Soft skills to take home

SOFT SKILLS: what do I take home?

Liliana Todorinova for the « Interpersonal Skills » exam

MBA « International Industrial Management » Hochschule Esslingen

OVERVIEW: what did I learn?

This is not a brownie

OVERVIEW: what did I learn?

1. What is my communication style?

3. How to improve my selling skills?

4. How to negotiate professionnally?

2. How to communicate better so as to prevent and

solve conflicts?

5. How to manage others for win-win outcome?

1. How do I communicate?

My score Strengths Weaknesses

DRIVER

12 Confident, goal setter, likes challenges

Too direct, poor listener

ANALYTIC

8 Creative Look at all aspects of

decisions Finish what I start

Avoiding emotionnally charged confrontations Perfectionist, self critical Too much planning

RELATOR

10 Put myself in other’s shoes Caring

Sacrifice too much to keep the harmony Not focused on details

EXPRESSIVE

15 Generate enthousiasm Optimistic, positive Curious

Good talked bad listener Emotional High-Lows

According to the DARE model

2. Communicate better to prevent & solve conflict

What is Communication?

Sender Receiver

MSG

Relationship

Appeal

Content

Self-disclosure

Listen ACTIVELY

To prevent conflict

Set SMART goals Specific Measurable Agreed Realistic Timely

Deliver a PRES message

State Point, give Reason, give Example, Summarize

To prevent conflict

Use the Sandwich Technique to deliver bad messages and negative feedback

Speak in positive statements

How to turn BAD messages GOOD

= see the glass half full

Detect • Become aware there’s a conflict • Analyse the situation

Evaluate

• Determine the severity • How important/urgent/hard is it to solve • Find the root cause

Act • Bring parties to consensus upon root cause • De-escalate via common agreement

De-escalate a conflict

3. Improve my selling skills

Know what you’re selling: SWOT

Find out what the customer is looking for: Don’t assume - ASK (open/closed end questions) Listen actively

Match Product with Customer Needs Product-Feature-Function-Benefit

Speak with body and mind

Salesmen are listeners, not talkers

4. Negotiation

Know upfront What satisfies you and what is your limit What’s on the agenda & what are the priorities What’s your starting point Use the PFFB (steps of argumentation) for your offer Benchmark with alternatives

Who is in the dominant position?

Cursors of power (importance, competitors, info, influence, time, penalty)

Do you have a BATNA? (best alternative to negotiation agreement)

Good negotiation must be prepared

Follow the Golden Rules Start high Before giving up smth, answer with arguments first Give up only when receive smth in return Only incremental concessions of shrinking size Achieve clear expressed agreement

Recommended readings: « Negotiation bootcamp » by Ed Brodow

Best negotiations are « win win »

5. Improve management skills

The FLOW model

Get the best of team members

qualification

chal

leng

e

scared

bored

Give the best to team members

Supporting 1

Coaching 1+2

Delegating Directing 1+2+3

low directing high

low

s

uppo

rtin

g

h

igh

1. Tell what to do 2. Determine how to do it 3. Monitor closely

Yourself later

Yourself now

Skip Delegate

low urgency high

low

im

port

ance

hi

gh

What to delegate?