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] 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

[VIDEO] What Are Soft Skills? A Simple Definition

Duncan Nugget #144:
Soft skills are personal abilities that help you perform better and interact better with other people.

This is part 1 of a 3-part power point video series. In this video I give you a simple definition of soft skills—one that works well with teens and young adults. Time: 6min 18sec 

Up next (both will be available on Monday; links will not work until then.):

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

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?

For more great resources and training visit Soft Skills for STEM

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ACTION STEPS/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

[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: