a better, deeper team
When delegation becomes shirking and avoiding the Tom Sawyer approach
How to know when good delegation is occurring
What managers should always be asking themselves
How an article from the Harvard Business Review written in 1974 explains good and bad delegation ( https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey )
Why poor delegation is actually worse than no delegation at all
* The key to ensuring that delegation works well and builds organizations
* What the closed loop is and how it helps ensure effective delegation

Next week
We’ll discuss being persuasive, why it makes the list of soft skills and how it plays out in the workplace.
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Podcast 18: The Important Function of Environment in Using Soft Skills

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:20:21 GMT

Environment, while not a soft skill, plays a critical role in which soft skills we use and how we use them. Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the role of environment in this episode.

Environment is not a soft skill, but it performs an important role in determining which soft skills to use and how to use them.
In this episode, the hosts discuss:

Why soft skills are dependent on the environment in which they are employed.
How environment might play into when to ask of a raise
How to be conscious of the environment to ensure maximum success in achieving objectives
How the environment might shift and what to do when it happens
Why face-to-face discussion beats emails
How you can keep people focused when talking to them on the phone
The wrapper effect of environment in using technical skills and soft skills
Why reading the environment accurately is as important as what technical skills and soft skills you employ

In sum, recognizing and responding to specific environments is key to the success of blending soft skills and technical skills together, and success in that blending can spur creativity, growth, opportunity and innovation.
Next Week
We answer listener questions.
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Podcast 17: Facilitating Better Meetings is about More than Just a Soft Skill

Tue, 24 Oct 2017 20:40:59 GMT

Meeting facilitation may not seem like a soft skill, but it can easy serve as a gateway to more productivity and opportunity for leaders, managers and organizations.

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the cost and culture surrounding ineffective meetings and why good meetings really do require strong soft skills.

In this episode, they discuss:
The incredible cost to American companies from unproductive meetings.
Why meeting facilitation is on the soft skills list
How technology makes meeting planning and management easier
Why technology makes meetings even more difficult to facilitate
Tips for leading productive meetings
Tips for how to be a good meeting attendee
Why some meetings might not be necessary
The two times that holding a meeting really makes sense
Examples of the best and worst meetings
The soft skills at play in meetings

Share your best or worst meeting story with them at @RealSoftSkills or at podcast (at) serioussoftskills.com.
Next week’s episode will feature a discussion of the environment in which soft skills operate and how different environments could mean using different soft skills to achieve the same tasks.
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Podcast 16: Soft Skills: The True Differentiator for Employees, Job Seekers and Organizations

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 20:24:36 GMT

Soft skills are the true differentiator that helps people with strong technical skills earn jobs and transform their organizations, the hosts explain while answering listener questions.
Introduction
Bob Graham (‘0:20'): Welcome to Serious Soft Skills, Episode 16. With me is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. For you newcomers and those of you who have been with us for a while, you may or may not know we have uncovered a list of 55 soft skills. We dug this list up though academic research and our teaching of college students and work in various industries. Paying really close attention to these soft skills we are now doing this podcast to discover what each of these soft skills means and how they fit into our lives. Today we are going to extend that into a new direction and take some listener questions. It's always exciting. We're picked some really hard ones. Hopefully, we can find our way through them.
Soft Skills Are Not Teachable
Graham (‘1:16'): The first one comes from Anonymous, and you are going to see why in a second. Anonymous says, “Why do you guys care so much about soft skills? We either have them or don't so why are you spending so much time on them?”
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘1:46”): I like to question things. I have a skeptical mind. I want to ask if this is real. The argument that sets it up most. We kind of tee this up in the beginning of our book. The business environment has really changed. The business world is hyper competitive. Things are changing quickly. Technology change is coming on. The workplace has changed. The type of work we do has changed. It has made soft skills more important. It's not that they haven't existed. There are ones of us that have stronger sets of soft skills, stronger in some areas. But it's something that we need to bring to the workplace these days. A recognition of what they are is critical, as is a solid, honest self-reflection of where we each are on those soft skills is essential to the success of organizations. We have to say soft skills are there in the workplace, and if an individual has been able to avoid developing soft skills for a long time, that avoidance time is passed.
If we are going to be effective in the workplace today, soft skills are not optional.
Graham (‘3:02'): I would agree with all of that. I would add that you and I have countless examples of students we have taught who performed better when looking for a job and get the job because they have more soft skills. They are more in demand. We know that from research, and not just our research. Employers are looking for soft skills like problem-solving, written and oral communication. When they see people that can offer those skills, those are the people who are getting hired. I tell my students all the time that there are thousands of people just like you with that same engineering or writing degree, or whatever degree. How do you differentiate yourself?
You all know the same technical expertise. It's the soft skills, how you are going to apply them, how you are going to interact with people, that ultimately separates some from the pack.
Porterfield (‘3:57'): You said it and that is how we position soft skills. They are not in place of technical skills. It's how we implement and integrate those technical skills in the workplace. The people and the organizations that have valued and strengthened soft skills are better performers. They are able to take the same engineering skills, which we can hire into any organization if we have the money to hire people, but whether we are actually able to innovate, solve problems or transform an organization using those soft skills, that's where the soft skills are going to come in and make a huge difference. Soft skills are the differentiator between who gets the job an...

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Podcast 15: The Soft Skill of Patience and Its Many Rewards

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 23:54:30 GMT

Patience makes the list of soft skills. We'll explain why and how it fosters opportunities at work and in careers.

Introduction
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘0:20'): Welcome to Serious Soft Skills, Episode 15. With me is Bob Graham. For you newcomers, welcome. Let's set the stage. We have uncovered a list of 55 soft skills from our review of academic research and our teaching of college students, and our work in diverse industries. We use our keen eye on soft skills to help uncover how they work and how we all can improve them. We look at what they mean and why they matter in today's workplace.
Porterfield (‘0:48'): Now we are going to take a look at patience. As I say that Bob, I feel like I need to take a deep breath. Let's. Deal. With. Patience. I feel relaxed when I say it.
Bob Graham (‘1:00'): I have been waiting forever for you to ask me that question. I am at the edge of my seat. Could he have gone any longer with that introduction and the guy with the really good voice that we paid so much money for. Then back to you. I just can't wait any longer. I am just going to jump right into it.
Porterfield (‘1:23'): Maybe patience isn't your thing.
Graham (‘1:23'): It is not. I openly admit that. This is one that I cringe to see some of the people who are around me to hear that I am talking about patience. I am not a very patient person. I am hoping we can learn some things from our discussion. I did some research because it is not my strong suit.
Getting a Handle on Basic Patience
Graham (‘1:47'): There was a good article about patience in the Huffington Post in April 2015. It's by Dr. Heiger Zayed. I apologize if i misstated that name. He really explained where we start with the idea of patience. He say:
Patience gives us the option to cool down and to extend the grace to ourselves and others in the immediate moment — when we need it most. To be patient means we don't react mindlessly to minor irritations and inconveniences. Patience gives us the freedom to respond in a more kind and gentle way.
Graham (‘2:42'): He ends with a really interesting idea, which is that it is one of the greatest virtues in all religions. And if you think about that, it is really true. We really value patience — like we value gold because it's hard to find gold. And it's hard to find patience, and when I find it, it's often by just luck. I don't think I am consistent with patience at all and that's part of the challenge with it. But you want to talk a little differently about patience? Can you explain why it's a soft skill and why we think it's important?
How Patience is a Soft Skill
Porterfield (‘3:18'): We cast patience as one of our Individual skills that we bring to the workplace, but it's not one we naturally bring to any relationship. It is something most of us have to work on, myself included. It gets back to that core element. It can be so damaging to a relationship to not have patiences involved. My concern with including patience or encouraging it in the workplace is that it can run in conflict with the need to be proactive. We want to be careful that we cast patience and some similar ones that we talk about with respect for the people we work with. Empathy is one of them. Patience isn't about how we deal with time management or how we deal with proactive or taking initiative. Patience doesn't mean sitting back and letting things come, but as Zayed had said, allowing us to take a breath and think about that next step and not respond in a way that will be inappropriate or damaging. We really are talking about being patient with other people and being patient even with ourselves and our situation.

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Podcast 14: How Self Reflection ‘Fast-Tracks’ Soft Skills Development

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 20:01:48 GMT

Self-reflection, while not a soft skill, plays an important role in how we develop our soft skills over time.
Introduction
Bob Graham (‘0:20'): Hello, I am Bob Graham and with me as always is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We teach college, we research soft skills and we help our students develop these skills and have seen how they play out in a variety of work settings. We'll show you that eye for soft skills in a second when we start talking about self reflection.
Graham (‘0:39'): Self reflection itself is not a soft skill, but rather a tool to help us develop our soft skills. Toby, can you explain that to us in general?
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘0:52): I can and our timing is great. The Harvard Business Review just this week has an article on the power of self reflection. I am getting the feeling that they folks there are listening to our podcasts and are buying into what we are doing.
Graham (‘1:12'): I love that. It's a great leap.
Another Voice on Self Reflection
Porterfield (‘1:15'): No, seriously, I do feel like it's just an affirmation of how powerful self reflection is and typical of the Harvard Business Review, they are looking to CEOs and how they dedicated large periods of time to quiet thought on their own to evaluate what's going on in their lives, what's going on, where the opportunities are. We look at self reflection a little differently. We are looking at it and saying the people we work with aren't able to carve out two hours of their day. I know there's value in self reflecting and spending that quiet time, but if I am going to spend two hours a day on that, I am going to have to get up around 3 AM. The realities for many of us in our workdays don't support that. We stay so busy. That's the pitfall of not self reflecting. It's a great opportunity to grow, and that's where we have endorsed it from a soft skills standpoint. You need to self reflect and in that time self evaluate on where you are with a couple of these soft skills and where are you growing. What were you going to try to improve from last week? You need to really be rating yourself and moving toward improvement. While it's funny to look at the HBR side, but the reality that self reflection is a powerful tool.
What Is Self Reflection?
Graham (‘2:43'): Are we talking about self reflection in terms of journaling or is it just taking some moments to be mindful of what we've done and what we are trying to achieve? Or is it interacting with someone else and being accountable? Or is it all three of those or something else?
Porterfield (‘3:00'): We have to be open to how that self reflection takes shape in each of us individually. The No. 1 core element is dedicated time. There are great examples in the Harvard Business Review article, where some people say I do an hour of self reflection every day. Some people say I do six hours, but I spread it across the week, with one or two hours here and there. I have to get out of the office so I won't get interrupted. I get up from my desk and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I take 45 minutes and go down to the coffee shop, put my earbuds in so I don't get interrupted and work on my self reflection. I go through my list.
Porterfield (‘3:37'): For many of us, self reflection has to have a writing component, where here were the things I was working on, here's what I was going to do, did I do them? What am I going to do to make sure they happen next time? As you know, I am a person who journals. I find that productive because it introduces a personal accountability so I can look at last week and see th...

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Podcast 13: Interview Part 2 on How Customer Service, Cultural Awareness Stoke Success

Tue, 26 Sep 2017 22:07:36 GMT

Exploring the role customer service as a soft skill plays in the success of an organization om an interview with customer service expert Neal Woodson.

