Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
Should we teach soft skills to middle school and high school students? If so, how should we do it? These are questions that have gained more interest in recent years. A grad student just reached out to me on this topic with the following questions. I am sharing my response in case you have kids or are in the teaching profession. I look forward to your comments and thoughts. ...
Even since I launched the first group coaching call on Insider Tips to Getting Promoted, I am pleased to received many great questions by email related to how to get a promotion at work. Here are the top 5 most common questions and my perspective. Overall, you will see a theme. Besides being a good at your job, you need to have great soft skills such as managing upwards, leadership skills, skills to deal with office politics etc… in order to increase your chances for promotion. ...
If you are feeling stressed at work, I may have good news. Some stress is good for you! According to research done by Elizabeth Kirby from UC Berkeley, we are actually not optimal or happy unless we have a moderate amount of stress in our life.
Many of us are familiar with the latter point and try our best to reduce stress. This study is telling us however to have balance. This explained a lot to me. Prior to getting a full time job last year, I was working as a contractor for 6 years. It was a great lifestyle but at times I was pretty bored. I wondered during that time why I wasn’t happy. I had everything I wanted, it seemed. Now it all made sense. I may have made enough money,and had all the flexibility to have a family, but I wasn’t challenged enough. My brain was not happy. ...
Do you ever notice that kids can learn pop songs overnight? Luckily my kids are gravitating toward the inspirational ones rather than the racy ones. They have been singing 3 songs on the top of their lungs for the last few months. Coincidentally, these 3 songs are exactly what I needed to hear. ...
We had an amazing first Group Coaching Call this past Tuesday. The topic was Insider Tips to Getting Promoted. I prepared the following materials and had a very interactive discussion with everyone for an hour.
I was honored to be joined by readers from all over the world. We had a nice, intimate group of 5 attendees – 1 from the Philippines, 1 from Germany, and 3 people from 3 different states in the U.S. Surprisingly, everyone had at least 15 years of experience. It was my pleasure to meet everyone virtually as well as learn from their comments. We also discussed some great questions they raised ...
When we think of a strong leader, someone that we admire, respect, and enjoy working with, a list of common character traits comes to mind. We might describe these people as patient, supportive, empowering, credible, or fearless — all important leadership traits that inspires teams to loyalty and high performance. ...
In part 1 and 2 of our talk with Executive Author, Jane Lin, we discussed the
In this final part, we migrated our conversation from job search to on the job success. We don’t always have the ideal job. Sometimes we have to take jobs just to make sure we can pay the mortgage or rent. In these cases, does this mean we put on career on hold until we find another job? Jane’s advice is no. Even with a less than ideal job, you have the power to make it more and progress your career. How? Go beyond your job description! ...
