How to Improve Soft Skills as a Manager

In my typical Glaswegian/Israeli style, I’ll get straight to the point here and say that if you do not place a huge amount of importance on enhancing your ‘soft skills’ as a manager, you will probably not succeed! I’m not kidding either. You will quickly lose the trust of your team, your colleagues and clients/customers will feel it too.

I’ve been quite surprised, how some people do not appreciate the value of enhancing soft skills to the point where someone recently said to me ‘ye i’ll deal with that after i’ve finished with the real work’. NO! This is a main part of your real work as a manager!

They’re the difference between a team that trusts you  and a team that silently avoids you.
Between feeling constantly overwhelmed and feeling like you’re actually leading. You build it, bit by bit, day by day and no drama is necessary!.

Here’s the way I explain it to the managers I coach:

You don’t need to be inspiring. You don’t need to be the loudest voice in the room either, but you do need to be clear and very clear. Over the years I’ve left meetings and thought to myself ‘ok cool, everyone is on board and knows what the next steps are’. However, it’s quickly become apparent that this was not the case atall! 

 Your team wants to know:

That’s it! Get that right and you instantly look more competent.

Try this: At the end of any meeting, ask:
‘What’s your next step?’
If they can answer it, great.
If not, tighten things up.

How often do you sit in a meeting and as people are talking, your mind is drifting? Thinking about lunch, what you’ll do that evening, if the kids are ok, or in my case, how could my team concede such a stupid goal!! However, it all comes crashing down as someone asks you a direct question and you’re not quite sure what was asked! Listening isn’t nodding while planning your reply. It’s paying attention to what’s not being said.

Tips on how to managing during War Time!

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