Introduction
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘0:21'): Welcome to Episode 13 of Serious Soft Skills. I am your host, Dr. Tobin Porterfield. Today we will have the second of a two-part interview that my cohost Bob Graham conducted with Neal Woodson. Neal has 35 years of experience across a range of environments, including 19 years in the event technology industry. Neal currently serves as director of service excellence for PSAV, where he helps management and line-level team members collaborate in driving service excellence. Last week, in Episode 12, Bob and Neal talked about the soft skills encompassed in good customer service and how the customer and employee can both use good soft skills. In today's episode, Bob talk s more with Neal about the value of good customer service to an organization and how it's developed. If you are involved in dealing with customers on any level, I recommend you start with Episode 12.
Automation Isn't an Answer for Customer Service
Bob Graham (‘1:12'): With me is Neal Woodson. I can't wait to get to the second part of this interview. We are going to dig into things a little deeper and he has a lot of great stuff to say. We have this business model that everyone is striving for — less interaction with the consumer. Do it all over the Internet. Automation, automation, automation. So as you say, the people are the company, we seem to be flying in the same direction in a lot of cases. What do you think happens when companies want more automation?
Neal Woodson (‘1:35'): It's causing a lot of problems. This is a pretty heavy subject with a million tentacles to deal with. Over the last 30 years, we have had an increase in depression and an increase in teen suicide, and I now this is a big stretch from what you just said, but I will go back to the fact that we are social animals and social creatures. We have been working over the last 30-35 years hard, without even knowing it, to become more individualistic and not connected. Connected in a virtual sense, but that's not the same kind of connection.
To be connected electronically, is not at all the same as being connected on a human level.
It Always Comes Back to People

Woodson (‘2:43'): I'll give you an example. I fly in airports a lot. I fly all over the country. When I walk in airports, I see more of the tops of people's heads than their faces. Their heads are buried in a phone. When I walk by that phone, nine times out of 10, they are looking at inane stuff. They are looking at Facebook or Instagram. It's not even interesting. They are just flipping through it. They are bored. We have lost a lot of connections. This isn't generational. We see it in all generations. We crush the millennials and say it's all their fault. But it's not. They happen to be better at it. They happen to be more ensconced in it. But that's because we didn't, I didn't, grow up with the technology and they did. That's a problem
This lack of connection among people is a problem.
Woodson (‘3:35'): I would say to every one of those companies that you so well explained that they are more electronic, every single one of them has a way to reach a human. You look at Amazon and think that's probably the quintessential company. Go online, buy something, which is great for some things. But when you have to buy something that is really technological, I will bet at some point, you go somewhere and talk to a person and ask them what they would buy. We want to know at the gut level what you think. I don't want to look at a bunch of stats or a bunch of numbers.

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Podcast 12: Interview on How Everyone Has a Customer-Service Job

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 18:10:19 GMT

The soft skill of customer service is often misunderstood. Serious Soft Skills Cohost Bob Graham interviews Neal Woodson, a customer service expert, in the first part of a two-part interview on the topic.
Neal's view is that customer service is the most important aspect of what organizations provide, and it ultimately is what is necessary to find any success.
Introduction
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘0:21'): Welcome to Episode 12 of Serious Soft Skills. I am your host, Dr. Tobin Porterfield. Today we will have the first of a two-part interview, where my cohost, the sultan of soft skills, Bob Graham, talks to Neal Woodson about how he develops soft skills related to customer service. Neal has 35 years of experience across a range of environments, including 19 years in the event technology industry. Neal currently serves as director of service excellence for PSAV, where he helps management and line-level team members collaborate in driving service excellence by analyzing customer experience, coaching the development of actionable strategies, and creating education and training techniques that ensure consistent delivery.
Soft Skills at Core of Customer Service
Bob Graham (‘1:11'): It's great to be here with Neal Woodson. I am really looking forward to the discussion….I hope for our listeners and our viewers that the weather is good for them. Let's get right to it.
Graham (‘1:29'): You are an expert on customer service. Beyond being a great golfer and great friend, and I want to talk today with you about soft skills and how they apply to customer service because believe it or not customer or client focus is one of the soft skills we uncovered in our research. You're someone who really spends your days working on it. Give us an overview of what it means.

Neal Woodson (‘2:01'): As far as customer service, I don't know if I am an expert, but it is something I work with all day every day. It's always on my mind. I don't like that term “soft skills.” I know that is a popular phrase. I prefer to say they are any number of things: social skills, collaborative skills. That doesn't even cover it all, obviously.
Soft skills have gotten shunted to a second-class citizenship. They have been pushed to the back of the bus.
Importance of Customer Service
Woodson (‘2:57'}: I don't think people realize how important they are. I deal with business and how business works with customers. Everybody thinks that soft skills are what customer service people do. it's not really necessary for what anyone else does in the business. So when it comes to like a soft skills training, they will send all of their customer service people or call center people to soft skills training. one of the things we forget about in business is that everybody in business deals with somebody. You deal with people no matter what. In my role, you would think that all I deal with is customer-facing folks. That's not true. I'm a big believer that what we do all throughout a business affects the customer. In other words, the way the CEO operates and the manager treat the workers — all of that affects how the company treats the customer. The best way I can put that is that if you are a parent and you come home every day and you scream and yell at your kids. Would it be any surprise to you at all to see your kids screaming and yelling at other kids?
What we do with others inside the house impacts what we do outside the house.
Need to Keep Improving Soft Skills
Woodson {‘4:26'}: To me, it's crucial that everybody in an organization works on continuously improves their soft skills. How does my job role connect to the end user customer. Say you're in accounts payable. You say that your job doesn't connect with custome...

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Podcast 11: The Debate about Project Management as a Soft Skill

