Patrick Adams  00:00

Welcome to the Lean solutions podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders by helping you improve performance using process improvement solutions with bottom line results. My name is Patrick Adams, and this season, I’ll be joined by three other amazing hosts, including Catherine O’Donnell from Ireland, Andy Ulrich from Australia and Shane got involved from the United States. Join us as we bring you guests and experiences of Lean practitioners from all over the world. Hello and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. My name is Patrick Adams, and today I’m going to be talking to you about soft skills, the importance of developing your own personal soft skills, and the importance of helping leaders that are working for you develop their soft skills. So I want to begin by thinking about the best leader that you’ve ever worked with. Think about that person. Try to get a picture of them in your mind right now. Maybe it’s someone that you worked for earlier in your career. Maybe it’s someone you’re someone you’re working for right now, but think about that particular leader. Get a picture of them in your mind. Think about their characteristics, how they approach business, how they approach conversations with you, with others, their peers. What are the behaviors, what are the habits, the actions of that leader? Right? Think through that a little bit. Okay, now, was it their technical expertise that made them great, or was it their ability to connect, to inspire, to bring people together? Right? Chances are that it’s actually their soft skills that made the lasting impression. Soft skills are often seen as like this, nice to have, right? For many organizations, it’s not something that’s listed on job descriptions or job postings or anything like that. It’s like we need the technical skills and then, oh, well, if they happen to be a good communicator, if they happen to, you know, have some of those good emotional and interpersonal skills, then that’ll be good. That’s nice to have, right? But in reality, soft skills are essential to effective leadership. These are the skills that really help us to communicate. They help us to build trust and to really foster a sense of belonging within our teams, without good soft skills, even the best strategies are going to fall flat on their face. So today, I want to explore why soft skills are so important, important for leaders. I want to talk about, you know, some of the most critical soft skills that I believe are necessary, especially in a learning culture, especially in a culture of continuous improvement. I also want to talk about how we can develop these skills to create a more positive impact within your team, within your organization. And then later on, we’re going to be joined by Andy Ulrich from Australia, and he’ll review the same presentation or the same same conversation that we’re having right now. We’ll kind of review that, and then him and I will have a deeper conversation. We’ll go into, kind of unpack some of the things that I’m talking about right now and and go in maybe some more specific details from his experiences or some of the leaders that he’s worked with or is currently working with. So let’s dive in here. So Soft skills are those interpersonal or emotional skills that really help us to connect with others, our peers, those that are working for us, even those that we’re working for. So they include things like communication, empathy, adaptability and our emotional intelligence. And unlike most technical skills, soft skills aren’t about what you know. They’re really about how you apply that knowledge in the relationships that you have. So if we look at research, research shows that leaders with strong emotional intelligence can actually boost performance by up to 20% right? And those are real numbers based on real statistics. So just think about that. Just by improving how you interact with your team, you can unlock their full potential. Soft skills will create alignment. They’re going to create trust, they’re going to create collaboration. All of these ingredients that are really going to help you to be successful in the work that you’re doing. I think about a leader that I once worked with, who had, you know, all the technical expertise you could imagine, but they struggled with empathy. Their team felt unheard, undervalued, and as a result, morale and productivity plummeted when that leader started practicing at. Active listening and showing genuine appreciation, the team completely turned around. And that’s the power of soft skills. So when we think about different types of soft skills, there are lots of lots of soft skills that are out there, but I want to hit on just a couple of those that I that I think are most important. And I want to start with empathy. Empathy is about understanding and sharing the feelings of others. It’s It’s basically like putting yourself in the shoes of someone that’s working for you, or a peer, whoever it may be, put yourself in their shoes, walk in their shoes for a day, and really get a good feeling and understanding for what they’re experiencing. It’s really the foundation of connection. I remember working with a team through a tough restructuring, and one leader stood out because they took the time to actually sit down and have conversations with each team member, this particular leader, listened to their concerns, and they validated each of their team members feelings. They didn’t have all the answers. Right? As leaders, we don’t have to have all the answers, but sometimes just showing the empathy, just being present, genuinely listening that is what’s necessary in order to make our team members feel supported and valued. So how do we apply empathy in the work that we do? My recommendation would be to start by practicing active listening. When someone shares something, resist the urge to interrupt or offer solutions right? Put your phone away. It’s not enough to just lay it on the table or turn it over. Actually put it in your pocket. Genuinely pay attention. Genuinely listen. Have some some visual cues of shaking your head, of of agreeing or or even asking questions. Ask questions like, can you tell me more? Or how can I best support you? Or what can I help you with, right? Or even, what do you think we should do here, you know, empowering them to, you know, to to come up with solutions. So that’s, that’s another great way. So this, so that’s empathy. The next one I think is really key, is communication. So good communication isn’t just what you say. It’s about you saying it and then how well you actually listen. I once worked on a project where the leader set very clear expectations at the start, had regular check ins and made sure that everyone knew how their work contributed