In many companies today, all over the world, you still hear the term ‘soft skills’ referred to by leaders, managers and HR professionals. It’s a myth that just won’t die. Actually, there is NO such thing as soft skills. The so-called soft skills people refer to such as the ability to communicate effectively , develop alliances, enroll others into a vision, navigate uncertainty with ease, coach team members, build trust …Read More
Words and Worlds
By Bob Dunham Is your world full of possibilities? Or do you find you mostly see limits to your possibilities? For example, what do you think of the word “organizations” or the word “corporate”? I find leaders and coaches have an emotional reaction to such words and, in fact, often have a whole story of limits that they provoke. The common sense of our culture is that words have meanings, …Read More
Learning with Heart
What is it to learn? When we lead, innovate, or propose new behaviors and actions with others we are on the path of learning. The automatic response from people in our culture to new action is to take on “doing,” doing what they already know. We live with the common approach that we get a theory or concept, and then we “apply” it. And actions of this type imply that …Read More
Where Are You?
It’s funny how we can be next to someone, but not be with them. It makes me sad to see couples in restaurants sharing a meal, but in silence, not even sharing eye contact. And we have all had the experience of having our attention wander when we’re interacting with someone else, or trying to focus on something. We suddenly realize we aren’t focused on what we had intended, and …Read More