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One of our clients, a member of our master group, asked me about the best practices for tracking (quantifying and measuring) soft skills like leadership. The first obvious answer that I had in my mind was: "Use 360 degree feedback, compare before and after results and this will help to get an idea about one's leadership skills." I was not really happy with my own answer. It seemed to be a very formal approach for getting a single "skill index" that works great for corporate reports, but doesn't really have any practical application. As a result, I suggested to link soft skills to tangible business objectives. A client objected that he is reading a book on leadership now that can be hardly linked to any tangible objective... This conversation helped me to answer some contradictory questions about tracking soft skill, I've sorted out my thoughts in a new article and this presentation: http://www.bscdesigner.com/how-to-track-soft-skills-like-leadership.htm What do you think: is tracking soft skills applied to specific objective is better than a simple tracking of soft skills (using something like 360 degree feedback)?
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HOW TO TRACK SOFT SKILLS LIKE LEADERSHIPBased onhttp://www.bscdesigner.com/how-to-track-soft-skills-like-leadership.htmBy Aleksey Savkin
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HOW TO TRACK SOFT SKILLS LIKE LEADERSHIP
• Here are some thoughts about how to track improvement of soft skills like leadership.
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Tracking soft skills helps to calculate ROI
Using feedback from the
stakeholders
A classical approach
One of the most well-known business frameworks to do this type of the research is a 360 degree feedback.
“How to track soft skills like leadership”
Source: www.bscdesigner.com
BSC DESIGNER
Focus efforts onto the final resultsTracking soft skills helps to calculate ROI
Link soft skills to business objectives
Convert a soft skill into a hard skill; convert a vague goal into a specific objective.
Tangible business objectives
Tracking Soft Skills
Using feedback from the
stakeholders
A classical approach
One of the most well-known business frameworks to do this type of the research is a 360 degree feedback.
“How to track soft skills like leadership”
Source: www.bscdesigner.com
BSC DESIGNER
Focus efforts onto the final resultsTracking soft skills helps to calculate ROI
Link soft skills to business objectives
Convert a soft skill into a hard skill; convert a vague goal into a specific objective.
Determine areas for further improvement.Prepare a skill development plan.
Tangible business objectives
Tracking Soft Skills
Using feedback from the
stakeholders
A classical approach
One of the most well-known business frameworks to do this type of the research is a 360 degree feedback.
“How to track soft skills like leadership”
Source: www.bscdesigner.com
BSC DESIGNER
WHY SHOULD I TRACK SOFT SKILLS?
• Tracking soft skills helps to calculate ROI
BSC DESIGNER
WHY SHOULD I TRACK SOFT SKILLS?
• Tracking soft skills helps to calculate ROI• The measurement of soft-skills helps to focus
efforts onto the final results.
A CLASSICAL APPROACH – USING FEEDBACK FROM THE STAKECHHOLDERS
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A CLASSICAL APPROACH SUGGESTION
• Specifying key competencies that need to be evaluated;
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A CLASSICAL APPROACH SUGGESTION
• Specifying key competencies that need to be evaluated;
• Obtaining feedback from other stakeholders;
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A CLASSICAL APPROACH SUGGESTION
• Specifying key competencies that need to be evaluated;
• Obtaining feedback from other stakeholders;• Using this feedback to estimate the change of
a skills level.
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SOLUTIONS OF SOME MENTIONED ISSUES
• The survey may be done anonymously or by a 3-rd party company; in this way employees will be more comfortable answering questions;
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SOLUTIONS OF SOME MENTIONED ISSUES
• It is better to do a survey before and after a certain event (leadership training for example), the difference between two estimations will be more representative;
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SOLUTIONS OF SOME MENTIONED ISSUES
• It is better to do a survey before and after a certain event (leadership training for example), the difference between two estimations will be more representative;
• It’s better to focus on key components of the skill
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USING FEEDBACK FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS
• One of the most well-known business frameworks to do this type of the research is a 360 degree feedback.
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USING FEEDBACK FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS
• One of the most well-known business frameworks to do this type of the research is a 360 degree feedback.
• The idea of the method is to evaluate different skills while taking into account the points of view of clients, colleagues, and supervisor.
LINK SOFT SKILL TO SPECIFIC BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
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TANGIBLE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• New leadership skills can result into lowering retention rate
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TANGIBLE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• New leadership skills can result into lowering retention rate
• New leadership skills can result into improving employee engagement
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TANGIBLE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• New leadership skills can result into lowering retention rate
• New leadership skills can result into improving employee engagement
• New leadership skills can result into an improvement of some specific results measured with KPIs
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TANGIBLE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• In some sense this approach converts a soft skill into a hard skill.
BSC DESIGNER
TANGIBLE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• In some sense this approach converts a soft skill into a hard skill.
• This approach converts a vague goal into a specific objective.
AN EXAMPLE USING FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEAKING SKILLS
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A CLASSICAL SCHEME OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FAILS
• A lack of time, resources, or methodology.