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:51:25 GMT

Project management is not always considered a soft skill. Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss its role as a soft skill and discuss the criticism.
What Project Management Is
Bob Graham ‘1:06': We should probably start out first off with defining what project management is and explaining why it fits into our list of soft skills because most people, or some people, might be thinking that they can take a course of project management in college. Why are you saying it's a soft skill?
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:23': Let's start that up. Let's start with what project management is because we often see the term a lot. We see it in job advertisements. It's prevalent out there. The term is often misapplied and misunderstood. A lot of time people say that it's time management. Project management certainly has elements of managing your time and your resources. But it is another animal from what we consider time management.
Routine Tasks
Porterfield ‘1:55': When I look at project management and I teach a lot of courses on it, I start my students with “Look, our whole lives, our work lives, our home lives — you can really bring everything you do into two areas: either routine things, the things I do everyday. I fill out my timesheet, I check my voice mail, I go through my email, I do my report, I do month-end close. There are things we do that are routine, that we just do. It's what we do in our business world that just keeps the dollars flowing in. We sell appliances or we develop apps and we launch them. It becomes very routine.
When It Becomes a Project
Porterfield ‘2:31': But when something moves to the elevation of being a project, that's important. To be a project, it has to meet a couple of criteria. It has to have a start date and an end date. There has to be a time component. We need to get this done. A big one is that there needs to be a specific deliverable, a definable thing, so that when we are done we know what we really accomplished. The third one is a really easy one. That is that it uses resources. But almost everything we do uses resources. I kid my students by saying that me losing 30 pounds is something that needs to happen and it's a project. But it's not really a project because there isn't a start and end date. So it's not a project. In reality, it's never going to happen. That's what we see with organizations. They need to keep the routine going. They need to keeping doing what they do.
Executing projects is how they move the organization forward.
Porterfield ‘3:30': It's how they launch that new project, open that new location. For us as individuals, an individual project for us might be to complete a certification, to write that book that you always wanted to write. Projects fit that definition of start and end date, use resources and a definable outcome. They need to be treated differently. There's a mechanical skill set to project management.
People Skills in Project Management
Porterfield ‘4:00': There a whole lot of people skills issues that are in project management that in order to get things done that integration has to happen. That's one of the reason why it earned a place in our list of soft skills.
Graham ‘4:14': You looked at all of the academic literature you could find to create our list of 55 soft skills. Didn't you find some researchers who had clearly put project management in the list of soft skills, not technical or hard skills?
Porterfield ‘4:34': Yes. We didn't just put it under our list although it's an area that's important to us. Studies were done that said project management clearly is a soft skill. Some could make the case that it's not because in some fields like engi...

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Podcast 10: How Perseverance or Persistence Helps Entrepreneurs, Organizations

Tue, 05 Sep 2017 20:00:25 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss perseverance or persistence, and why it plays a critical role in group dynamics.
Introduction
Graham ‘0:21': Welcome to Episode 10 of Serious Soft Skills. I'm Bob Graham and with me as always, at least so far, is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college; we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others employ soft skills over the course of our long and illustrious careers, not that long and not that illustrious. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills. We're going to show you that when we talk in the next few moments about perseverance.
What Is Empathy?
Porterfield ‘0:57': Bob, you already let the cat out of the bag about what we are covering, but I am pretty excited. In these podcasts, we laid out the over 50 soft skills that we have identified through our research and we framed them into four groups — Individual soft skills, a big list with 28; ones where we interact with people, Nexus soft skills, where there are seven; then we looked at Group soft skills, where we work with a team or group; and Enterprise soft skills are the leadership ones.
Porterfield ‘1:32': Now it's time to dig in deeper. Today we want to get into one of those Individual soft skills, one of the 28. In our list, we call it persistence. The individual should bring persistence when going after an objective, to not let obstacles get in their way. Persistence is to vastly pursue when undertaking a task even when hindered by an obstacle or distracted by an obstacle.
Perseverance is different from being stubborn.
Porterfield ‘2:07': We've worked with people who have are stubborn. Then we looked at other people who we admire because they persevere. It's not usually the person who is stubborn that we admire. It's perseverance. There's a difference there that we want to make sure we unwrap today. We really need to understand what perseverance means for an individual and how an organization perseveres.
Graham ‘2:33': Can I tell you a story, Toby? I have a great story about someone who persevered. And when I get to the end I think you are going to know who this person is. I think everyone will know this person.
The Story of a Writer Who Finally Succeeded
Graham ‘2:48': For purposes of this story, I am going to call him Steve. And Steve when he was a child liked to write. He wrote his first story before he could even shave. His mother loved his story and said it should be in a book. He didn't think a lot of it. A couple of years later, he sends one of his stories to a magazine to get published. They rejected it. He put the rejection letter on his wall and he keeps writing. He keeps writing. And he gets more and more rejection letters, but he keeps writing. Ten years later, he's still getting more rejection letters. Now, he is 26 years old. He a teacher with a wife and two children and gets a telegram — back before the Internet — and the telegram is from Doubleday Publishing Co., one of the big publishing companies. They tried to call him on the phone, but he and his wife didn't have enough money for a phone at that point. But he kept on writing and teaching. The telegram isn't a rejection letter, but Doubleday wanted to publish his first novel. It was horror story about Carrie White, a teenage girl with telekinetic powers. He got a $2,500 advance for the book and not long after that, the paperback rights for Carrie sold for $400,000. That was the start of the person we know as Stephen King, one of the most prolific writers of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century.
Graham ‘4:37': I'm a writer so that story of course resonates with me profoundly.

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Podcast 9: How Empathy Builds Trust, Teams

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 20:00:26 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss empathy, a soft skill that everyone can benefit from, but it's a soft skill that is poorly understood and often overlooked.
Introduction
Graham ‘0:24': Welcome to Episode 9 of Serious Soft Skills. I'm Bob Graham and with me as always, at least so far, is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college; we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others employ soft skills over the course of our long and illustrious careers, not that long and not that illustrious. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills. We're going to show you that when we talk in the next few moments about empathy.
What Is Empathy?
Graham ‘0:52': But before we talk about empathy, we need to define it. Empathy is defined as the ability to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions and experiences of others. Now, let's compare it with sympathy, because we often confuse those two. Sympathy is being able to understand and support others with compassion and sensitivity. So sympathy is understanding, whereas empathy is being able to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions and experiences of others. Just in those two definitions we see that empathy is deeper than sympathy. Sympathy is a lower threshold of activity that's going on. Can you go a bit deeper for us, Toby?
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:41': This is one of those topics where we are going to have some feedback from you out there. We will hear about different experiences. I do struggle with the sympathy side. We do want to express that, but it often becomes just a polite response. “I'm sorry to hear that.” It can often be so superficial. When we talk about empathy, we're really talking about a depth of, you used the word understanding, a depth of appreciation, a depth of really walking a mile in another man's shoes. You really get it. You get why someone is frustrated. I am sorry you are frustrated and I really get it. And here's what we can do about it.
The impact that empathy can have on an organization is that depth of relationship and the critical role of empathy in truly developing and maintaining relationships.
Empathy Is About Sharing
Graham ‘2:44′: It's a shared experience. So if I talk about a situation that was difficult for me. For instance, my father died two years ago. I was talking to someone who had just had his father die and we were able to talk in a way that wasn't just superficial. “Oh, I'm so sorry.” We started talking about how you hear your father's voice at various times of the day. You're in the club who lost their fathers, too. You are nodding with me. You know what that's like. You could be empathetic in that case. Until my father died, I thought when friends' parents died, I thought it was just terrible. It's deeper now. You talk about that shared experience. With this person, we had a bond that is really deep that was built over that one, 90-second discussion about hearing the voice of your father even though he is gone.
Porterfield ‘3:47': Can you find that thing? Think about it in a work situation. We aren't usually talking about those types of tings. But that's what's going on underneath the layers of a work situation. There are family pressures and experience that people bring with them into the workplace and empathy allows us in a careful way to engage in those.
When there is a shared experience, that certainly makes empathy maybe a little easier. If I haven't had that same experience, then it's incumbent on me to use good listening skills and to ask questions and help me understand how that feels.

