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The Hard Fact About Soft Skills

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According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report, 89 percent of recruiters say when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to a lack of soft skills. These soft skills include communication, teamwork/collaboration, dependability, flexibility, and problem solving.

While many people are hired for their technical abilities, their soft skills give them sustainable effectiveness. Skills like strong communication skills can be applied to any job. But how can companies tell which soft skills need to be developed?

Conducting a human wiring assessment is an effective way for a business professional to not only understand their communication preferences, but to spot the communication preferences of others. They begin to understand why putting pressure on one person may impede productivity while it spurs another to perform at a higher level.

Your wiring pre-determines how you operate at work and even the environments where you best thrive. Because your wiring is something you’re born with, it never changes, but your behavior does.

Wiring answers the why questions that are hidden underneath the changeability of human behavior. Most importantly, when you discover how your natural wiring impacts your actions and that of others, you more insightfully interact with people, create high-performance teams, increase sales, and transform your organization.

With the knowledge of someone’s wiring, you can recognize and appreciate what matters to them, how they communicate, and what they need to stay motivated. This profound insight into a person’s wiring is more beneficial than knowing their personality profile. When you can deliver communication the way the other person needs to receive it, it’s the highest form of honoring the other person.

There is an expression: Bread dough rises when you let it rest. Diamonds form under pressure. A leader committed to strong communication skills and an understanding human wiring will understand when pressure can impede productivity while motivate another.

In our Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp for Business Owners, human wiring is a distinction that is a part of our proprietary system. When one CEO learned how she was wired and structured her organization to maximize her and her team’s human wiring, it became a game changer. Every year her team’s soft skill effectiveness increased, turnover decreased, and profitability increased.

The hard fact about soft skills is that soft skills are the real deal to transforming organizational outcomes.

Invitation

To learn more about human wiring and scaling your company, join us for our next Introduction Class:

October 13, 2022 from 9 – 11:30 am

REGISTER (join online or onsite)

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Did you know that your wiring pre-determines how you operate at work and the environments where you best thrive? Since your wiring is something you’re born with, it never changes, but your behavior does.

Wiring answers the why questions that are hidden underneath the changeability of human behavior. Most importantly, when you discover how wiring impacts your actions and that of others, you more clearly interact with people, create high-performance teams, and transform your organization.

With the knowledge of someone’s wiring, you can recognize and appreciate what matters to them, how they communicate, and what they need. This profound insight into a person’s wiring is more beneficial than knowing their personality profile. It’s the highest form of honoring the other person.

It also explains why you do what you do and is the source to tap into to get different outcomes. For example, I worked with a CEO who was frustrated by the lack of results despite taking a lot of action. There was no question that she was working really hard.

To get the root cause of what might be happening, we first looked at how she was naturally wired. She is naturally wired as someone who:

1. Likes to create and act on her own ideas (and who likes to see tangible results)
2. Needs time to think things through and is re-energize by periods of alone time.
3. Likes a fast-paced environment and variety in her work; and
4. Prefers certainty and information before making a decision. This was her highest driver.

This combination of wiring likes to see results quickly, wants to juggle multiple projects often setting unrealistic expectations, and wants to know the details before moving forward particularly with decisions on new topics.

Knowing that human wiring and business systems are interconnected, I also asked if she had a strategy for her business mapped out. The short answer was no.

Based on the results she wanted to achieve, we looked at the most optimal way to address her concerns. Here’s what we did and why we did it:

What we did: Developed a Strategy and Operationalized the Goals and Objectives.

Why we did it:

The shoot-from-the-hip approach to securing business was not working. She was taking a lot of action but without focus, which was causing a lot of stress on her and her team. Despite her wanting results, she was casting a wide net instead of developing a strategy that could be communicated to her team. With a high sense of urgency, she was performing a lot of tasks quickly. As a person who was naturally energized by new ideas, she would chase new ideas before fully implementing the first idea.

To focus her efforts, we created her Strategy, Preferred Client Profile, and her Business Blueprint (the operationalized plan) so that she had a roadmap to stay focused.

To manage her wanting to be involved in every decision often creating a bottleneck, we:

  1. Outlined the roles of each team member
  2. Mapped out the accountabilities for each team member aligned with the goals of the organization
  3. Implemented a team reporting process to create a culture of proactive accountability. They reported in their results rather than her asking for it each week.