to the bigger picture, that clarity kept everyone aligned and motivated. So how do we get really, really good at communication, right? Well, we need to focus on clarity and consistency, very clear expectations laid out up front, but also clarity around those expectations. What does that mean to the people that are doing the work or ensuring that there’s consistency in how you’re communicating your message, use simple language, repeat key points. Always invite questions to ensure understanding, right? I love to just ask people to repeat, you know, what we discussed, or I’ll repeat what we discussed and then follow up with an email. Bullet points, you know, just very good clarity around what’s being expected or what was communicated. All right, another soft skill that I want to talk about is adaptability. Change is constant, and great leaders will embrace change with flexibility and resilience. So let me just give you a quick example. If we go back to COVID during the pandemic, one company that I worked with had to pivot their entire business model right their leader kept the team motivated the entire time by, you know, really just being open to new ideas, staying calm under pressure, and involving everyone in the decision making process that adaptability helped them not just survive but thrive, right? Not just survive, but thrive. If you think about that, how many leaders in organizations actually didn’t pivot during COVID I have to imagine that if they didn’t, maybe the companies are not still in business, because, you know, a lot of things changed, right? I mean, I go back to to thinking about blockbuster, Blockbuster Video, for all those of you that know that that used to be a company where you would go in and you would find DVDs on the shelf, and you would rent the DVDs, and. And then bring them back after a day or two, are they still in business? No. Why? They weren’t willing to pivot. They weren’t willing to adapt to the changes that were happening around them, right? So, obviously, most people went online and started watching movies, you know, via the Internet and other apps and and different services. Well, Blockbuster didn’t make the adjustment, and now they’re out of business. Leadership is the same way as leaders. We have to be willing to be flexible when things happen that are out of our control. We have to be willing to adapt and be flexible with where we go with that, right? You have to model a growth mindset when challenges arise. Instead of saying, this won’t work, right? Try something different. Try to say, You know what? What could we learn from this? And let’s move forward on a path that’s going to keep us on in this going in the same direction as our long term goals, but maybe we have to traverse a little bit and make some adjustments to the way that we’re doing business. Okay? The last one of the these soft skills that I want to talk about is emotional intelligence, or EQ, right? Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. I once saw a leader diffuse a heated meeting simply by acknowledging the tension and calmly redirecting that particular conversation. Right? They didn’t let their emotions take over, and they set the tone for the entire room in a way that you can apply this to you, to your own personal development practice self awareness by pausing before you react. Right? This is one that I have to work on, too, in my in my marriage, a lot of times we get into heated arguments and things, hopefully not the only one, but we get into these heated arguments, and then I have a tendency sometimes to respond without, you know, thinking through and really listening and understanding what my wife is struggling with. The same thing in the workplace, right? It’s important that we genuinely Listen, take in to consideration what that person is telling us. Take a minute to pause, think through and then, and then, react right? You can ask yourself, sometimes you can ask yourself, What am I feeling right now? Am I feeling anxious? Am I feeling angry? Am I feeling confused? If those are things that are happening, then don’t respond, right? You have to respond constructively. So wait, sometimes you have to take a pause and say, Hey, listen, let’s pause. Let’s come back in 60 minutes and restart this conversation. So don’t be afraid to do that as well. Alright, some practical steps that you can take to develop your skills when it comes to to those soft skills that we talked about, number one is self reflection. Start by reflecting on your interactions. Right? Are there moments where you could have listened more or responded with greater empathy? Ask yourself that number two, active practice. Join a workshop, take on a mentorship role, or practice role playing scenarios to improve your communication and conflict resolution skills, it has to be intentional. Build it into your leader. Standard Work. Find a mentor that can can oversee your conversations with someone and give you some feedback. This moves into the third step is seeking feedback, right? Ask your team for feedback. Ask a mentor, a coach, to help support you. Ask your team. How can I better support you? Are there things that I can do differently and be open to what their response is? Right? If you’re going to ask you, need to be open to how they might respond as well. So that would be number three, and then number four is lead by example. Show your team what good soft skills look like. You have to lead by example. Consistency is key. If you want a collaborative team, you need a model. You need to model collaboration. All right, just just a little recap before we bring Andy into the conversation. We’ve talked about what skill, what soft skills are, why they’re essential for leaders and how to develop them. Skills like empathy, communication, adaptability and emotional intelligence are the true drivers of connection and trust within your team. My challenge to you is this, choose one soft skill that you want to improve this week. Maybe it’s listening. Maybe it’s being more adaptable in difficult situations. Whatever it is, focus on that one skill and apply it intentionally every single day. At the end of the day, reflect, how’d you do you. What can you do differently tomorrow? Right? All right. Leadership. It’s not about having all the right answers. It’s about bringing out the best in others. By sharpening your soft skills, you can inspire your team to achieve incredible things. Remember people, follow people, not titles. Let’s check in with Andy. All right. Well, Andy, welcome back to the show. It’s great to see you again, and I’m excited to dive into this topic with your help kind of unpack some of these concepts and things that I think are super relevant and important for many of our listeners. But before we get into that. How are things down under?

Andy Olrich  15:43

Things are good mate, yeah, great to be back on again. Certainly, this topic, definitely, as you mentioned, really important. It’s hot down here. At the moment. We’ve had three or four days where it’s, you know, what would be over 100 in the States, or about 40 degrees Celsius. So, yeah, but we’re getting in, leading into that Christmas break, a lot of activity, a lot of things getting wrapped up for the year. But yeah, really excited for the year ahead, though. So good to be with you again. Mate, nice.

Patrick Adams  16:09

Well, yeah, completely opposite here we’re we’re here in Michigan. We’re getting hit pretty hard with snow right now. So we got, got a big snow front coming in, and woke up this morning with a good, good amount of white stuff on the ground. So quite a bit different you get. We gotta get you up here in the winter sometime, man, there’s, there’s lots of good things to do. I

Andy Olrich  16:30

would love to, yeah, I’m a big fan, believe it or not, it does snow in Australia, but, yeah, it’s a little bit of a drive away from where I am. So I’d, I’d welcome that opportunity, mate, anytime.

Patrick Adams  16:42

Well, Andy, we the topic for today is all around soft skills, and importance of soft skills in our personal lives and also in developing a true continuous improvement culture. And so, you know, I’m looking forward to kind of unpacking this, but, you know, I threw out a couple different, you know, soft skills that I think are very important. I’m sure maybe you have some of your own. But I’d love to just talk through, you know, even, maybe even some, some of those practical steps that we can take as leaders to continue to develop our own soft skills. And you know, some of your experience from from that perspective as well. So I shared a couple couple stories that that I’ve experienced, where I’ve experienced the power of good soft skills. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on a few of those you know, maybe around either, you know, communication or empathy, you know, emotional intelligence, whatever it may be, what are your initial thoughts after listening to the presentation, the recording today,

