Soft Skills Make a Difference.

• Author: Aldisert, Lisa
• Position: Employee training - Brief Article

One way that high performing banks distinguish themselves from those that just amble along is how they embrace training. Successful banks see it as a top priority. They view lifelong learning as an investment in their people, not a cost to their profit center. They know that effective training can enhance productivity and results.

People traditionally view training as skills or education based. Programs provide specific instruction to develop proficiency in particular competencies. A workshop for teaching bank marketers how to use a type of presentation software is an example of skills-based training. A seminar to become more expert in understanding and marketing the bank's products and services may be education-based,

Soft skills training

An area of increasing importance, however, is training and development in soft skills. When you focus on the soft skills that are important for success in a particular job, you can demonstrate exceptional performance improvement, Regardless of your seniority as a bank marketer, there is a group of soft skills that predicts successful performance. I have selected five of these to illustrate this point. These may nor be the exact top-ranked soft skills for your position.

Flexibility. Do you demonstrate agility in adapting to change? Or do you sit around and whine about the uncertainty of the future? When you demonstrate flexibility, you embrace new ideas. You become a good multitasker. You shift your priorities without complaining. You are a champion of change.

Creativity/innovation. Do you come up with new ideas and variations on old themes? Can you adapt new concepts to old products and services? This competency demonstrates a strong ability to see things differently. You are able to see the patterns in processes or systems and adapt these to new methods. You are able to modify the old and transform it into the new.

Persuasion. Can you convince others to adopt your point of view? Do you easily assess a situation and promote the...