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Podcast 8: Soft Skills That Guide Organizational Change, Vision

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:36:33 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham look at the soft skills that guide an organization and its culture toward change and a shared vision.

Bob Graham (‘0:00'): Coming up, we're going to talk about the list of soft skills that play the most prominent role in organizations and organizational change. That and more in just a few seconds.
Introduction
Graham ‘0:20': Welcome to Episode 8 of Serious Soft Skills. I'm Bob Graham and with me as always is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college, (not this month, but soon we will be back at it, we're getting close); we collaborate on researching soft skills (boy, do we), and we both have used and seen others employ soft skills over the course of our long and illustrious careers, not that long and not that illustrious. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills. Let's get to it.
Captaining the Ship
Graham ‘0:55': We talk about organizations big and small needing a leader, someone who can chart the course for how the company is going to evolve. Without leadership, there's no captain to the ship. That's the analogy I like to use. You've got to have a captain. Even if it's a one person company, there's got to be a captain. We both know examples of businesses that are rudderless, that no one is steering, that they are just blowing in the wind. We're going to talk about the soft skills that make captaining of a ship, whether it's a business or an organization, possible. But before we get into that, can you sort of explain where we are? We have been going over these soft skills in groupings we created over the last three or four weeks. I thought you could set it up for us.
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:43': In our research, we identified over 50 unique skills that make up what we consider that soft skill set. That number certainly is overwhelming, and where do you even start? We took the approach of how do you eat an elephant: One bite at a time. We took that 50+ and broke it into four groups. What will be challenging for us is that we formulated those groups based on where those soft skills are applied in the organization. We first started with Individual soft skills (Episode 5), which include loyalty, time management, things that the person internalizes and brings with them. Then, we moved onto Nexus soft skills (Episode 6), which are those soft skills you use in one-on-one interactions. Then, we expanded out to Group soft skills (Episode 7), which are obviously those special skills you need to operate in an environment with several people or more. Now, here we are with the top group, which we call Enterprise soft skills, because they really separate themselves. What is really challenging about these Enterprise soft skills is that they also apply in other levels, but what makes them distinct and the reason we pulled them into the Enterprise soft skill level was that they can be very clearly applied in a strategic way.
An Example of Enterprise Soft Skills
Porterfield ‘3:10': Let me just give you an example. Being persuasive is one of the soft skills we put at the Enterprise level. Certainly at all levels of communication, we want to persuade people to our thinking, we want to be able to communicate our ideas. So we want to have that influence factor. But that is so much more critical to the leadership level or in a broader sense, when we are influencing the organization.

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Podcast 7: Group Soft Skills That Help Lead Teams, Fuel Innovation

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 22:08:54 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham talk about specific soft skills that fuel innovation and guide you when you are working in a group.
Bob Graham (‘0:00'): Coming up, we're going to talk about some specific soft skills that guide you when you are working in a group. That and more in just a few seconds.
Introduction
Graham ‘0:19': Welcome to Episode 7. It's already been a week. I'm Bob Graham and with me is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college, we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others employ soft skills over the course of our long careers. Not that long, but long. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills. We're going to show you that in the next few minutes.
Setting the Stage
Graham ‘0:56': Toby, let's talk about soft skills being used in groups. But before we do that, can you just set up where we are in this whole continuum. We have been doing this look at soft skills in various categories we created over the last couple of weeks.
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:08': We've got our four groups of soft skills. We started out in Episode 5 with Individual soft skills. We talked about loyalty and time management and others that you bring to work that are really internal and you need to have to operate successfully in the work environment. Then we moved outside the individual to those we call Nexus soft skills that help us interact one-on-one with others. In Episode 6, we talked about written and oral communication, patience, empathy, emotional and social intelligence, those types of things.
Sorting Out Your Soft Skills Inventory
Porterfield ‘1:51': I hope that as our listeners heard those and processed through some of those soft skills, they said some of those come naturally in me. Maybe there are others that you look at and you say that you don't even think about it. You already developed that skill, maybe it's making presentations or writing. You were just trained in it and you just have it as part of who you are now. To that, we say, that's great. We hope that you recognize those soft skills that you have and you use them. We hope you look at the others and say how can I build strength in those? How do I bring those into play? How do I make them part of how I naturally engage?
Soft Skills for Innovation
Porterfield ‘2:31': We are excited now to share some of these soft skills that really make a difference in groups. I was just thinking, if I have to be put on one more team at work, I am going to go out of my mind. It's all about groups and teams these days. Someone the other day said to me that when it comes to innovation in the academic world and in the classroom, you aren't going to lock yourself in a room and suddenly come out with a great idea of how you are going to innovate in the classroom. It's going to be in a group. It's going to be people bringing different experiences with technology, things they have done that worked and failed, but it's when a group brings things together.
When a group gets together and problem-solves, that's where our real innovation comes from.
Organizations that Work in Groups
Graham ‘3:15': You see that over and over. Look at NASA, a great example of an organization where you get a lot of people around the room to solve problems. Anyone who you meet who works at NASA will tell you that they have big teams that solve big problems and small problems. No one does it alone. We see that with SpaceX,