Andy Olrich  17:52

definitely the one that I connect with that I’ve, I guess, enjoyed working with leaders in this space the most was empathy. I find that that really is a powerful way that leaders, and I try to myself, is really have that, as you said, walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, put yourself in their place, and see it from their perspective. I think that really helps both sides and allow them to do the same with yours where appropriate, it’s yeah, really, to have that day in the life, in what they’re experiencing again, where go to gamba is so important, you know, you’re out there, you’re interacting, I think, until you actually walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, in whatever part of life or work, you just don’t, for me, I just don’t really Feel what they’re feeling. So I’ve had some great experiences where, for example, in the workplace, where, when I was working in the underground mining industry, the new mining engineers, they would normally come from university, in whatever persuasion, but they would actually spend six months down working at the coalface, as they say. So they’re down in the in the production teams actually doing that, you know, really hard, physical work to give them that deep understanding of what really goes on down there. And it was, it was amazing. You would have someone, after six to eight months, completely foreign from that industry, would have not only that deep understanding in the people side of things, but also the technical aspects of what really goes on down there, and when they would come back, as we’d say, when they’d come back down the pit after going back up and doing the engineering work on the surface most of the time, just the connection with the teams things that they were potentially asking them to explore or do or change. It was a lot a lot a lot easier to from that, to get that happening from that perspective, because they knew that, you know, that that person actually knows what they’re going through. So that’s, that’s a great example. Or they put people to work on the front, on the production line, or, you know, just that whole thing around. Well, have you done what I do? So how can you ask me or connect with what what you really. Asking me to do so that one, yeah, when you were saying that, that really jumps out for me. I think, I think, and that’s why I go to gamba and those sorts of things. I really love that piece of Lean where it’s well, TPS, it’s really about, how would you know otherwise, like you’ve got the data and the facts. But unless you’re out there and you and you having it, having a look from their side of things, it’s tough. So number one for me, mate, that one that jumped out, definitely. So yeah,

Patrick Adams  20:30

and I seem to remember that you spent some time down there too, right? And initially, when, when you were there, and that was very intentional for those exact reasons, right?

Andy Olrich  20:41

Yeah. So they actually that I worked as an electrician in an underground coal mine for a bit over three years. So, but the first very, very early, was they would put you straight into the into the production team and with with supervision, of course, but wasn’t a whole lot of electrical work. It was really about all the other bits, and bits and bits and pieces, the interconnection of the other activities that were going on to really give you that awareness of this. There’s a lot more going on than what you’re down there to do, and how critical it is that people connect. Well, especially from a safety perspective, you’ve got to know who’s who’s who and and I found it really powerful. It gave and some people got that early exposure, and they didn’t come back down. So it was a really good level or two, and in any kind of workplace, I think to get them now, this is really what happens in the space, and is that for you or not? So again, it was a good little filter, but yeah, definitely, I really enjoyed that time down there, but the Teamwork was certainly powerful for a lot of those reasons, right, right? And

Patrick Adams  21:41

I think about the you said, there’s a lot more going on, you know, than what you think, I think that it’s also important when it comes to empathy. You know, sometimes we we try to separate work from our personal lives, but in reality, everyone brings baggage with them to work. You know, the things that are happening at home, they spill over into their work and for everyone, for all of us. And I think another big piece of this is really, you said, teamwork and getting to know the team. And I think there’s some value also in getting to know people on a more personal level, and understanding some of the challenges that they have, you know, in in their family, with their kids, whatever it might be, and that, just again, it helps strengthen your own leadership skills when you go to work with somebody. And you know that, you know it’s a they’re a single, a single parent that’s, you know, trying to make ends meet, and they’re working all the overtime that they can get. And you know, now I’m out there trying to figure out how to get rid of their overtime. You know that that’s something that I should probably know before I just go out there and say, let’s cut all the overtime, right? Putting myself in their shoes, understanding the struggles and challenges, not just in the work environment, but also in their personal lives, you know. And that’s going to help me when it comes to change management, when it comes to leading, you know, people that have other challenges or struggles that I might not have, or maybe I do have some similar struggles, and then again, that creates a connection as well. Yeah,