What we did: Implemented Ways to Stay Energized

Why we did it:

With the majority of her day in face-to-face interaction, we used time blocking with key times on her schedule for alone time to re-energize. By implementing time blocking, she was able to control the constant barrage of interruptions and stay energized for maximum productivity while remaining responsive. Her team members also felt that by having devoted time when they saw her, she was more present when talking to them. Additionally, we created her organizational structure to delegate tasks to independent contractors so that she could focus on the very strategies that would grow the business.

What we did: Developed Accountability Systems

Why we did it:

With a high sense of urgency and her highest need for certainty (and results), it was necessary to have a way to manage outcomes. She would naturally want to do everything or be involved often becoming the bottleneck in the business.

By understanding how her human wiring interacted with others and the business system, we used specific business tools. We put processes in place to measure and manage outcomes versus micromanage every task.

The Human Wiring-Business System Connection

With a profound discovery into how you are wired and pairing those insights with the ideal business tools, you expand your natural capacity for leadership and make a difference on a broader scale.

Invitation to: Wired to Win 101: How Are You Hardwired?

If you’re inspired to learn about your human wiring, register today for Wired to Win 101: How Are You Hardwired on Friday, August 12, 2022. Register by Monday, August 8 and join us online or onsite. Your Human Wiring Assessment is included.

https://excellerateassociates.com/2022/07/28/17189/

Beliefs Are An Interesting Thing, Aren’t They?

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Beliefs are an interesting thing, aren’t they?

Beliefs are a state of mind in which you regard a thing to be true. It makes sense that if you regard a thing to be true, you’re more likely to take action consistent with that belief.

Some beliefs support us to open and grow, while others keep us stuck. At times, you may wonder why you’re not quite getting the results you seek even though you’re taking action. Staying stuck often stems from an unconscious belief.

Even the most seasoned and successful entrepreneurs can have a belief they don’t realize is holding them back or no longer serves them. They just know something is off.

The key is to become aware of what that belief is serving. It’s usually designed to protect us, keep us “right” or avoid pain. Sometimes it’s a matter of bringing awareness to it that’s in our blind spot and gently shifting it so that you see it, reframe it, and take action consistent with a possibility.

What Limiting Beliefs Sound Like

Some limiting beliefs are subtle or based on assumptions or conclusions, like

• “They don’t care.” I see this happen when people run up against an obstacle sometimes to justify their inaction around a goal or refusal to reframe a situation.
• “I only have a limited time for personal development away from my work week.” “I can’t possibly take off two days, a week, or more.” I hear these phrases when people have a belief around investing in their own personal development or self care.
• “If I start a business, they will come.” (A frequently seen belief when someone transitions from an employee to an entrepreneur, assuming that getting clients is requires nothing further than hanging an open-for-business shingle).
• “I’m not enough.” “I’m not doing something right.” “They underestimate me.”

Imagine if your action was aligned with any one of these limiting beliefs. If you have the belief of “they don’t care” running in the background, what do you bring into each conversation with that person you believe doesn’t care? “I can’t possibly take off two days from my work.” You will never invest in your own personal development that can drastically change how you operate in the world. “They underestimate me,” then work proving them wrong. That’s a lot of energy focused on a limiting belief rather than a positive possibility.

How Limiting Beliefs Can Develop

Here’s how a belief can develop. One of my clients had a long and successful career at a corporation. She successfully climbed the corporate ladder and got the itch to start her own business.

As an employee, she was conditioned to churn out projects in a certain way. The process she followed included having her projects reviewed by several levels, changed multiple times, and re-worked before launching it. Over time, she developed a belief that this is how you launch projects.

When the time came for her to launch her new eBook that educated her prospects on her proprietary Signature Process, she kept getting stopped before she even started. She got overwhelmed with the project saying, “it’s going to take a long time.” Underneath that notion, was her employee belief that her eBook needed to be “perfect” before launching it. She applied a belief that worked in a corporate structure in her entrepreneurial pursuit.

As an entrepreneur, if you wait until your product is “perfect”, you may never launch at all. While you want to make sure your product is a good one, too many revisions will slow you down and stop you before you get started.

I asked her, “What is possible if you launched your eBook, then improved it after you received some feedback from the people who downloaded it?” There was silence, then a breakthrough.

