Soft Skills with Eliza David, Laura Leach & Tom Reid

We love soft skills: Empathy, problem-solving, leadership. But what does it take to develop them? On this week’s #GoalChatLive I talk about soft skills with Eliza David, Laura Leach, and Tom Reid. Soft skills activate the human side of business (Eliza), they are how we show up (Laura). Any time two or more people are interacting they are using soft skills (Tom).

Eliza, Laura, and Tom guest share their background and connection to the topic, tips for improving soft skills, and much more.

Our guests and their soft skills superpower:

• Librarian & Author Eliza David – Creativity and problem solving
• Career Coach Laura Leach, Meredith Consulting – Speaking
• Chief Problem Solver Tom Reid,  Certified Contracting Solutions, LLC & Author, Sustained Leadership WBS – Bringing people together

Listening ties into so many other skills, so our guests shared specific tips for it.

Soft Skills: Improving Your Listening

• Eliza: Use eye contact and concentrate on what other people are saying. Go in with the intention of understanding and learning
• Laura: Get curious. The more questions we ask, the better listeners we become. Start from a place of kindness. Ask open-ended questions going
• Tom: Listening is part of compassion, subhead of empathy. Three types of thinking apply to listening. Critical thinking – ask why? Systems thinking – think of how things will play out. Strategic thinking – where you are, where you want to be.

Watch #GoalChatLive on Soft Skills

Also, check out the full GoalChatLive conversation on Soft Skills in the Twitter Moments Recap.

Goals

• Tom: Read a book to develop your soft skills. Dorothy Leeds, The Seven Powers of Questions. Deborah Tannen’s books for communication. Morgan D Jones, The Thinker’s Toolkit
• Eliza: For your next interaction, before you step into that interaction, say to yourself, “I am here to learn”
• Laura: Do a self-audit. Ask for honest reviews from your business partners, vendors, and colleagues, and see what kind of feedback you get. Ask questions, such as “How am I showing up? Did I make my point? How do you perceive me?”
• Deb: Go Zoom-Free one day a week. Replace video meetings with phone calls

Final Thoughts

• Tom: You are the only you. You owe it to yourself and the world to be the best possible version of yourself
• Laura: If we lead with courage and kindness, we will always show up authentically
• Eliza: Soft skills are everything as long as you bring everything to them

Links

• Get the links for Eliza David and explore her books
• Check out Laura Leach and Meredith Consulting
• Have a question? Ask Tom Reid. Also, check out his book Sustained Leadership WBS.Also, check out our Leadership #GoalChatLive
• Join the Write On Online Facebook group for community and conversation
• Learn more about Goals with DEB
• Get your copy of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals

What’s your best tip for developing soft skills? Please share in the comments.

Next Week

Our next topic is Research. Join the Twitter chat on Sunday, February 20, at 7pm PT on Twitter. Then, on Monday, February 21, at 4pm PT, Polly Campbell, Kashish Parikh-Chopra, and Stan Robinson join me on #GoalChatLive.

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For more inspiration, motivation, and tips, follow @TheDEBMethod on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And connect on LinkedIn.

And get your copy of my latest book, Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals. Then join the Your Goal Guide Facebook group.