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Podcast 6: Nexus Soft Skills Backing One-On-One Interactions

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:47:09 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss the soft skills necessary to foster good one-on-one communications.
Bob Graham ‘0:00': Coming we're going to talk about the specific soft skills that can make or break your discussion with another person. That and more in just a few seconds.
The Opening
Graham ‘0:17': Welcome to Episode 6 of Serious Soft Skills. I am Bob Graham and with me is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college, we collaborate on researching soft skills and we have both used and seen others use soft skills in a variety of jobs over our careers. We think that experience and expertise give us a unique lens to look at soft skills through. And that's what we are about to do.
Podcast Housekeeping
Graham ‘0:48': But first, Toby, I need to do some housekeeping. I was doing some driving earlier today and I happened to listen to our Episode 5 in the car. I know. It sounds very self-absorbed or something. I just wanted to see how it sounded in a car because I hadn't done that. It's now available as a podcast on iTunes so I was able to download it, which was cool. I was fascinated when I realized that I could play my voice at 1.5 or 2 times the speed or at half speed. I won't tell you that I almost crashed my car while I was doing it. But I almost crashed my car doing it. I wanted to share that with our listeners. You can actually accelerate our voices and get through our 18-20 minute podcasts in as few as 10-12 minutes.
Where You Can Find Us
Graham ‘1:50': One last thing, Toby: You can also see our episodes, literally see them. We have videos of each of these podcasts on our website, SeriousSoftSkills.com. You can also see our show notes for each show there. We have elaborate show notes for each show. I am literally writing out a lot of what we do in each show. It's taking a bit of time, but they are really great show notes. I find when I am putting them together, I get some new insights from what we say. Those show notes are for each episode and they are on the Blog/Podcast tab on SeriousSoftSkills.com. We also write some blog posts there, as well, on other topics related to soft skills.
Framing Our Discussion
Graham ‘2:34': Let's get on with the show. Toby, why don't you start things off and frame where we are here in the whole world of soft skills because we are working through them over a series of episodes, starting with Episode 5.
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘2:45': We last time laid out the Individual soft skills, those skills that are really critical for a person to engage successfully in their work environment. Things like taking responsibility, being responsive, being a learner. There was a long list, almost 20, and we have that list available on our website. But those type of skills that are really about the individual. Today, we wanted to stretch that out further and look at how people engage one-on-one with others in the work situation. So we have that next layer and we have used the term Nexus to describe this. I am going to throw it back to you to explain the term Nexus, which they might not have heard before.
What Are Nexus Soft Skills?
Graham ‘3:27': Nexus, if you know anything about the word Nexus, is a word I had not used a lot. But I had seen it. It's actually a connection between people or things. In our use of it, it fits perfectly with this one-on-one communication because we are really talking about that connection between one person and another person. Just as you said before, but I want to underscore it, we are not saying that all soft skills are related to one-on-one communications. We are breaking the soft skills into four different catego...

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Podcast 5: The First Step to Improve Your Soft Skills

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 08:27:57 GMT

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham take a deeper dive into one of the key areas of soft skills: Individual soft skills. We’re also going to talk about how best to get moving toward improving your soft skills.
Bob Graham ‘0:00’: Coming up, we’re going to take a deeper dive into one of the key area of soft skills: Individual soft skills.
Graham ‘0:23’: Welcome to Episode 4 of Serious Soft Skills. I am Bob Graham, and with me, as always, is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college, we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others use soft skills in various jobs over our careers. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills and I think we are going to show you that with what we are about to discuss. Right, Toby?
Tobin Porterfield ‘1:01’: It should be an interesting topic today.
How We See Individual Soft Skills
Graham ‘1:03’: Every topic is an interesting topic when you and I are looking into it. Let’s get right into it. In one of the past episodes (Episode 3), we looked at listening skills as one of the most important Individual soft skills. I made the case that it was the most important and we sort of wrestled with it a bit. Today we’re going to talk about more of those Individual soft skills and how they show up in people’s lives and in their work. Can you sort of help us set this up?
Porterfield ‘1:31’: In our research we have found over 50 specific skills that are part of soft skills. We talked about how that list can really be overwhelming. We have broken that list into four groupings, with one being Individual soft skills. We call them that because they are so much more internalized.
Porterfield ‘1:54’: Let me list out some of those Individual soft skills so our listeners can get a feel for the type of items. I think they will be able to connect pretty well with them. Working independently, being proactive, attention to detail, positive attitude, being a lifelong learner, being loyal, stress management, ethics, and of course, good old listening skills, perseverance, self motivation and time management. I would think that people could see how we put those together as something that’s foundation, but they’re also ones that we looked at how those soft skills play out in the workplace. So we found these and brought these together because they are ones you bring to the workplace, as opposed to ones you might use when engaging one-on-one, in a group or the ones we would use when we are trying to influence the greater organization. These come much closer to home.
Breaking Down Being A Life-Long Learner
Graham ‘3:13’: As I heard you go through that list, those soft skills seemed like the ones I can work on within the four walls of my cubicle or the four walls of my office. I can be improving on them without dealing with other people. I can be thinking about being a life-long learner. How does that show up? It’s as easy as doing an online seminar, or to prepare for our podcast, I had to learn about podcasts. I listened to about 15 or 20 different podcasts on podcasts. I read three books on podcasting. I spoke to people on podcasting and how to do a podcast. Rather than going, I don’t know how to do it, I’ll never know it, I took the time to develop those expertise. Is that an example of an individual doing the work to develop one of these soft skills, lifelong learning? Of course, that makes me more valuable. And being able to administer this podcast process really helps our company in a lot of ways, as well.
Porterfield ‘4:25’: You touched on a good point here that I hope our listeners pick up on that nuance. We are talking here about the soft skill of being a lifelong learner. But you spoke about being able to manage the software, being able to write the scripts, to do the editing. We’ve said before that soft skills and hard skills go hand-in-hand.