Andy Olrich  23:12

absolutely. And you know, there’s obviously lines where you, you know, you don’t, you can’t get too involved, but just to have that awareness or know how to ask the right questions to help you connect with where they’re coming from, but also, as I said, feed it back the other way. So I used to enjoy bringing people into the some of the meetings that I would need to attend as an ops leader or a maintenance leader to see what we actually spoke about in there. And we actually had a really good system where for our tier two meeting, and in our daily meetings, we would bring an operator off the floor to be in there, not not only just to see what we talk about, but if there was any How you going out there now, how you really going the graphs say this. It was a game changer for them. Actually going, Wow, Andy, they you guys get into it a bit in there, and it’s like, well, that’s right, we don’t just come out here and say these things, right? Like there is, there is reasons why I have to do my job too, and then I need you to see it from my side as well. And so, yeah, the best leaders I’ve worked with, they were hard, but fair. And, you know, we all had a job to do, but they would at some moment go, Is this okay? Or, you know, what sort of day you’re having, because we need to talk about something that sort of lead you into it and say, Okay, we need to talk about something that I don’t know. How this is going to land with you, instead of, right everyone, you know, state of the nation, this is it, and make it happen. Or, you know, maybe this is in the right place for you. It doesn’t, doesn’t reflect a lot of good follow on behind these or performance, right, right?

Patrick Adams  24:44

Yeah, I remember specifically working on some Kaizen activities around a it was an assembly press, a large assembly press, and we were trying to get all of the components as close to. The point of use as possible, and we created, like a makeshift, temporary kind of tray in front of the operator that we put all the components on and had everything being delivered right to the press so they didn’t have to go anywhere. And I remember the operator, I think it was maybe a third shift operator, somebody that said, you know, I can’t, it’s too tight. Like, my arms are cramping up, you know, it’s, it’s, and I’m thinking to myself, like, how can it be too tight? Like, the least amount of, you know, motion possible is the best. Like, I kept saying that, you know, and he’s, like, he challenged me. He said, Why don’t you come out here and instead of, like, running it for two minutes, like, why don’t you run it for a full shift and or longer, run it for a couple days, and then you tell me what you think. And so I accepted that challenge, and I remember going out there, and you know, at the beginning I was like, Oh, this is great. Like, I’m flying. And then after a while, like, I started to, like, in similar fashion to him, like I started to kind of cramp up, because I wasn’t, you know, extending my arms enough, or stretching, you know. And I remember, after a few hours, I started feeling exactly what that operator was feeling. And I felt to myself, obviously, I had to go back and apologize. Like you were completely right. We need to figure we need to do something a little bit different so that you have the ability to actually, you know, move your arms a little bit more. And again, it was just an example of putting, putting ourselves in the shoes of those people that are doing the work and really understanding everything and anything that’s going on and making sure that we’re we’re not just making decisions for the bottom line. We’re not just making decisions because we want to improve a metric, but we’re really taking into consideration the feelings, the experiences and just the challenges that, you know, the people have that are working within that particular area. Yeah,

26:58

so important. And as I said, there is a line there where everyone’s got to do their job. But most people I’ve had that experience with, they’re pretty fair. If you if you spend, like you said, sometimes a few days, or, you know, four hours a week or something like that, that’s enough for them. They’re like, Well, yeah, they’re actually, yeah, more than, more than two minutes splash, and then they’re out again, and they know everything about it. So I and there’s that risk too, like, if you’ve done their job before, or you’ve you know, you’ve moved up through the ranks, and now you’re in a leadership position. Sometimes that can be more challenging, because you may have done it a certain way when you were down there. Now you’ve moved into the leadership role. You might be asking them to do it a different way. And sometimes you have to remove yourself a little bit from how closely knitted you were to the team. So again, I think that trying to bring them on the journey and say, I know that we’re all part of the same team, and we all used to do the same stuff, but now I’m actually up here, and I need you to appreciate some things are different now I’m in a different role, and I can’t be down here doing it with you all the time. So it’s too, I too. It’s a definitely two way straight for me, it

