soft skills
soft skills
(OP)
I need to develop my soft skills and I am wondering what methods people have found to be the best training for such an endeavour.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field





RE: soft skills
Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP5.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: soft skills
Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP5.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: soft skills
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field
RE: soft skills
The OTHER way to develop your soft skills is just to BE NICE. I don't mean to minimize the difficulty of doing that, either, but it's much easier if you're also honest.
It's that SINCERITY thing; if you can fake that, the sky's the limit.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: soft skills
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: soft skills
If you try to promote something you don't believe in, you'll come across as insincere. As Mike noted, if you can fake that, the sky's the limit!
Selling yourself is one of the hardest things an engineer can do. Self promotion is foreign to your stereotypical personality. What I've found easiest to do is simply state facts of your experience...projects, results, etc.
Develop your "other brain"...for us that means learning to do something on the artistic side; photography, music, literature, etc. This will give you some "ice breakers" for conversation....generally when conversation is open and fluid, self promotion is unnecessary.
RE: soft skills
The other was an impromptu speaking course. Basically stand up in front of people you don't know and give a 5 minute talk, with about 10 minutes prep. That was less useful to me, since I typically spend days preparing for a twenty minute presentation.
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: soft skills
How to get it? Practice.
Take a Dale Carnegie or Toastmasters course. Be a lector at your church. Become active (to the officer level) in a professional society...there's wonderful opportunities for honing leadership skills at very little risk in those places. Volunteer at organizations that have other up-and-coming volunteers so you can get some exposure to other business cultures than engineering. Chase down opportunities within your work that will force you to learn how to build and defend a business case and influence other people's behavior.
And for God's sake have enough common sense and decency to know that salesmanship and influencing skills is not the same as being underhanded, unprofessional, and manipulative. People are generally smart and desire ethics. They can smell a manipulative rat a mile away, but will follow a leader who doesn't violate their sense of morality.
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com
RE: soft skills
Rafiq Bulsara
http://www.srengineersct.com
RE: soft skills
Everyone is right so far, I can't fake it, I can give a good honest presentation, and I can handle a meeting with new/existing clients. The specific problem I have is the one off chance meetings and general networking. I am told that when I have a client meeting my language is positive and everything happens naturally with positive results for my company. I did some training to get to this point, mostly Toastmasters and role as office bearer in sports clubs.
However when I have a one off chance meeting this doesn't happen, I can talk about footy, cricket, rowing ect but am unable to get the convo to a where I should be saying "this is what we do....... And we would like to help you on your next project. Would you be interested in ..............'. I don't seem to have the skills for this part, and I have noticed a lot of company offering training to help with this type of situation, but I am unsure if this is best course or would take a job at the local fruit and veg shop for a few weekends teach me the skills.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field
RE: soft skills
My 'problem' is the opposite - everybody I meet knows what what I get up to.
I think it's called enthusiasm or self-absorption. Depending...
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: soft skills
Whatever you do, spend more time talking to people in real life and less on eng-tips to the 15 people who live here.
RE: soft skills
Great idea, but it may not be necessary to jump right into a course. I gained a lot of knowledge from reading Carnegie's book.
RE: soft skills
RE: soft skills
It will usually turn out into just passing a business card and planting the seed for an eventual callback or referral. Make sure your business card clearly indicates what it is that you can do for your potential clients.
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com
RE: soft skills
No I can't remember what it is.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: soft skills
http://www.toastmasters.org/
RE: soft skills
The basic course includes:
- the ice breaker, an introductory speech;
- vocal variety;
- using your hands;
- show what you mean, props;
- how to read a speech if necessary;
- eye contact;
- organize your speech;
- how to convince your audience;
- speaking with emotion, etc.
TM is well worth the time and effort. I was instrumental in adding the eulogy project to the advanced course. The advanced course is mostly challenging elective tasks.
RE: soft skills
Your elevator speech shouldn't necessarily be closed at the end. Whatever you say can/should invite further discussion, either there or later.
A very useful approach is to find out about them and their efforts and needs. Then you have a reference point. Maybe you can offer services, or maybe you can offer them a referral or resource to help them. In any case: as you learn about them, you build a stronger relationship for the future.
Regards
Jay
Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm