Take A Hard Look at Soft Skills - Wonderlic · a ton of responsibilities. When you were in his office, he always had one eye on his computer screen, he would interrupt the conversation

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Take A Hard Look at Soft Skills

2017 Monthly Webinar SeriesThird Thursday of Every Month | 12pm CT

Webinar #3 | March 16th 2017

Presentation © Wonderlic, Inc. 2017

Housekeeping

• “Grab tab” is on the right of your screen

• Orange arrow expands the menu• You can:

Change audio settings Ask questions Questions are not seen by the

audience• Type any questions in the chat bar• The slides and a recording will be

provided to all registrants in a follow-up email.

Welcome to the webinar

Amanda Opperman, PhDDirector of Competency-Based Solutions, [email protected]

Dr. Amanda Opperman directs a team in the Research & Development department at Wonderlic that designs and delivers competency-based educational programs to help organizations improve learning outcomes.

Dr. Opperman served as Assistant Dean at the California University of Management and Sciences. Prior to that, she was Vice Chancellor at Southern States University. She completed her PhD in Education in the joint doctoral program from Claremont Graduate University and San Diego State University.

Dr. Opperman knows that when it comes to nonverbal and listening skills in the workplace, you can never listen too much…but you can definitely talk too much!

mailto:[email protected]

Purpose of this webinar series

The Take A Hard Look at Soft Skills 2017 webinar series will cover topics such as:

Which soft skills are teachable?Which soft skills have the greatest impact

on getting hired?Which soft skills are related to customer

satisfaction?How can organizations use soft skills

measurement to develop talent?How are employees best motivated to

acquire soft skills?

“There is a need for soft skills training among our workforce

that has not been met…yet.”

Today’s agenda

• Audience poll• Introduction to the topic• What are nonverbal and listening

skills and why are they important?• Review survey results• How can you facilitate effective

nonverbal and listening skills?• Wrap-Up and Q&A

Audience Poll

What choice best represents the sector that your organization is part of?

1) Community College2) Career College3) Business4) Adult Ed, Workforce Dev, or CBO5) Other

Introduction to the topic

Is this scenario familiar to you?

http://elearning.easygenerator.com/3b5b80fd-c499-4653-8d60-43c86771ec7e/#login

What are nonverbal & listening skills?

(2016) Wonderlic, National Employer Survey, April

https://www.competencymatters.org/soft-skills-research-reports

Why are nonverbal & listening skills important?

Review survey results

n = 134

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Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

I feel that my employees/students havedifficulty listening and following directions


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I check for understanding after I give myemployees/students directions


n = 134

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My employees/students listen to eachother


n = 134

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My employees/students copy my listening style


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My employees/students think I am a good listener


n = 134

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I multitask while speaking toemployees/students


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When I speak with employees/students, Irepeat things to make sure I understand

their meaning


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I feel that people in my organization arereluctant to speak up about problems


n = 134

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I know what the MUM Effect is and howit affects organizations


n = 134

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In the last year, I have implementedemployee/student suggestions for change

or improvement


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I know what Pseudo Listening meansat the organizational level and how it

affects employees/students

How to facilitate effective nonverbal & listening skills

• Avoid Pseudo-Listening

Pseudo-Listening: An Illustration

A young man with a ton of energy and enthusiasm started work at her company about the same time she did. For the first couple of months they worked on a team together and she was impressed with his ability to follow discussions, ask pertinent questions and build on the ideas of others even though meeting were via conference call.

She also knew his manager, and had met with him several times. He had a ton of responsibilities. When you were in his office, he always had one eye on his computer screen, he would interrupt the conversation if the phone rang, and ask you to wait a minute if he remembered some message he had to quickly send out. In other words, you always had the feeling he was only “pseudo” listening because he somehow felt you were benefitting from his attention.

Her first committee with this colleague lasted two months, and then they didn’t spend much time together. This month they began work on a new team. They met twice, and each time she heard him typing in the background. When he was questioned he had to scramble for answers and often had to be reminded of the subject. She said at the second meeting she realized that he was just emulating his mentor – his boss!


Reduce the MUM Effect

The “mum” effect occurs when employees believe that reporting negative information produces one of the following events:

1) It could damage their career.2) It could damage relationships with

superiors.3) It could bring on ridicule (because they

have witnessed such behavior).4) It will be ignored – no action will be taken

anyway.

Pitfalls of the MUM Effect

“10 People Whose Warnings Went Unheeded” serves as a reminder ofwhy organizations need to listen to their employees:

http://listverse.com/2012/02/09/10-people-whose-warnings-went-unheeded/

If BP had listened to a warning on the morning of the disaster from rigoperator Jimmy Harrel, the Deep Water Horizon Platform might nothave exploded.

If Alan Greenspan had listened to the new Head of the Commodities andFutures Exchange Commission, Brooksley Born, warned him from 1996-1999 that derivatives needed regulation, we might not have had theinternational market collapse in 2008.

If NASA and its subcontractor Thiokol had listened to their engineerRoger Boisjoly, who warned them for a year, and on the morning of thelaunch itself, the space shuttle “Challenger” and its crew of 7 people,might not have been lost.

http://listverse.com/2012/02/09/10-people-whose-warnings-went-unheeded/


• Be on the look out for teachable moments• If you can’t find any, CREATE some!


Creating teachable moments:

Wrap-Up and Q&A

Type “Tell me how” in the chat box to learn how your organization can have 30 days of unlimited access to our Nonverbal & Listening training module for just $148!

Documents

Take A Hard Look at Soft Skills - Wonderlic · a ton of responsibilities. When you were in his office, he always had one eye on his computer screen, he would interrupt the conversation