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A CLASSICAL SCHEME OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FAILS
• A lack of time, resources, or methodology.• They were trained, they passed tests, but tests
had little to do with practical communication skills.
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A CLASSICAL SCHEME OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FAILS
• A lack of time, resources, or methodology.• They were trained, they passed tests, but tests
had little to do with practical communication skills.
• It is not linked to any important challenge
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A BETTER APPROACH FOCUS ON KEY PROBLEMS LINK THEM OBJECTIVES
• An objective formulated as “Learn Spanish language to be able to move to Spain in 1 year.”
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A BETTER APPROACH FOCUS ON KEY PROBLEMS LINK THEM OBJECTIVES
• An objective formulated as “Learn Spanish language to be able to move to Spain in 1 year.”
• A sub-objective might be learning vocabulary necessary for specific situations.
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A BETTER APPROACH FOCUS ON KEY PROBLEMS LINK THEM OBJECTIVES
• An objective formulated as “Learn Spanish language to be able to move to Spain in 1 year.”
• A sub-objective might be learning vocabulary necessary for specific situations.
• Grammar and other important stuff comes as a supportive objectives.
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IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO LINK SOFT SKILLS TO TANGIBLE OBJECTIVES.
• In an example with foreign languages one needs to research possible situations that might be challenging.
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IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO LINK SOFT SKILLS TO TANGIBLE OBJECTIVES.
• In an example with foreign languages one needs to research possible situations that might be challenging.
• In an example with leadership one needs to research specific points of application of new leadership skills.
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IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO LINK SOFT SKILLS TO TANGIBLE OBJECTIVES.
• This approach will be paid back as it will be easier to track the progress
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IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO LINK SOFT SKILLS TO TANGIBLE OBJECTIVES.
• This approach will be paid back as it will be easier to track the progress
• This approach will lead to a huge motivation for learning and applying something new in your life.
WILL THIS APPROACH WORK IN 100% OF THE CASES?
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WILL THIS APPROACH WORK IN 100% OF THE CASES?
• It looks like the approach described above won’t work in 100% of the cases.
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WILL THIS APPROACH WORK IN 100% OF THE CASES?
• For the first look it seems like it is not possible to link these leadership skills to any tangible objective.
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WILL THIS APPROACH WORK IN 100% OF THE CASES?
• For the first look it seems like it is not possible to link these leadership skills to any tangible objective.
• But this is actually not a problem of tracking soft skills, but a problem of book reading, training, or education that are pointless (soft skill was not linked to tangible objective).
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A GENERAL RECOMMENDATION
• If you invest your time in improving some soft skill, make sure you link it to some challenge you have and try it immediately (at least on some small scale model).
WHAT’S NEXT? SKILL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
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DETERMINE AREAS FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENT
• Skill level analysis will give you details about areas of strength and areas for further improvement.
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DETERMINE AREAS FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENT
• Skill level analysis will give you details about areas of strength and areas for further improvement.
• Once these areas are identified one can invest more in learning new skills to achieve improvement or outsource weak parts of the skills “portfolio” to colleague or third party.
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PREPARE A SKILL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
• An example with foreign languages: one could find out that he doesn’t really have a big enough vocabulary to talk with a manager in a bank.
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PREPARE A SKILL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
• The information will help to build a tangible learning plan for this person.
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PREPARE A SKILL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
• The information will help to build a tangible learning plan for this person.
• The result is that specified objectives will be achieved faster, and with less effort.
KEY TAKE-AWAYS
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KEY IDEAS THAT WILL HELP WITH ESTIMATING SOFT-SKILLS
• Understand the importance of tracking soft skills.
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KEY IDEAS THAT WILL HELP WITH ESTIMATING SOFT-SKILLS
• Understand the importance of tracking soft skills.
• The most simple way to estimate soft skills is to ask stakeholders; use 360 degree feedback for this purpose;
BSC DESIGNER
KEY IDEAS THAT WILL HELP WITH ESTIMATING SOFT-SKILLS
• Understand the importance of tracking soft skills.
• The most simple way to estimate soft skills is to ask stakeholders; use 360 degree feedback for this purpose;
• Ask stakeholders anonymously; compare before/after evaluations, rather than a single measurement result
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KEY IDEAS THAT WILL HELP WITH ESTIMATING SOFT-SKILLS
• Link soft skills to some tangible objectives; this will focus your efforts and ensure better results.
BSC DESIGNER
KEY IDEAS THAT WILL HELP WITH ESTIMATING SOFT-SKILLS
• Link soft skills to some tangible objectives; this will focus your efforts and ensure better results.
• Determine areas for further improvement, prepare a skill development plan.
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MORE ABOUT THE BALANCED SCORECARD
Find more insightful articles about the Balanced Scorecard in ”Articles” section at www.bscdesigner.com
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THANK YOU!
Feel free to send us your questions using the contact form at www.bscdesigner.com
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