Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
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! ...
Managers with stronger skills in multiple areas have greater chances of becoming successful. As a manager, you need both hard skills (e.g. business or project management) and soft skills (e.g. leadership skills) to be effective. I would argue soft skills are more important than hard skills as you get more senior in your career. If you have a range of soft skills, you can facilitate enhanced adaptability, successful collaboration, and become far more valuable for your organization. Here are 4 soft skills every manager needs to possess in order to become successful in the modern business environment. ...
Good teamwork calls for creating conditions that encourage everyone in the team to share their ideas, feel empowered, and perform in a collaborative and coordinated manner. As a team leader, you are responsible to develop people’s strengths, build good relationships with people, and set meaningful team goals to facilitate it. ...
Meetings are an essential part of every organization. Yet, at least 50% of meetings today are ineffective. This cartoon on the left may seem silly but is not far from the truth in describing bad meetings. It is essential to your success to learn how to run a successful meeting. Effective meeting management skills will help you successfully share your ideas and thoughts with your audience. It will also help you stand out in your job and build your work reputation. ...
Just graduated from college? Congratulations and welcome to the workforce! Do these words excite you or scare you to death? If you are anything like me when I graduated from college, it’s probably both.
Transitioning from college to work can be a huge change. It’s okay to feel exhilarated and nervous. I still remember how much I looked forward to starting my first full time job. I was excited to finally make money and be part of the “real world”, but I also clearly remember my anxieties. ...
I consider myself to be fairly competent at networking. Even so, I still got intimidated when I thought about how to network with senior executives at my company. I probably experienced some of the same self-doubt you have gone through:
In the last few months, I learned five great tips on networking with senior executives. They have helped me authentically connect with three senior folks at my company. Conversations with them have helped build my work brand and made me appreciate how much I can learn from each of them. Here are the five tips. I hope they can help you in your career. ...