4 Questions To Ask Yourself

Who do you plan to be?

What do you plan to do?

What do you plan to have?

Million-Dollar Question:
What do you plan to give?

[ACTIVITY] 7 Soft Skills CEOs Work On

While I was doing research for The Soft Skills Success Plan, I spoke to quite a few chief executive officers and other executives. I found it interesting that the soft skills they wanted in their employees were often the same soft skills in which the CEOs wanted or were receiving coaching for themselves.

But just because that’s what I found from a few dozen interviews, it doesn’t mean this trend is universal. Fortunately, I came across the 2013 Executive Coaching Survey administered by Stanford University and the Miles Group. The results were similar to my interviews, but they were more accurate and more data was available.

Here are the top 7 soft skills that CEO’s work on:

[AUDIO] A Lesson On Soft Skills Mastery From Martin Luther King, Jr.

The above audio is a 7min. excerpt from my MLK Keynote Address at Darton College.

I recently gave a MLK Celebration Lecture at Darton College. The overall theme for the celebration was “What are you doing for others?” My talk was focused on one of the things that enabled Dr. King to be such a powerful servant leader—his skill set. His fight for truth and justice and his selfless service have left us many priceless lessons. I believe, however, that we can also gain wisdom by exploring his skill set.

MLK had a skill set that allowed him to:

— Communicate at an exceptional level 
— Build powerful relationships
— Get people to believe in his values and vision
— Deal with an unimaginable amount of pressure, stress, and adversity
— Become a master of influence

A skill set that helps a person to embody those attributes is worth of study. Based on all that he accomplished, it’s easy to see that Dr. King mastered many soft skills such as leadership, public speaking, collaboration, teamwork, and teambuilding to name a few. For right now I would like to focus on 3 of the many soft skills that MLK mastered:

The “I” In Team: 4 Philosophies Of An Awesome Team Player

“Just win the game!!!”

Although he was in extraordinary pain, that was Kevin Ware’s message to his teammates. There was 6:33 left in the first half of a 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Elite Eight game. Kevin and his fellow Louisville Cardinals were up against the Duke Blue Devils. A coveted spot in the Final Four was on the line.

Duncan Nugget® #35: Leadership — Mission or Individual?

One crucial key to the health of an organization or movement is to make sure your people are inspired by the mission just as much as they are inspired by your individual greatness.

Million-Dollar Question:
Are your people inspired by you AND the mission?

5 Soft Skills Clusters – Soft Skills Development Framework

Soft Skills Clusters

This is a BETA version. The list is a work in progress. Some definitions, behavioral indicators, and commentary on the specific soft skills cluster pages are incomplete, but I decided to post the list anyway hoping that it will be helpful to you all the same. I typically add a definition and commentary each day.

In order to facilitate training, development, practice, and application across various areas of life—not just career development—I have developed a simple framework (The 5 Soft Skills Clusters) that includes key behavioral indicators:

[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget® #499: Resourceful As A Turkey

It’s Thanksgiving and I’m running around asking people if they remember the “Five Fat Turkeys” song. Nobody remembers. They’re just looking at me like I’m crazy. Lol.

Do you remember the song?

Five fat turkeys are we.[break]We spent all night in a tree.[break]When the butcher came ’round,[break]We couldn’t be found[break]And that’s why we’re here, you see!

In the face of great adversity, when life is trying to butcher you, if you can hold out and be as resourceful as five turkeys climbing a tree then you will definitely be alright. You’ll be singing, “That’s why I’m here, you see!”

Million-Dollar Question:
Are you as resourceful as a turkey?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!