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Whether you are an employee, independent consultant, or entrepreneur, technical competencies are necessary, but not sufficient, for personal success and fulfillment. This observation applies whether you are in the private, public, academic, or volunteer sectors. Non-technical or “soft side” competencies enable you to work more effectively with supervisors, supervisees, colleagues, clients, customers, students, the public, other stakeholders, and members of your community, neighborhood, and family. Augmenting technical competencies with “soft-side” knowledge, skills, and attitudes is the key to earning career security which is a much more viable life strategy than chasing job security.
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When your work speaks for itself,
don't interrupt.
-Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist |
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HOW CAN YOU SHOW THE POTENTIAL CLIENT
THAT YOU CARE? - I Don't Care How Much You Know Until I Know How Much You Care
REVIEW OF ENGINEERING YOUR FUTURE -- THIRD EDITION - Click here for a review by Civil Engineering magazine of Stu Walesh's most recent book. Engineering Your Future: The Professional Practice of Engineering - Third Edition is, according to the review, "an essential guide for students and young practitioners on the nontechnical aspects that can advance or derail an engineering career".
BENEFITS OF DEVELOPING A CREATIVITY-INNOVATION CULTURE - I presented this topic during a plenary session at the Spring 2012 Meeting of ASFE: The Geoprofessional Business Association in Orlando, FL. Attendees received practical advice, enhanced with a breakout session, on how to take a more creative-innovative approach to addressing issues, solving problems, and pursuing opportunities. The 90-minute session included a 20 minute break out during which small groups of participants applied, in a preliminary fashion, some of the creativity-innovation tools that I described. Breakout results were very encouraging, in that many and varied imaginative solutions were suggested to hypothetical engineering and marketing problems. Given that these results were obtained during brief introductory experiences by applying creativity-innovation fundamentals and tools to hypothetical situations, I can only begin to imagine what could be accomplished with in-depth applications of those methods to your issues, problems, and opportunities. Click here if you are interested in learning more about an intensive, in-house version of this presentation.
DO YOU MAKE MISTAKES? GREAT - Not taking risks in many facets of our lives, and thus avoiding mistakes, is comforting. However, that mode of living may gradually close many doors, deny us career security, and prevent us from realizing our potential. In other words, living our lives with the highest priority being not to make mistakes seems like a mistake, a big mistake. Click here for addtional discussion.
ENGINEERING YOUR FUTURE PUBLISHED: Engineering Your Future: The Professional Practice of Engineering -Third Edition, has been published by Wiley and ASCE Press. The book may interest you because it provides professional practice (non-technical or "soft-side") guidance to students in all engineering disciplines and offers guidance to young practitioners in all engineering disciplines. It will also be useful to mid-career engineers who are taking a fresh look at their situations.
Click here for a description of the book; its table of contents; and ordering as a soft cover, an e-Book, or one or more chapters. ASCE members: Click here to purchase Engineering Your Future.
ARCHIVED WEBINARS: The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) archives management and leadership webinars which I originally presented live to many sites. One or more of these 60 or 90 minute webinars may be purchased by using your ASCE email and password. By taking and passing a post-test, users receive CEUs based on the course length. For more information, click here.
CULTIVATE CREATIVITY: Encourage -- don't intentionally or unintentionally discourage -- creativity in your business or government unit. Then get out of the way! Great things will happen, first to your personnel; then to your clients, customers, and stakeholders; and finally to your organization. Click here for the complimentary article "Creativity: Killing or Cultivating?"
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So called nontechnical, “soft side” competencies are often devalued or diminished. They are said to be of little importance or easy. “Soft side” competencies are neither.
Too many professionals fail to advance in their careers – to acquire career security – because they lack “soft side” knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Sometimes they do not realize their liability. We need to know something is “broken” if we are to “fix” it. In other cases, individuals know they have “soft side” deficiencies but fail to see the value in taking corrective action. Either way, the result is the same – failure to realize individual potential, to find and release the leader within.
If you recognize the value of “soft side” competencies you also know that they are not necessarily easy to acquire. Mastering nontechnical competencies requires knowledge of best practices and then thoughtful application of them. This website provides resources to help you practice improved stewardship with your gifts and your personality profile and make better use of who you are and what and who you know.
You are responsible for the development of supervisees and others. You are also busy. Please consider two suggestions.
- If study of specific nontechnical or “soft-side” topics is likely to be of value to certain supervisees and others, refer them to this website or specific portions of it, such as the Managing and Leading Books.
- Some “soft side” needs or deficiencies may go beyond individuals, that is, many individuals at one or more locations need help. For example, individuals may be working extra hard but not achieving as much as you and they would like. In this case, perhaps an on-site, face-to-face seminar or workshop about time management, effectiveness and efficiency, goal setting, and/or team essentials would be appropriate. Another option, and often a very cost-effective approach for simultaneous delivery to two or more locations, is a webinar, that is, use of the internet and a telephone conference call for which no one needs to travel anywhere. If the group mode of education and training interests you, for examples, please refer to the web page Tailored Education and Training. If you would like to discuss the feasibility of tailoring a seminar, webinar, or workshop to your organization’s needs, please call me at 219-242-1704 or contact me at stuwalesh@comcast.net.
We seem to be under ever-increasing pressure to increase productivity, to accomplish more with what we have and, sometimes, to do more with less. At a deeper level, many of us aspire to be even better stewards of our time and talents. At the very deepest level, we yearn for more than personal success; we seek significance in what we do. We want to get beyond ourselves, positively affect others, and make a difference. This requires managing and leading ability.
You can improve your managing and leading knowledge, skills, and attitudes – your “soft side” competencies—so that you can remain employable, earn career security, and enjoy success and significance.
Stuart G. Walesh
Learn More About Stu Walesh | Clients Served | Testimonials & Reviews
Managing and Leading Books | Tailored Education & Training
News & Events | Online Feedback | Online Resources
Innovation Workshop | Communication: Writing and Speaking to Make Things Happen
Book Review: The Power of Place
Comparison Of The Essentials Of Strategic Planning And Basic Operations
Book Review: The Dumbest Generation | Thoughts for the Recent, Unemployed Graduate
Prop Up Your Presentations
7 Steps to Getting a Solid ROI from Your Internal Education and Training Events
The Leader Within You: Let It Come Out! | Boats Offer Lessons For Us and Our Organizations
Art for Engineers:Encouraging More Right Mode Thinking | Is Your Organization Healthy?
Thoughts for the Not Yet Employed or the Recently Unemployed Engineer
Price Based Selection: Three Costs to the Consultant
Five Suggestions for Engineering Students and Young Practitioners
Avoiding But-Phobia: Get in on the Other Side of But
Creativity: Killing Or Cultivating | The Language of Marketing: A Glossary | Archived Webinars
Do You Make Mistakes? Great! | I Don't Care How Much You Know Until I Know How Much You Care
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