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Podcast 4: New Soft Skills Research Revealed

Tue, 18 Jul 2017 17:46:04 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham share some cutting-edge research on soft skills we obtained from a survey of almost 500 business people. They further dig into results among various groups, including people seeking jobs, workers without leadership roles, mid-level managers, executives, and the self-employed. It’s great stuff that will give you new insights on soft skills.
Bob Graham ‘0:00’: Coming up, we will share some cutting-edge research on soft skills we obtained from a survey of almost 500 business people. It’s great stuff that will give you new insights into how soft skills are really being used in the workplace. That and more in just a few seconds.
Graham ‘0:28’: Welcome to Episode 4 of Serious Soft Skills. I am Bob Graham, and with me, as always, is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college, we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others use soft skills in various jobs over our careers. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills.
Graham ‘0:59’: So today, Toby, we are going to do things a little differently. We’re going to talk about some research we have done in the field of soft skills that we have only released to a list of very few people. So this is breaking news. If I had a glass, I would break it. This is big stuff.
Why This Research Matters
Graham ‘1:29’: Before we get into the research, Toby, why don’t you set up for people what the research found. Of course, whenever you are looking at research, the first question is who did you ask the questions to? Can you walk through how we got this data we are about to share?
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:45’: Bob, I am going to throw you a curve ball because I think we need to actually take a step further back because one of the problems with research is you have to cover why. Otherwise, you can look at all these results and people say, “Who cares?” Let me frame it up with why we even got into this and why we reached out to our network for some answers. It started with us looking around. As we were developing that sensitivity to soft skills, we’d have observations. We’d say that we had seen leadership do this and I see the importance of communication. We usually refer to these as anecdotal or experiential evidence. We get these little snippets. They almost turn into sound bites that you might hear on the news. We’ve even seen this in news clippings. We start to pull all these pieces together, but as people who look at research, we have to stop and say, “Hold it. Is that really a unique experience I have had and it doesn’t apply to anyone else, anywhere else?” That is what brought us to doing the survey and reaching out to our network to ask the question and validate that soft skills are really important, which soft skills are important, and who are they important for.
Porterfield ‘3:06’: Our initial survey did that and it cleared up a lot of items and it brought some focus in. It also motivated us to say this kind of work needs to be done. Back to the survey. Bob, can you give us a little background on how we reached out to collect that data?
How We Found Participants
Graham ‘3:24’: We went new school, I would say. In the past you would try to find people to do surveys by mail or by fax, and I can remember doing some surveys that way. But here, we actually used some new stuff called social media and email. We leveraged LinkedIn. We used databases we each have of LinkedIn connections. Those connections we sent an email to asking them to fill out a short survey. It took less than five minutes. It wasn’t real long and involved. We also posted it on social media, on our Facebook pages, on LinkedIn and on Twitter. We got really good response there. And we did some networking, one of the soft skills. I sent it out to a few people in my network, who were kind enough to share with their networks...

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Podcast 3: The Most Important Soft Skill, Maybe

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 02:08:28 GMT

Today we are going to look at arguably what is one of the most important soft skills, one that sets the stage for so many other soft skills to appear. Will you agree or disagree with our host?
Bob Graham ‘0:00’: Coming up, we are going to look at arguably what is one of the most important soft skills, one that sets the stage for so many other soft skills to appear. That’s coming up in just a few seconds.
Graham ‘0:26’: Welcome to Episode 3 of Serious Soft Skills. I am Bob Graham and with me, as always — well, it’s only our third episode — is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. Hey, Toby?
Porterfield ‘0:36’: I am looking forward to this episode today because I think the topic one that we don’t completely agree on. So it will cause us to have some discussion over it and I think we are going to hear some interesting responses from some of our listeners.
Graham ‘0:55’: We’ll get to that in a few seconds. But first, let me set up who we are for someone who might have come into this cold. We each teach college, we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others use soft skills in various jobs over our careers. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills and that’s what we are going to do right now.
The Most Important Soft Skill?
Graham ‘1:22’: I’m going to tell you — are you ready for this, Toby?
Porterfield ‘1:29’: Let’s have it.
Graham ‘1:31’: I am going to make the bold pronouncement that listening is the most important soft skill of the over 50 that we catalogued. I have been working on our book project and I was writing about listening and the more I wrote about listening, the more I realized it is really the key soft skill. Do you want to argue that right away or do you want me to make my case?
Porterfield ‘2:00’: I think I will start with a slight agreement in that listening enables so many other soft skills — innovation, teamwork. There are so many ways that listening is, I’ll use that term, enabling that it’s an important one. I’ll give you that. Let’s see what you have to say about listening.
Graham ‘2:23’: Okay, I was going to go with you just accepted my case. We can call it a day and people can get on with their lives. But now you are going to make me do a little work.
Porterfield ‘2:36’: Absolutely.
A Leader Who Didn’t Listen
Graham ‘2:38’: Did you know that Marissa Mayer, 20th employee at Google, female software engineer, one of the most visible employees at Google. She left there to go to Yahoo! to be its CEO, not a programmer, but the CEO at Yahoo!. Over her tenure of four or five years, things were a bit rocky, to say the least. And more recently, if you have been following the headlines, you know she has sort of ushered the company to be bought by Verizon Communications. And she’s basically on her way out the door. Her choice, she’s resigning. But if you look at her tenure at Yahoo!, what she really was supposed to be doing at Yahoo! was rebuilding Yahoo! Again and again in the reporting on her and Yahoo!, and this came up frequently, her inability to listen to people — she was one of those people who thought she was the smartest person in the room — and she tended to articulate things without listening to the people in the company who were trying to help her. We see this in companies all the time with leadership trying to help the leader because failure to them means failure to employees, which can mean bad things like uncertainty and other problems. I have certainly worked at several jobs where leadership challenges have made it hard to go in and do the job each day.
When you don’t have listening, you don’t have the opportunity for an organization to grow.
Listening Leads to Influencing
Graham ‘4:18’: That was my first piece of evidence. My second piece is really fascinating to me.