Patrick Adams  28:03

is well and that, that kind of brings us over to the the other point that I talked about around adaptability, and, you know, I call it flexibility of mind, or just as leaders, being willing to adapt, or being willing to be flexible with things based on what you know and hear, you know. And I talk about a story in my book, a military story about a general that had all of the thought he had all of the information that he needed in order to make the best battle plan possible. But as soon as they got boots on the ground, you know, everything went out the window, and he had to pivot and make adjustments to his plan based on what happened. We’ve talked about this before. I mean, think about the Tyson fight, right? And Tyson’s famous quote about, you know, everybody’s got a good plan until they get punched. And, you know, like, it’s true, you know. And as leaders, we can’t just go, well, that’s, you know, I said we were going to do it this way, and we’re gonna do it that way. You know, no, sometimes there are things that happen that are outside of our control or that we learn along the way. And as leaders, we have to be willing to make adjustments, to pivot in order to meet, you know, our team members where they are, and obviously keeping the customer in mind and making sure that we’re maximizing the value for the end customer. But I think there’s a lot of leaders out there that kind of get stuck in, like, well, we set a goal, and no matter what happens, we’re going to keep pushing forward on this objective or this goal. You know, even though it’s not really relevant anymore. I don’t know if you have any experience with that or not. Yeah,

Andy Olrich  29:41

definitely like being, not only hard on the what so the goal or the the outcome that we desire, but some, yeah, just being so rigid in the how and just having, okay, well, we said that the plan says we’re going to do it like this, and that is it, even if we if we have to stop and do it 10 times over. We’re going to do it exactly this way. The skill with the adaptability piece is okay, well, this is the plan. Do we want to have a moment to talk about? If that’s not going well, what are we going to do? What’s our contingency? Do we have a backup? Or if you’ve had that great connection with your workers, is that level of trust that you talked about in your present earlier? Part is okay. Well, I’ve got enough people in the team here. If certain things don’t go well, then I might just have to take their word for it. Or we’ll, we’ll have enough support in place that we can try something to get us back on track. Or, yeah, that goal is just, we’ve, we got a bit excited there, and that’s our customer doesn’t actually want it, and it’s, it’s too far of a stretch, so let’s just dial that back. So, yeah, they’ve got to be open to it. And you know, I do find it, personally is a challenge. Sometimes when I’m going in to run a problem solving workshop or what we call a Kaizen event, I kind of go in and I’ve got rock we’re going to we’re going from this step to this step to this step to this step, and we’re going to use these tools in this way, you’ve got to have a few things in your back pocket, because if the if the room changes, or there’s a certain comment made, and it could be something that wow, would bring the other 50% on board, you’ve got to be able to change in the moment and have that adaptability, like you said. So I think whether we’re leaders of teams, but also, if we’re leading people through exercises or through something completely new, we can’t just have a cookie cutter approach and we’ve just that’s, that’s, again, is where the team is so important, we’re there to lead. My mother, she has a lot of great sayings, but one she says to me is, I can be led, but I won’t be pushed. And she’s really great at she’s got a bit of an idea of what needs to happen, but very good at questions and the right sort of questions at the right times to go. Okay, well, I can see we’re kind of going this way, because, yeah, and I’m the same, I’d say, like, I love to feel like I’m having some sort of say what’s going on so without but also trusting the leaders that, well, they’re in that role for a reason and the plan, you know, we should try and stick to the plan. So, yeah,

