Soft Skills Ltd

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Author: softskills

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The 360 Degrees Leadership Development Program

“A fish rots from the head”. This oft quoted saying implies that the growth of any organisation or entity is directly proportional to the quality and capacity of its leadership. The 360-Degree approach to Leadership seeks to develop leaders who can influence people at every level of the organization. 

Lead-up

Leading up is the process of influencing the leader. This process includes lightening the Leader’s load by being willing to do what others won’t, while knowing when to push forward and when to back off.

Lead-Across:

Leaders in the middle of an organisation are leaders of leaders. These leaders help peers achieve positive results, let the best idea win, and garner mutual respect. These leaders must develop and maintain credibility, and continually exert influence. 

Lead-Down

Leaders at the top who lead down help people realize their potential, become a strong role model and encourage others to become part of a higher purpose. This involves walking through the halls, transferring the vision and rewarding for results. 

To grow the overall organizational effectiveness Soft Skills Ltd. has developed a program that first runs a comprehensive online diagnostic tool, a Leadership Skills assessment that takes a 360-degree approach and measures a leader’s competencies as viewed by self, peers, seniors and even their juniors. To this end Soft Skills Ltd. proposes a holistic assessment routine that will take into consideration:

  • Individual’s potential against critical leadership competencies for the organisation
  • Individuals’ current skill sets in terms of competencies for leadership With this information we’re then will be able to map the talent on the 9box grid, design specific recommendations for personal development and craft a plan that will promote efficient knowledge transfer and capacity development that will ensure continued development of all leaders within the organisation.
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Habits of a winner

The Ten Habits of a Winner

I read a quote somewhere (not sure where). It made sense to me in it’s simplicity

“All you can do is all you can do And all you can do is enough But make sure you so all you can do!”

I made a simple list of habits of winners – thought I’d share them here

This is reflected in your words and actions

The biggest difference between the people who make it financially and those who don’t is the way they spend their time.

I am yet to come across a situation where it helped to look less than your best. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. You rather be overdressed any time. You can never explain that you have a better suit at home . . .

In our school we always got merits for volunteering – the girls who did were sometimes jeered but their results today show.

Everyone is their friend. Remember God’s currency isn’t cash. God’s currency is people.

An eagle eats fresh meat! If you don’t stay relevant you will be replaced. One way to keep from becoming bored is to constantly learn new skills – read one new book each month. The change will be in your subconscious and will surely show in your results.

Giving creates a vacuum in your life – you will always have new things. Give 10% of your money away! That has nothing to do with your religious conviction – it is just a law of life. Give of your time, money and information.

There is something you do better than anybody – don’t ever be afraid of competition. There cannot be another you – be creative.

Do not look for ways how not to do it – rather look for ways how to do it.

There is nothing to be gained without paying a price – watch your health, your money, your friends. 

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Life isn’t Fair

For years I picked my girls from school and two of them (the younger ones) would usually fight for a place on the front seat next to me. :It’s not fair” the baby said when she found her sister already in the coveted seat

“And who has raised you to think that life is fair?” I asked. Life is not fair, came the chorus from the back seat. My children have all heard this from me over and over.

In the new testament Jesus told a story popularly referred to as the parable of the talents. For the benefit of those who may not be familiar with the story I will give a summary of it here.

A man went on a long journey leaving his servants with five, two and one talent each. This referred to a substantial amount of money. Not fair – don’t you agree? Why not give them all a similar amount – but remember that life isn’t fair.

Let’s ‘Kenyanise’ the story – say each talent represented a hundred thousand shillings.

The man who got the five traded them to gain another five and so did the recipient of the two. But our brother with the one talent went and hid it in the ground.

We all know what happened when the master came back. It is the man who had the most that was given even more.

But life isn’t fair – and God isn’t fair. Not by a long shot He’s not.

  • Abraham was chosen unfairly. It was not fair for God to choose Abraham out of all the people in the world at the time and give him all the promises he did. We are not told of anything Abraham did to earn that favor. God just exercised His Divine Sovereignty in choosing him.
  • Israel was treated unfairly – God killed people in the millions to protect His chosen people, He dispossessed Nations to give Israel a home.
  • Abel was blessed unfairly – we are not given any reason why God chose Abel’s gift over Cain’s. He just did.
  • Cain was to protected unfairly – even though Cain was punished severely for having killed his brother, God promised to protect, vowing to punish anyone who killed Cain.

We could go on and on giving example of how God chooses one brother over the other, in circumstances we would want to question.

But let us look inward. What has God given you that is an unfair advantage?

We all have something we have not earned – something for which we cannot take the credit. There is something you tend to do effortlessly.

Singing is not an effort for a singer, and neither is running for a runner. They have the innate ability to do these things. 

And yet when you are a singer you must sing. And so too the runner, the pianist of the holder of any other talent – having a gift only means you have an obligation.

How then do you make sure you do not become the servant whose talent is taken away for redundancy?

What is it that you find effortless to do. The reason we often miss our talent and gifting is that we are too familiar with it. Familiarity breeds contempt. We are always doing this thing, we do not think much of it. In my book I call it DEFINE SUCCESS – in other words – what would success mean to you – for what would you feel most gratified. Is it winning a Nobel prize? is it raising a lovely family? Is it winning a Marathon? This is one of those questions only you can answer. There are a few questions you could ask yourself as you try to identify you unique abilities:
 
  1. What do you do for free
  2. What do you do with your free time
  3. What have people complemented you for doing

A man is said to have asked the way to the Julliard school of music, to which the answer came Practice. Practice. Practice.

