Is It Just Semantics?

Is It Just Semantics?

 In my last post, I told you about a new book by Fortune 500 communication and leadership coach Peggy Klaus. One of things I liked most about her first book, BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, is its truth. That’s what I remember anyway. I liked the way she resisted the temptation to sugarcoat some of the you-know-what that occurs in the workplace. Indeed, it really bugs me when a business book is anything but. It seems that Klaus understands that even though we might be holding her book in our hands that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to trust what it has to say. I think she almost treats her readers as she does with her clients, with trust and patience and an understanding. She may not know what a reader’s particular situation is but sometimes it’ll seem that way. That’s not an easy trick as an author.
    As the press release that accompanied my copy says, ” . . . she often puts it to her corporate audiences with blunt force.” I love that; I couldn’t have said it any more clearly either. But isn’t blunt force refreshing? It’s the truth that we all need, not some words that sort of describe kind of where we’d possibly like to be with our careers. She writes, “What’s so soft about pitching an investor for his multi-million dollar portfolio? Or inspiring and motivating people after your company has laid off thousands? Or having the foresight and guts to suggest new or more efficient ways to doing things that your boss might be too distracted to think about? Soft skills are some of the hardest skills you’ll ever learn!”
    The other obstacle, one we hear about all the time, is the shaky respect that soft skills receive. Too “touchy feely” according to some. But is it touchy feely to offer excellent customer service so people keep coming back time and time again? Is it touchy feely when a prospect-turned-client reveals that it was the account executive’s listening skills that clinched the deal? Just because it’s a people skill doesn’t mean it can’t make a difference to the bottom line? Klaus’s book goes beyond the conventional soft skill set that many of us are familiar with: she covers soft skills abilities and traits from self-awareness to attitude, initiative to problem solving, leadership to time management, political astuteness to integrity, and more.
    Just because it’s a soft skill doesn’t mean it doesn’t carry a punch. As you pay attention to your own soft skill quota take a look around at your colleagues and see what they’re up to. Are they self-aware? Do they interrupt when others are talking? How do they handle criticism? Are they good team players? The answers have a lot to do with what they know about the hard truth about soft skills.