Business Leaders and Soft Skills Training?
Business Leaders and Soft Skills Training?
Lets define Soft Skills first: Soft skills is a sociological term which refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job.
Soft skills are important to the success of any organization, particulary those who deal with customers face to face. Those organizations are much more successful if their staff have some soft skills training under their belt. This is the reason that soft skills training programs are sought after by business leaders.
Okay so that’s all well and fine, but how do I get my hands on business leadership training or soft skills training? Well, some of the answers lie with you as a business leader. Some options are developing your own training program from scratch, outsourcing the training to a training firm, going the online training route which is popular today but quite ineffective compared to instructor led training, or you can combine several of these.
A best practice suggestion for soft skills training: Purchase a customizable or editable training materials program and then reformat the content to fit your organization or teams need. You can purchase off the shelf courseware very easy from the internet and begin to immediate build a custom soft skills or business leadership training program using it.
How does this benefit you “the business leader”? It will save you months and even years of development time. The average development guide (in general) for an experienced instructional or training designer is 8 hours of development time for 1 hour of course instruction. That does not include preparation time to put the materials together, accompanied materials such as instructor guide, student guide, handouts, ice-breakers, pre-assignments, test development, etc.. – Oh and that’s just to develop the materials to be covered. Another benefit is the ease of implementation. You can roll out a business leadership training or soft skills program very easily when you already have the materials, outlines and timelines in hand.
Ensure it’s a trusted source and that they will give you a free sample (at the very least) of their training content. You will want to know that you can take what you get and run with it immediately so that you may start to develop your staff or organization for those critical person to person skills they need for your success. Some organizations take too long to develop and by the time it’s ready to implement the timing is not right, or the issues have changed. Reducing your development time (especially if you don’t have a professional training designer or trainer on staff) is crucial to the success of your business unit or company. Even most corporate trainers will tell you that using off the shelf courseware is a fantastic alternative to “from scratch training development”.
Successful business leaders understand the importance of soft skills training and employee development, especially in the leadership arena. They also know that their time is valuable and that budgets sometimes don’t allow for everyone to attend that $1500 seminar on how to increase moral and productivity. Investing in off the shelf soft skills training courseware is a no brainer for effective business leaders, trainers, human resource representatives and anyone who is involved with organizational growth and development.
Business Leaders and Soft Skills Training - To learn more about this author, visit Richard Hull's Website.
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Can I really maximize my succession plans and develop my staff through soft skills training? Answer: Yes – and there are shortcuts!
Lets define Soft Skills first: Soft skills is a sociological term which refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job.
Soft skills are important to the success of any organization, particulary those who deal with customers face to face. Those organizations are much more successful if their staff have some soft skills training under their belt. This is the reason that soft skills training programs are sought after by business leaders.
Okay so that’s all well and fine, but how do I get my hands on business leadership training or soft skills training? Well, some of the answers lie with you as a business leader. Some options are developing your own training program from scratch, outsourcing the training to a training firm, going the online training route which is popular today but quite ineffective compared to instructor led training, or you can combine several of these.
A best practice suggestion for soft skills training: Purchase a customizable or editable training materials program and then reformat the content to fit your organization or teams need. You can purchase off the shelf courseware very easy from the internet and begin to immediate build a custom soft skills or business leadership training program using it.
How does this benefit you “the business leader”? It will save you months and even years of development time. The average development guide (in general) for an experienced instructional or training designer is 8 hours of development time for 1 hour of course instruction. That does not include preparation time to put the materials together, accompanied materials such as instructor guide, student guide, handouts, ice-breakers, pre-assignments, test development, etc.. – Oh and that’s just to develop the materials to be covered. Another benefit is the ease of implementation. You can roll out a business leadership training or soft skills program very easily when you already have the materials, outlines and timelines in hand.
Ensure it’s a trusted source and that they will give you a free sample (at the very least) of their training content. You will want to know that you can take what you get and run with it immediately so that you may start to develop your staff or organization for those critical person to person skills they need for your success. Some organizations take too long to develop and by the time it’s ready to implement the timing is not right, or the issues have changed. Reducing your development time (especially if you don’t have a professional training designer or trainer on staff) is crucial to the success of your business unit or company. Even most corporate trainers will tell you that using off the shelf courseware is a fantastic alternative to “from scratch training development”.
Successful business leaders understand the importance of soft skills training and employee development, especially in the leadership arena. They also know that their time is valuable and that budgets sometimes don’t allow for everyone to attend that $1500 seminar on how to increase moral and productivity. Investing in off the shelf soft skills training courseware is a no brainer for effective business leaders, trainers, human resource representatives and anyone who is involved with organizational growth and development.
Business Leaders and Soft Skills Training - To learn more about this author, visit Richard Hull's Website.
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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