Internal Vacancy: A Champion for Critical Thinking (CT)
4Dear Executive, What’s your view about Critical Thinking? Would it be correct to say that internal criticism of your company would only be acceptable if it were initiated by management? It’s difficult to imagine a situation where an employee would proactively aim a...
STORYTELLING WITH THE 5C’S
Explaining a complex process or illustrating an abstract idea is easier when we take a picture of it. I expect the first travellers to the Egyptian Pyramids were met by itinerant sales people waiving paintings of the desert spectacle because they knew that...
Soft Skills -Tough Times / MENTORING
Here’s a soft skill that makes challenge us. While other soft skills are for own benefit, Mentoring offers us an opportunity to benefit someone else and by doing so, demonstrate our leadership in action. In the office or on the Zoom screen, what do you see? A group of...
Soft Skill 15 : Brainstorming
As the name implies, people can get very animated when it comes to Brainstorming. I was in a training course once and a member of our group got so carried away by the rush of ideas he was experiencing that he rose up, rushed towards the leader, lifted the marker pen...
Soft Skills for Tough Times No.18 : Responding to Pressure
I expect it’s different now but the idea of a teacher at the school I went to, pausing mid-lesson, sitting down (they always stood) and saying… ’…Boys (we were all boys) as you go along life’s winding path, you will encounter difficulties and life altering setbacks....
Soft Skills in Hard Times No. 23 : Resolution & Commitment
As soon as I had typed those two words on the page I got a rush of enthusiasm followed by a slow sinking feeling. You can’t argue with the concept and it does inspire me but I find the action implied by the Commitment part more challenging. I cant imagine too many...
Soft Skills in Tough Times Article 30 : INTERVIEW SKILLS
I’m approaching this Soft Skill from the Interviewee’s perspective because I think that will also be of some value to Interviewer’s. The traditional picture of Working Life… starting at the bottom of a ladder and climbing progressively upward… seems...
Soft Skills in Tough Times Article 31 : Non Verbal Communication (NVC)
What’s your interpretation when you quote a price to a client and they raise both eyebrows… 1. I pitched it too low? 2. I pitched it too high? Well, the only way you are going to be sure is to wait until...
SOFT SKILLS IN TOUGH TIMES 35 : MINDFULNESS 2
When I posted my first Soft Skills article on Mindfulness back in September, I said that I hadn’t seen it on any list of Soft Skills and so I felt that including it in this series could possibly be considered as a a step too far beyond the boundaries of the...
About Malcolm Andrews
After working in sales and then purchasing roles for almost 18 years with companies in the UK, Japan, Korea and then here in Hong Kong, I became involved in the field of business skills development. 20 years later, my special interests in this area are individual management style building, interpersonal communication and influencing strategies.
