Keep The Pace

Technological advancements require leaders to develop new softskills in negotiating teams and hone existing ones.

- Stephen Kozicki

Every fight ends with a negotiation. Why don’t we start with the negotiation? -Jawaharlal NehruGlobal business in every market is changing and changing fast. Leaders require a different approach to deal with new opportunities and problems arising from this constant change in technology and automation.

Why do we need soft skills?

Some people believe that soft skills aren’t that important. However, almost every employer I’ve talked to about this disagrees. In a world where job roles are changing rapidly, soft skills will be one of the few constants.- Chris Jones

Machines will, in the future, replace a proportion of most people’s working tasks, replacing repeatably, ordered tasks. But machines are weak at understanding people’s mood, sensing how a situation is developing and building trusting relationships. Humans excel where machines fail, with soft skills that include empathy, creative thinking, collaboration, persuasion, and negotiation. Becoming skilled in these soft skills is hard.

Most education and job roles include sitting alone for hours at a time, minimising risks, and following rules. Additionally, increased use of technology prevents forming deep relationships as face-to-face contact is limited.

In this new, fast-changing world, transformation and the pursuit of opportunities are not solo efforts; they require teams full of experts in soft skills. Leaders need to focus on continually developing their teams to higher performance in persuasion, innovation, and negotiation while improving skills faster than their best-in-class competitors. How do you know which skills to use in each situation?

When to negotiate and when to persuade?