Patrick Adams  32:09

for for anyone that knows, Craig tedro, you know, he talks a lot when he tells his story of being introduced to lean when he was at a large furniture company. He says he makes, he makes the the comment that lean was done to me versus done with me, right? So think about that. I mean, as leaders, if you were to take an assessment of how you’re deploying continuous improvement into your organization, do the people in your organization feel like it’s being done to them, or are you coming alongside them? And is it something that’s being done with them? Because soft skills are are essential in ensuring that your team is is together with you on this journey, if you go out there and you’re just telling and directing and making decisions that you know, again, may affect people’s personal lives or whatever it is, but not taking into consideration you know what that may do, and having those open discussions with your team, you could lose them very quickly, and they’re not going to be on board with You, and it’s going to be an uphill battle versus listening understanding. You know, I talked about some of those skills in communication, of active listening and genuinely being interested in making sure that you bring your team members along, listening to their challenges and responding to those appropriately. I mean, all of those things are so important when we when we are on our Lean journey. And I think it’s, it’s, it’s so important,

Andy Olrich  33:45

yeah, that that there’s a thing that stands out for me is that first bite with the eye, or so whenever I’m introduced to a new colleague or a leader, or they, or I’m coming to them for the first time, I know the eyes are on them. And it’s really important how you conduct yourself in that first exchange, or, you know, soon after, for people are really keen to try and find out who you are. And a lot of times, they’re trying to find the faults or the little dents in you where they they may not be happy that you’re even there or and a way in, if you know what I mean. So I think that we had a, I’ll use different names, okay? So we had a leader. We’ll call him Kell from hell. And he was someone that, from day one, you’d hear, you’d hear this guy coming, right? It would come in, it just be a wall of sound. And this is, we’ve been told this, it’s got to happen. Don’t have me come back in here again, and it was like straight away, you people would sort of nod and go, Yep, no worries. But as soon as he left that they might get the bare minimum done, but all they used to get up to some mischief and deliberately leave some other things out, or really try and undermine this guy to to get back at him, because I just did not approach. Appreciate the way that this person was talking to them, or the the other analogy is like the leader, who is the pigeon. And that analogy is around, they fly in there, crap, all over, everything, and then they fly away again. And the team is just kind of like what, you know, what I don’t feel like putting in any more than I need to for this person. So again, I just think that first impressions matter, and how how we are and look, some people are just naturally geared that way and and maybe get put in positions to just do that, but that’s certainly not a place that a lot of people want to work for for very long, or follow someone in that space.

Patrick Adams  35:40

Thank you. Well, okay, let’s just imagine that I’m a listener and I just happen to fall into that bucket of hell from hell, or maybe I’m kind of assessing myself here and going, Man, I really need to improve some of my Soft Skills. One of the things that I talked about in the initial recording or presentation were a couple practical steps that we can take as leaders to develop those, those soft skills. And I would definitely say, you know, take inventory yourself, like Be honest with yourself first of all, and ask yourself how you’re doing. You know, when it comes to communication, you’re chatting with the people on your team. Are you finding yourself picking your phone up, and, you know, sitting on your phone, checking your messages while you’re talking to them? Are you in a conference room, meeting, and your phone’s on the desk and it keeps buzzing, and you keep looking over and, you know, making notes or whatever on your phone, that’s probably something you want to work on, right? So take assessment, be, be real about those, those soft skills I talked about, self reflection and, you know, just reflecting on your own interactions, right? So that falls into that bucket. Another one I said, is active practice. So intentional active practice, you can you can join a mentorship group. You can find a coach, a one on one coach in your organization, or a third party coach that can help you with that. But you can also do active practice, go out to the gemba, like you said, Andy, and actually practice some of these skills. You know, ask people about their personal lives, genuinely listen and leave your phone in your office. Seek feedback. So ask the team how you’re doing with when it comes to your soft skills, ask your peers, solicit feedback from your your your supervisor or your manager, and then the last one was leading by example, and that consistency is key. This shouldn’t be something that your it shouldn’t be a flavor of the month thing, right? It should be like, this is something that I’m committing to long term. I’m going to develop the behaviors and the habits that I currently don’t have. But at the end of all of this, I want to have I want these to become habits in how I approach the work that I do on a day to day basis. So given those four kind of practical steps. Andy, would you do you have anything to add to that? Do you have any other ideas about how you know people that are listening in can can start to develop some of those, those soft skills. I just

