Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
The following is a step by step instruction on how to develop an effective, practical presentation. This process keeps in mind your audience and builds informal buy-in prior to the presentation.
Effective presentations are the bread and butter of consultants as we are paid handsomely by major corporations sometimes just for recommendations delivered in a presentation format. I wrote these step by step instructions for my own use while working in consulting and wanted to share them with you. They are based on my experiences at McKinsey and Deloitte and were used by myself and other managers/senior managers at Deloitte to build effective presentations. ...
I just returned to work 3 months ago after having a second baby. While I haven’t been away from work too long, I was surprised to find myself insecure – Do I still know how to work? Are my analytical, leadership, and communication skills up to par? Can I still deal with difficult personalities and office politics? Ultimately, am I still as good as I used to be? ...
Negative feedback is a fact of life. Sometimes it’s fair, constructive, and expected, but sometimes it can be completely out of the blue. You cannot easily change your boss’s perceptions or motives for giving you negative feedback. What you can control, however, is how you respond to it. So learn how to handle negative feedback early in your career. ...
When I worked at Deloitte, I had to write a lot of proposals (documents to sell consulting work). I remember one time my team and I worked hard for a week to pull together a kick-a** proposal for a high tech company. We worked late and came in early to create a good draft. On Thursday evening, I finally had a chance to review the proposal with the Partner and Senior Manager. ...
On Sunday, I was hanging out with some friends, and one of them complimented me: “Wow, Lei, you have lost a lot of weight. You look amazing…” I felt pretty good, since I had been trying to lose the weight I gained from having a second child. However, I immediately replied, “Thanks, but I still have about 10 lbs. to go. It’s been a process, and this last 10 lbs. has been quite stubborn.” Afterwards, I thought, “Why did I say that? Instead of continuing to feel good, I immediately started focusing on what was not working for me, and re-directed the conversation to something less positive.” ...
Communication skills are some of the most critical soft skills for achieving career success during a job search or in the workplace. Improving your communication skills is a huge task, since business communication encompasses verbal and written exchanges, formal and informal styles of communication, along with one-on-one discussions and group talks. Obviously, then, this article is just a starting point. ...
Do you know when it’s time to change jobs? I find this topic interesting because when and how often you decide to change jobs can determine how fast you can progress in your career. Those who stay at a job too long can stignant their own career progression without knowing it as opposed to those who are in tune with the overall job market and their market value. It’s important to realize when to change jobs so you can giving yourself the best chance for upward progression. For this question of when to change jobs, I have two answers. ...