Soft skills

How to Re-Negotiate Benefits After Signing an Employment Contract

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Question:  My current employer had enrolled me for a medical plan that is due to expire in 2 days. I start at my new employment end of this month. According to contract with new employer(the bank) that I have already signed, I will be on probation for first 3 months. Also according to that contract the medical benefits are available only after probation period. I am a family man with two small kids – 3 and 1. As you can imagine there is no way I can consider staying in Hong Kong without medical insurance for  technically 3.5 months. ...  read more

How to Return to My Old Employer

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contact old employer

Q: I was wondering what may be the best way to approach acknowledging to a previous employer, that you made a mistake leaving your previous job. A year ago, I left a well paying consulting position with a large technology company to pursue another job. Unfortunately, the new job has not met my expectations and I now regret my decision to leave my previous employer. ...  read more

How Gloria Successfully Recovered from Not Getting Promoted

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not getting promoted

Not getting the promotion we were expecting can be devastating to our self-image.   I am here to tell you that you are not alone.  In fact, not getting promoted can happen to the best of us.  What is important is how you handle this unexpected news and what you do next to keep advancing in your career. ...  read more

Soft Skills: Why Effective Upward Communication is Key to Advancement

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podcast-small

We are giving public access to this recording on upward communication to showcase the type of content available in the Soft Skills Gym.  For more recordings like this one, sign up today.

Welcome to the first candid conversation with one of our Executive Authors, Louis Johnston.  Candid conversations are frank interviews I have with business executives regarding a personal story or some lesson they learned from their career. ...  read more

Lei’s 2013 Experiences

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Lei 2013

Every year seem to go by faster and faster. Do you feel that too?  Well, it’s New Year’s Eve Day and it’s time to look back and take stock of what happened in 2013.  It’s my way to slow down today and be grateful for 2013.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to make 2013 about experiences instead of goals.  Now I can look back and appreciate all the new and challenging experiences I had this year.  Some are big and some are small.  All of them taught me something new.    As you will see, it’s a work in progress for many experiences.   Life is about the journey and not the destination, right? ...  read more

Soft Skills – Note to Self: Shut Up and Take Action

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It is New Year’s Eve day.  I am supposed to be happy and excited.  Instead I wake up very agitated.  My mind is teeming with negative thoughts.  I have been sick for two weeks.  I feel behind.  I feel unaccomplished. I feel tired even though I just got a full night’s sleep.

Then I catch myself.  I realize that, because I have not done much for my soft skills blog lately, the voice in my head is scolding me.  Negative thoughts fill my mind.  I feel deflated.  These feelings had been building up for a few days already. I knew I had to do something to break this pattern.  Instead of letting my negative thoughts control me, I decided to go for a run and de-stress a little. ...  read more