The Soft Skills Success (S3) Plan

We have created a popular tool that helps early-to-mid career professionals identify and strengthen their soft skills. It’s called The S3 Plan (The Soft Skills Success Plan)

Regardless of your goals, one of the most crucial aspects of developing an effective plan to achieve your personal and professional goals is focusing on developing your soft skills and this free tool will help you with that process.

After you check out the excerpt below, you can download a free copy.

[Excerpt from the Soft Skills Success Plan]

Whether it is building a particular skill set or searching for keywords to put on a resume, when people are trying to figure out what soft skills they need to achieve their goals and objectives they often seek advice from their peers, parents, teachers, mentors, other professionals, or a combination of them all.

That’s a great idea because although 10% of your learning comes from education, 20% of your learning comes from others.

But did you know that 70% of learning occurs from skill-based and job-based activities? So, the real question is how do you find the soft skills that actual companies and organizations are looking for? It’s simple. And you probably already know this: you need to do a little bit of research.

QUICK & EASY RESEARCH PROJECT

Go do a quick online search for 5 to 7 job descriptions for positions you would be happy to have.

Write down all of the skills listed on the job descriptions. List the technical skills (i.e. programming, typing, creating spreadsheets, etc.) and soft skills (i.e. communication, creativity, problem-solving, teamwork, organizational skills, etc.) in separate columns. If a skill appears on more than one job description, only list it once, but next to it also write down the number of times it appears.

Hint for entrepreneurs: If you plan to start your own business then research the skill sets of five successful CEOs and/or entrepreneurs in your industry. Remember, you can also include job descriptions for jobs and internships that you are applying for on the journey to starting your own business.

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Want to continue working on your in-demand soft skills? Download your S3 Plan here.

An Untitled Poem On Leadership

April is National Poetry Month. In celebration, check out “An Untitled Poem on Leadership” that was submitted and performed by winning group during the S3 Poster Project Competition (8th Annual Soft Skills for STEM Lessons Workshop 2024).

Check out the poem and the original post here.

[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget #346: Overcome Cognitive Bias

In 1945, psychologist Karl Duncker gave research subjects a candle, a book of matches, and a box of tacks. He asked them to stick the candle to a wall so that when lit, wax wouldn’t drip on the floor.

What would your solution be?

The simple solution is to remove the tacks from the box, stand the candle in the box, and then tack the box to the wall. See what I mean? Simple.

But most people didn’t get it because they had a type of cognitive bias about what the box was for—holding tacks. They didn’t see the box for all that it could be. Think about that.

The ability to overcome cognitive bias gives you a competitive advantage because you’ll expand your perception of yourself and others. You’ll find better ways to maximize your skills and resources.

Million-Dollar Question:
What are you doing to expand your perception and overcome cognitive bias?

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ACTION STEPS AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

7 Business Writing Tips For Students In The Workplace

Maybe you can help me out. I have been banging my head against my desk for about 10 minutes now trying to remember the name of a movie.

It’s the one where somebody leaves the wrong voicemail on a person’s answering machine and then has to break into the house to get the voicemail before the other person hears it.

Do you remember that movie? If you do please let me know what it is. Thanks.

Now…

[VIDEO] Soft Skills: Building Your Competitive Advantage

This is part 3 of a 3-part power point video series. In this video I give you 4 main reasons that soft skills help you build a competitive advantage and several suggestions for improving your soft skills. Time: 11min. 24sec. 

Also in this series:

Part 1: What Are Soft Skills? A Simple Definition (6:18)

Part 2: What Are The Most Important Soft Skills To Master? (8:55)

A List of Soft Skills and Related Terms

Related article: Q & A: What Are Soft Skills and Why All the Fuss?

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ACTION STEPS/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

[VIDEO] What Are The Most Important Soft Skills To Master?

This is part 2 of a 3-part power point video series. In this video I group soft skills into 5 Soft Skills Clusters and help you figure out which ones you should focus on so that training and development becomes a simpler process. Time: 8min. 55sec. 

Also in this series:

Part 1: What Are Soft Skills? A Simple Definition (6:18)

Part 3: How Can You Use Soft Skills To Build Your Competitive Advantage? (11:24)

A List of Soft Skills and Related Terms

Related article: Q & A: What Are Soft Skills and Why All the Fuss?

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ACTION STEPS/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

6 Reasons Young Employees Need Better Written Communication Skills

“Well… what happened?”  

“I told him if he wanted a job, send me an email and he sent me a text disguised as an email.”  

“Nooo. Really? Man… that’s messed up. I think he’s doing pretty good in school.”  

“For me that’s even worse. He’s in college! I mean really, Al… does he even know what punctuation or a complete sentence is?!”  

—irritated business owner talking to Al Duncan about a potential employee

Duncan Nugget #359:
When you communicate, you shape a person’s perception of who you are.