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Soft Skills Solid Profit It doesn't take an enlightened executive to know that soft skills make money, just a smart one. Implementing a successful soft skills strategy is not rocket science, just good common (rare) sense. In these days of bottom-line focus, even the Chief Executive Officer has to justify the money he spends. So, its hard for senior executives to prove the value of cultural reform. It becomes a soft option but the results of letting its importance fade can be hard hitting. The fact is, you can't buy loyalty. Money only gets "so much" commitment and fear about job security soon wears a thin and looses its impact. If you rely on money and fear to drive performance, you will soon pay the high price of staff who are driven by extrinsic rewards. If they are, business class travel, having the latest PC and biscuits in the lunchroom become the big issues that generate the most friction and take up the most "emotional time" (ET). Organisations with extrinsically driven staff also incur the greatest real costs in turnover and performance. The smart money is on the CEO who knows how much the bottom-line improves with staff who are 5% more loyal, 5% more committed, 5% happier, 5% more dedicated, 5% less stressed and 5% more motivated. The improvement is neither logarithmic nor geometric but it can certainly go beyond the 5%. The time savings on dealing with problems alone can mean real money with the extra freedom that can be achieved. This means you can utilise your resources better, quicker and more profitably. The added benefit is that your staff become your best salespeople with attitudes, styles and approaches that can automatically win more business or achieve better results. In these days of "word of mouth marketing" the words mouthed by your staff can be mightier than the mouth of your advertising campaign director. Changing to an intrinsically driven culture is not an overnight phenomenon. Senior managers might fear change claiming they already know this "touchy feelly" stuff. Staff may also fear the change if past experience has shown that the old hands don't walk the talk. A clear strategy is needed for implementing change. It must have a linking philosophy that is easily understood and can be converted into planning, action and performance appraisal. It must also be bottom up, top down, lateral and a random spread. But, must of all, it must have the support of the CEO. Everyone down will mirror the CEO's actions and expostulations. IS : TO is one overall program you can use. It utilises Alignment Plus (A+) methods for enlisting commitment rather than demanding support and can be built into the following steps:
If you take these steps, ET goes home and people get on with the job feeling fulfilled and rewarded by a sense of well-being as well as the pay packet. ©1997 Leigh Kibby |
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