Andy Olrich  38:27

think, like you said, that that type of assessment where, where are you now? I find it helpful to do things like 360 reviews from peers and your leaders. I find that getting some training on emotional intelligence has been very helpful for me so and there’s a lot of I guess there’s psychological type profiling, things you can do, like disc profiling, Hogan’s assessments, those, sorry if that’s calling brands of whatever, but it’s just some that I’ve been through in the past that really helps connect with the people side of not only yourself, but the Team. If you’ve got an idea that, and it really helps, just make clear that we don’t all think the same and and for me, you know, six months ago, my team gave me feedback that across, let’s just say, if we took all those soft skills as as areas of assessment, goes really well in communication and empathy, but pretty bad with problem solving and time management or things like that, because you don’t know what you don’t know. So I really find that that that’s like anything in what I see is great continuous improvement is where are we now? What’s the current situation? And then me as a leader or someone, when I think about that, that leader that I would follow, as I say, into the gates of hell, what did they model in behaviors? And how can I somehow get a measurement as to where I am compared to that? And then, what are the steps? What’s my next target condition? Work towards that? And I yeah, get to know more about yourself, but again, getting to know your teams. And I love to try and. Put it some sort of tangible measure on it. There’s, I don’t know whether it fits in here, but it’s definitely something I love to call out. When it comes to when we talk about soft skills or hard skills. It’s a real shame sometimes, and it’s, I might do it too. I guess I’d love your feedback, listeners, if I’m doing it right now, is you have somebody, they’re just so skilled and talented in a technical space, or they’ve got rich experience, and, you know, they’re just such a great technical resource, but they’re just hopeless with people. Or they just throw something out there, and the message is, it wouldn’t matter what they’re selling. No one’s going to buy it, because you’re just kind of poking people in the eye and then saying, Oh, hey, would you come along and maybe try this? It’s like most people like, No way, because it’s not the, what is it? It’s not what you do, it’s who you are that I think most people gravitate towards. So, yeah, that’s the that’s definitely something. If you’re feeling like that’s you, or you connect with the leader who’s like that again, that hang on. Where are you now? Respectfully getting that eyes on your book smart, but it’s kind of keep you locked in the back room, because you’re just terrible with people, and they just don’t want to, don’t want to engage at that level to really help them give you what they’ve got to offer. So whether that’s a rant or whatever, I just dropped that in there because I think that’s so important with leaders that, yeah, have that skill, but they just that that soft side really needs a lot of work. Yep, I

Patrick Adams  41:30

agree 100% and I think that that’s a great way for us to kind of wrap up today. Is, is, you know, with leaving you with kind of that, that call to action from Andy, take assessment, create a plan, maybe even incorporate a look at it into it, establish yourself a long term goal and what’s your next target condition, and just start intentionally working towards that. Find someone that can hold you accountable and work on those behaviors and those habits and really start to transform the way that you approach the people that are on your team, your peers, and even you know, those that are above you in your organization that you report to. So I think that’s a great way to close Andy, any any last, any last comments for everyone around the topic for today, as we close out,

Andy Olrich  42:21

I’ll never forget the day I first heard this saying, but it was something around people will forget what you say or do, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. And I think that really ties into, for me, what I connect with with soft skills. So that’s so that’s so critical, and people will follow you if you can get this, get this right. So Thanks, mate. Great topic, and look forward to catching up with you next time. All

Patrick Adams  42:47

right, take care. Andy. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe this way. You’ll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please give us a review. Thank you so much.