The importance of soft skills in building a viable and sustainable business in the new normal
Article by Mr Ikechukwu Kalu- Lead Consultant at Customer passion point limited, Nigeria.
Creating and delivering value for business success as an owner or professional that provides solutions is extremely important in today’s business realities. You will need more than just the necessary technical skills to succeed.
Beyond technical skills, there is the need for your staff to see themselves as an integral part of the value-creating process of the organization and learn to engage appropriately with all internal and external stakeholders — productively and profitably. This requires constant learning and honing the new, relevant soft skills.
According to Wikipedia “Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character/personality traits, attitudes, mindsets, career attributes, social intelligence and emotional intelligence” the list is endless if you ask me. They include all you need to do to be personally effective at work and in life.
Businesses that want to accelerate growth, pay very dear attention to the development of the soft skills of their teams. In my more than five years of relating with business owners and their core staff, I see a strong need for staff to learn and hone soft skills to enable them to appreciate and deliver value consistently. It is no longer enough to be technically sound. To excel in both work and life you have to be personally effective, collaborative, know how to communicate effecti.ly, and be customer-focused.
There is a need to equip staff and management with skills to ensure they can function efficiently and manage the business profitably. Soft skills are powerful and can truly make a difference in the way one business is run compared to others in the same industry or otherwise.
Soft skills training is gradually becoming an integrated part of our customized training programs at CPPL Training Programs. All the businesses we have proposed and trained their staff on soft skills have come back to us with astounding testimonies from the team, sharing how the program enable them with skills that now make them carry out their duties more effectively, work more collaboratively and ensure that their projects are properly planned and executed to scope, time and within budget while appreciating the associated risk, quality and resources requirement.
We designed the program to help reinforce the skills employees need to be effective, collaborative, relevant, entrepreneurial and value-creating in their jobs. This will affect their career positively and ultimately the overall business performance. The goals include to:
- Enable the team to align with the culture of your business, adhere to ethics and values as well as work collaboratively
- Raise their morale and increase their moral stake in the business.
- Help them develop skills and competencies to increase productivity and efficiency by applying a project management mindset and being personally effective.
- Help them understand the communication circle and relate well with key stakeholders – internal and external. The place of effective communication cannot be overemphasized.
Your most technically competent and passionate staff, will under-deliver unless they are personally effective, collaborative, communicate effectively and are customer-focused. This requires calls for the individual development of business soft skills. You need to equip your staff and management team with the required soft skills to ensure they can function efficiently and manage your business profitably.
Soft skills are the new superpowers, responsible for all of the extraordinary results and the rapid productivity, growth, and profitability; in the fastest-growing startups and corporations, around the world, in the new normal.
Soft skills are very powerful and truly makes a very profitable difference in the way your business is run, with a design for productivity and profitability compared to your competitor’s inferior strategies, in your favour.
If you want your business to transcend into sustainable profits, and you want your company to be the leading company with the upper hand competitive advantage, in your industry, your team will need to be equipped with the required soft skills that can make your business aspirations a reality.
This is where Customer Passion Point Limited (CPPL) comes in. We are a firm of Value Creation Consultants with over 45 years combined experience in the relevant marketplace; across the most relevant and remarkable organizations in Africa and around the world.
We have a very intense, rich mix of competencies and diverse experiences across functions, cultures and industries – Manufacturing (Beverages), Telecommunications and Banking, in West and East African markets. We are popularly known as a strong advocate of cultural diversity and inclusion in work environments, across the world.
We have seen firsthand, how soft skills fosters rapid growth, productivity and the profitability of both small, medium and large businesses. Our team teach soft skills at Customer Passion Point Limited, Nigeria from both learning and development as well as business consulting perspectives.
CPPL Soft Skills Training Program consist of:
- Culture – ethics, values and collaborative working.
- Personal Effectiveness for Higher Performance
- Developing a project management mindset
- Effective Communication Skills – internal and external stakeholders
- Leadership skills.
The lead facilitator Ikechukwu Kalu has a rich mix of experiences across levels and industries. He is A-level value creation and business development professional, a public speaker, mentor, leadership, change management and organizational behaviour consultant. A faculty member at the School of Media & Communication, Pan-Atlantic University (Postgraduate), Lagos and a Resource Person at Lagos Business School. His style of facilitation is infectious.
Call or WhatsApp on +234 803 200 2458 and we will tell you all about CPPL Soft Skills Training Program or our website — (insert a link to a customized training page), to learn more and get immediate support from our fantastic and customer-focused team.
Investing in your team, particularly by equipping them with soft skills, is a highly profitable investment, with massive and exciting returns, for your business growth and profitability.
