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Unpopular opinion: Those "soft skills" workshops are actually a waste of time
I sat through a 2 hour session last week on "active listening" at my office in Chicago. Felt like pure corporate fluff. But then I tried one trick during a meeting with my project manager and it actually stopped a huge misunderstanding about deadlines. I still think most of that stuff is useless though. Has anyone found a single soft skills tip that actually helped them at work?
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brianm661d ago
Did you ever catch yourself using one of those tips when you least expect it, though? I remember coming out of a "conflict resolution" workshop in Des Moines thinking, "Great, another hour I'm never getting back." Then last month, I accidentally used their dumb "name the emotion" technique (you know, "it sounds like you're frustrated because...") on my brother during a stupid argument about who left the garage open, and he actually calmed down. I felt like a total fraud doing it, but it worked, which somehow made me more annoyed at myself (and the workshop).
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claire8721d ago
That naming the emotion trick is the one that got me too, years after a workshop I'd written off as a waste of a Tuesday evening. It feels silly in the moment but there's something about acknowledging the other person's feeling that just takes the wind out of a fight.
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I used to ROLL my eyes at soft skills stuff until I started working at a call center in Phoenix about 3 years ago. I thought active listening was just nodding your head and saying "uh huh" until the other person stops talking. Then my supervisor showed me this one trick where you repeat back the main point in your own words before moving on. It sounds SO dumb but it saved me from losing a huge account when the client kept saying they wanted "faster shipping" but really meant they needed tracking numbers to go out same day. That single thing cut down my angry customer calls by like 40% within a month. So yeah I get why people hate the workshops but there's usually 1 or 2 little nuggets in there that actually work if you give them a real chance.
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