As we said already – when you have identified what you seem to do effortlessly, what you love to do, then you have no option but to do it

Remember it is not the most talented people who make it but the ones who make the most effort. The winner of any pageant is not the most beautiful woman in the land but the one who won among those who tried.

If you had to choose between talent and the right attitude,  good attitude and effort win any day – a less qualified person is a better choice any day than a highly talented but lazy person.

This is where the highly educated often loose out! This is where your education is your undoing – no disrespect to the faculty seated here with us – I am a university graduate myself, so I mean no disrespect at all. But the academics among us tend to analyze an idea right to death!

Some of the biggest achievements of our time have been accomplished by people who were too dumb to know when to quit!

Don’t focus on what you don’t have – focus on what you have. Start small. Do not despise the days of humble beginnings.

We sometimes lose out on the whole purpose of getting an education. We do not put in all this years of learning so as to make a better employee – rather we come to learn how to think, to do things better, we come to horn our God given talents and abilities.

So if you love to paint or to sing, to cycle or to build – use your knowledge to help you do it better – but get started

Get around people with a can-do attitude, those who talk about opportunity rather than those who complain endlessly.

In my book I call it SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SUCCESS.

Make no mistake – you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. If a person not going anywhere, do not let them take you along!

We very many times loose opportunity because we ask the wrong question. Rather than ask – what do I get, it may be a good idea to ask – what can I give.

Business opportunity is often lost because we look for the money, the profit, what is in it for me.

The most successful businesses in the world were started by people were not necessarily looking to make money.

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From knowing to doing

Becoming action oriented

Recently after going to bed much later than I am used to; I showed up in a virtual meeting all groggy and sleepy. One of my colleagues suggested I splash cold water on my face to clear the ‘cobwebs’ – I stared at him – do you think I needed to be told that? Of course not! I knew what to do – I just didn’t want to do it. I wanted to go back to sleep!

Very many times it is not that we do not know what needs to be done to accomplish our purposes; it is not doing what we already know.

I am sure you will agree with me if I suggest that there are still some goals in your life that you have not yet achieved – is this so?

Someone once said that success leaves clues – therefore the fastest way to succeed is not trial and error, it is studying what successful people have done before you and just doing the same.

Remember doing the same thing and expecting different results is madness. So, then we are in agreement that we all need to do some things differently.

Let us first look at a few things we know but don’t do:

  • Achievement – setting goals and writing them down goals – just the whole habit of making notes
  • Health - Eat right
  • Finances – follow a budget and save at least 10%

There are a few areas in which we could use some action in our lives. 

For things to change you have to change. 

It is not what happens to you but what you do with what happens.

In order to archive any of what we are suggesting you have to be in control of yourself – you have to be self-driven – let’s break it down:

  • Do what needs to be done - Action
  • When it needs to be done - Timing
  • Whether you feel like it or not - Motivation
  • And still do it well – Quality

You are all getting the same opportunity here. But those who do best at it are those who will take the action needed.

You must be willing to do things today

What others won‘t do in order to have something tomorrow

What others won’t have.

Les Brown

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Consultancy Services

This is a smaller unit of the Company and has arisen from demand from our clients over the years. Our Consultancy Department has developed (mainly for state owned organizations / parastatals)

  • HR Policies
  • Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Policies
  • Strategic Plans among many others
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Corporate Training

In house programs. Tailored training programs for specific organizations’ staff to address their particular training gaps. These are held at the client’s convenience on dates and venue

Open entry Programs marketed to private and public institutions who send participants to train on specific areas including and not limited to:

1. Countinuous Staff Development Program

A Personal and Professional skills Development Program A happy workforce is a performing workforce This program is designed to consistently upskill your team and optimize their performance. Working with industry experts in each field, we take the team through a tailor-made program to address each of the following areas

1. Personal branding and Self-awareness

We begin with an Assessment tool which allows the participant to get a candid picture of who they are and what they can realistically expect of themselves. After all we cannot change what we don’t acknowledge We then go into a detailed Personal SWOT. The participant is able to learn their Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to their own

2. Personal Goal setting

Action planning

3. Communication

Written and spoken communication Public speaking and presentation skills Social media communication Body language / unspoken communication. What we’re saying when we’re not saying anything

4. Interpersonal Skills and problem solving / Conflict management

5. Professional Etiquette

The unwritten rules of acceptable conduct Communication Etiquette Dress Etiquette Dining Etiquette Online Etiquette – managing your brand online This program is delivered with real time practical demonstration

6. Teamwork and Team leadership

7. Change management

- Disruption
- Post covid19 realities
- Social media and technology

8. Personal Finance management

- Identifying money personality and blocks
- Debt management – good v/s bad debt
- Retirement planning
- Investment options

9. Customer experience

10. Personal health and fitness

11. Career development and growth

- Identifying opportunities in the current landscape
- Going the extra mile

12. Experiential training / Team building

These and other modules are delivered to fit the specific client’s knowledge gaps Contact us for a personalized proposal