Recently, Petra Coach presented a webinar, “Soft Skills, Solid Results” with Bea Wray.

This information is important to building interpersonal or “soft” skills that will benefit you in both business and life.

You can find the full recording here.

Be sure to get your copy of Bea’s book “What an MBA Taught Me…: But My Kids Made Me Learn” and connect with her on LinkedIn.

The below Illustrated Model is from The Vivid Ink Company. Kristin McLane and her team transform the spoken word into lasting and actionable works of art. Check them out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or their website.

Top Takeaways

Business is done with people…people skills matter.

People Skills:

  • Gratitude
  • Listening
  • Grace by Margin
  • Vision

Gratitude

Handwritten Thank You Notes Are Powerful

A handwritten note shows more appreciation rather than a text or email

Make it a habit to write a thank you note every day

Ask yourself – “who can I thank today?”

Listen

Listen Longer and Listen Better

When speaking with someone, make a long pause – let the silence do the heavy lifting

Don’t rush into the answer before thinking about what someone is asking

This is helpful in sales and with direct reports

Keep yourself quiet so the other person can do the talking

Tips:

  • Time – Schedule and clock
  • Share, then seek…repeat
  • Relationship

If you want someone to share, you need to offer them information first

Ask open ended questions:

  • When was that?
  • How did that go for you?

People care more about how you make them feel vs. what you say

Meet people where they are:

  • Listen for where that is
  • Talk in a language that they understand
  • Our weakness is often a strength

Grace by Margin

Things That Save You Time

  • Use the ‘while’ system – multi-task (i.e. get an under desk bike to workout and work at the same time)
  • Use timed emails – schedule an email to be sent out at a specific time
  • Adding a link in emails to schedule time on your calendar (Calendly)
  • All your calls on one number – also gives you the option to record the call (Freeconferencecall.com)
  • Speech to text transcription (Temi or Rev)

Activity

  • Draw a pie chart and fill in your time throughout the day
  • Think about the top three things you are responsible for and how much time you are spending on each one
  • You will then want to expand that circle
  • Choose your most important things and put those in the center
  • If you do those things well, then the rest of your day will fall into place
  • The outer circle is what you can do once you’ve done what’s most important

Vision

Break down the vision into parts

Choose one goal for the month

The next month choose another goal

Align Software Tool

  • Break down everybody’s goals in the company
  • This shows who is doing what each quarter
  • You can easily see who is in the red or in the green

Make yourself a vision board

  • Add images of what you want to achieve

Write down your achievements

  • Write down all the details of where you are now and for the next three years
  • You can then look back on this and see all of your accomplishments
  • Find a partner and talk about it

 

Like what you see? Register for our upcoming workshops & webinars today!