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Podcast 2: The Story of Doug, Who Has Poor Soft Skills

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 22:41:56 GMT

You may have heard about soft skills, but you may not know who in your office needs to use them and why. We'll explain it all.
Bob Graham ‘0:00': You may have heard about soft skills, but you may not know who in your office needs to use them and why. We will enlighten you in just a few seconds.
Graham ‘0:22': Welcome to Episode 2 of Serious Soft Skills. I am Bob Graham, and with me is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We each teach college, we collaborate on researching soft skills, and we both have used and seen others use soft skills in various jobs over our careers. We think our experience and expertise give us a unique lens for looking at soft skills. So let’s get to it.
We explained what soft skills were and were not in Episode 1. But before we get to our topic today, let’s answer a few emails we received.
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘1:06': It’s always good to hear from our listeners.
Aren’t Soft Skills Just Being Nice To People?
Graham ‘1:09': Tim asked, aren’t soft skills just being friendly and nice to the people you work with? Toby?
Porterfield ‘1:13': Wow. That’s dangerous. While we certainly want to be engaging with people and interested in the people we work with, that’s an oversimplification. That casual smile and looking like you are paying attention are not what we are looking for. When we are talking about soft skills, we are talking about intentionality here. It’s not just being nice, it’s not just being there, but that’s important. It’s the intentionality of engaging in such a way that it enables us to apply our technical skills, our hard skills, in a new way.
Graham ‘2:19': You aren’t saying we shouldn’t be nice. You’re just saying that soft skills are more than just being nice.
Porterfield ‘2:23': That just isn’t going to get us where we need to go at work.
Why Did It Take So Long to Recognize Soft Skills?
Graham ‘2:27': We also have a great question from Kaitlyn. If researchers working with the Army first coined the phrase soft skills in the early 1970s, why did it take so long for people to really start talking about them?
Porterfield ‘2:49': The work for the Army in the early 70s is where they coined that term “soft skills.” I wish I had coined that term myself. It would have been a great thing. They were pretty forward-looking on soft skills. They really were able to grab hold of that. I don’t think we are arguing that soft skills didn’t exist way before the 1970s. People have been working in teams, using listening skills, perseverance. We have a country made of pioneers who persevered and captains of industry who built the economy that we live in today. It comes back to intentionality in what we have seen as we have progressed from the 1970s, the 1980s to today is, as we talked about in Episode 1, the economy has changed, the workplace has changed and there is a need now to approach work in a new way. We have emphasized those hard skills, we have a lot of disciplinary knowledge in so many fields, but those soft skills are what are coming into play today that are making us say, what do we need today to be competitive, innovative. We’ve got the hard skills and soft skills, but how do we mobilize them? That’s where soft skills really are coming into the discussion today.
Graham ‘4:26': I want to thank Tim and Katlyn for their great questions. Keep those questions coming. You can email them to podcast@serioussoftskills.com or tweet them to us at @realsoftskills. We will answer more questions in future episodes.
Which Employees Use Soft Skills?
Graham ‘5:19‘: Now, Toby, let’s talk about which employees have to use soft skills. Is it the leaders, the new employees or only people who have to interact with a firm’s “customers”? I have heard all three of these.

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Podcast 1: What Are Soft Skills Anyway?

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 12:16:45 GMT

Hosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham explain what soft skills are, using powerful examples from business.
Bob Graham ‘0:22': We’re going to explain what soft skills are in general, and explain them in a way that gives people a better understanding. Let’s start with the big question first. Why soft skills now?
Dr. Tobin Porterfield ‘0:58': We know from our research that soft skills go back almost 50 years. So they are not new. But what is new is, we are in a hyper-competitive market now, where technology and globalization have saturated how we do business. The speed of change if you are working at Apple, SAP or a company like that, is greater. The hyper-competitive world is hitting all of us, from a small business up to a global corporations. The environment we work in is different. Then, within our organizations we are facing a multi-generational workforce; the people we work with and the way we work are different.
Where Soft Skill Are Affecting Small Business
Graham ‘2:03': Give me an example or situation where soft skills are playing a role with a small business?
Porterfield ‘2:09': We know even the term small business can a landmine, because we can be talking about a hardware store or some other business with 3-5 employees up to a small company with 100 or 150 employees. But those soft skills still come into play. We’re in an environment where we have to be able communicate with our customer, we have to be able to listen, we have to be able to respond to changes in the marketplace.
Graham ‘2:47': That makes sense. I have certainly seen that in my own small business. Things change, customers change. You have ownership changes; you have management changes, or even you have companies that change their focus like overnight. One day they are doing A and the next day they are doing B. It’s the soft skills that really allow us to adapt to those things.
Porterfield ‘6:04': I think you make a great point. We are involved in a virtual world.
What Soft Skills Really Are
Porterfield ‘3:23': We are throwing around the term “soft skills” and most people are familiar with it it. Our argument is that soft skills are what make us responsive and allow our organizations to not be complacent in the face of all of these changes going on in our hyper-competitive business world.
Is Soft Skills The Right Phrase?
Porterfield ‘3:43': Soft skills can be a challenging term. We have had people respond to us, Don’t even use that term. Don’t even call them soft skills because it makes them seem second class. IT makes them sound unimportant. Use critical skills, communication skills, managerial skills, and I know there are a lot of other terms out there.
Graham ‘4:14': Non-technical skills is a term we see a lot in literature.
Contrasting Soft Skills with Technical Skills
Porterfield ‘4:19': These soft skills are not your technical skills. For a marketing person, those technical skills might be understanding the message and how to take that message out to the market, how to develop that message.
Graham ‘4:40': The tools that you would use, whether you would send out a press release and other types of specific things that you can put your finger on.
Porterfield ‘4:50': If you were an architect or an engineer, those hard skills or technical skills become more obvious because I need to understand tension strengths and all kinds of other technical details of my work. So then, you might say the soft skills are everything else. But I like to use a working definition that soft skills are the portfolio of skills that allow us to work or operate within the context of an organization. The soft skills are the glue that allows us to move those technical skills into the ...

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