With this newfound awareness, she decided to keep the format of her first eBook simple. Instead of waiting to launch a “perfect” edition, she decided to get feedback from early adopters and invite their feedback through her launch process, helping her to create an improved offering in future editions.

While her employee-minded belief worked to navigate the corporate environment, she now has access to a new entrepreneurial belief to empower her to accelerate her results. Instead of waiting, she’s creating an eBook that invites feedback and engages her prospects.

While she’s building a following, she’s simultaneously building a better product and filling her prospect pipeline. Beliefs are an interesting thing, aren’t they?

Invitation

If you are inspired to differentiate your company from all others who do similar work, I invite you to Create Your Signature Program on May 19-20, 2022.

 

Where Your Peace of Mind and Personal Transformation As a Leader Resides

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In any workplace, there will be a degree of disagreements or drama. This often plays out in unnecessary remarks, withholding information, or complaining.

As a business leader, distinguishing what is versus getting caught up in the emotional entanglement of what’s happening, can be a challenge. When I refer to what is, I do not mean the often resigned expression of “it is what it is.”
“It is what is,” is just that. It is. It exists.

Until you are with “what is,” it can be challenging to be fully present with anyone or any situation. While you’re distinguishing it is what is, begin to notice.

Noticing is important to leading effectively. Notice how situations occur to you. Notice how your natural wiring is triggered by events. Notice who you are choosing to be in the situation. Notice if you’re adding a story, interpretation, or judgment to what is.

Ask yourself, “what is.” Simply state, “what is” objectively and factually. Consider that when you can distinguish what is, this is where your peace of mind and personal transformation as a leader resides.

Reduce Meeting Times: Highly-Effective Leaders Keep in This in Mind When Meeting With Their Team

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human-wiring-tipIt might not surprise you to learn that research shows meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years, to the point where people spend an average of nearly 23 hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s.

While the meetings are longer, the better question to ask is, are these meetings effective? Your role as a leader is more important than ever to communicate effectively and efficiently. However, most leaders hold meetings that do nothing to address the various ways that people innately process information or learn ways to inspire action.

Far too often, meeting leaders are not managing the communication process. As a leader, your job is to engage your team and communicate in ways where the message is received.

Keep Your Team Engaged While Reducing Meeting Times

To engage your team, keep in mind that everyone has a unique way they learn and process information. When you know how your team learns, you can deliver your communication in highly effective ways helping you to reduce meeting times.

For example, if your team is made up of people who are innately wired to learn by trial and error, they also like to put their thumbprint on ideas to make it their own. If you are talking non-stop, giving a lot of information, and telling them what they should do, you’re not giving them the opportunity to make it their own, which is what some of your team members may innately need. What happens, then, is that your message or ideas will fall flat. You spend more time convincing rather than involving.

Your role as a leader is to shape each meeting so that you deliver communication in the way your team members need to receive it. In this example where your team likes to put their thumbprint on ideas to make it their own, the leader should prepare an interactive meeting where the team members can actively participate and provide their input. Ask thought-provoking questions and have your team brainstorm new possibilities. In this way, you constructed the meeting so that they can put their thumbprint on ideas inspiring them to implement their ideas.

This is just one example of what you can do to reduce meeting times and increase your effectiveness. Most meetings, however, have a mix of human wiring. The question then becomes: Is it possible to communicate and construct meetings to address everyone’s wiring?

The short answer is yes! Let’s say you also have people who are wired with a high degree of certainty. By their nature, they need to understand the “why.” If a policy, procedure, or process needs to be changed, it’s important to address why it needs to be changed. If you don’t fill in the blanks, they will ask many questions so they understand how they will approach the change.

Masterful leaders engage others in the process by understanding what each person innately needs so that the message can be delivered in the way others innately receive their information. Human wiring is simply at the heart of your communication and a solution to being a highly-effective leader.

To become masterful in leadership and communication, join us for Wired to Win Master Class on August 19-20, 2021. Visit https://www.excellerateassociates.com/wired-to-win/ to register, for class information, and to maximize your own human wiring and leadership.

_________
Lisa Mininni is the best selling author of Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change and President, Excellerate Associates, a business mentoring, and leadership/organizational development company. She is also the Founder of the Business Innovation Lab, an 8100 square foot coworking and conference center located in Livonia, Michigan.

For upcoming events on human wiring and other business-building events, please visit https://www.excellerateassociates.com/events

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