By Piper C. Reason

September 25, 2006

Introduction To Job Survival

In 1990, The Secretary of Labor appointed a commission, now known as SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) to determine the skills our young people need to succeed in the world of work. They learned that more than half of the nation's young people were leaving school without the knowledge needed to find and hold a job. Many knew little about basic workplace demands – like showing up on time or calling in when sick. Yikes!

Not that it's necessarily the responsibility of our schools to teach children how to succeed in the workplace. Lots of people grow up without role models to teach them how to behave at work. So they find themselves leaving – voluntarily or otherwise – job after job. Sometimes within a matter of days!

Because of the importance of these issues, many studies have been done to clarify what an employer's expectations are. Some workers are surprised to learn that employers are more concerned about basic transferable skills or soft skills than about the more specialized job skills.

Over the next few months I will be talking about many of these "soft skills." Your awareness of their importance and being able to demonstrate them may help you get a job. Having them will help you keep a job.

COMMUNICATION

The expression and interpretation of knowledge and ideas.
I'm starting with communication because, in my humble opinion, it is the most under-rated of the soft skills. Could you succeed at any of the following if you did not first have strong communication skills?:

• present a proposal
• offer your opinion
• share your enthusiasm
• persuade a customer
• interpret a complicated report
• negotiate for a pay raise
• describe why you are the best person for the job

Most of us assume we communicate quite well, especially when we're talking with someone face to face. Hey, "you speak – I hear" and then vice versa. Right? But poor communication skills – which can result in mistakes, conflicts, even job loss – is a problem facing both employers and employees.

There are a number of reasons why communication is such a difficult skill to master:

• lack of focus or interest in the conversation (for both a speaker and a listener)
• thinking ahead to how you will respond rather than listening to what is being said
• failing to consider or not understanding the coding and filters that are being used

Coding and filters affect how we interpret the words we hear (or read). For example, when I used to ask my daughter to do the dishes after supper, I meant right after supper. But to her it meant sometime between calling her friends and going to bed. So even though she said "yes," I would get angry when I heard her on the phone and the dirty dishes were still sitting in the sink. However – since we've gone through the scenario so often – she has learned to employ the feedback loop and asks, "Can I call my friend first, or do I have to do them right away?" No more problems (at least about when the dishes need to be done).

One other thing about the feedback loop: sometimes you need more than one loop. When the message is complex, the listener isn't paying attention, or there are lots of filters at work, you may have to work harder to transmit the message accurately. Imagine trying to explain to a very young child how to brush his teeth. The words won't really make a lot of sense to him (because he has a young child's limited vocabulary), he has nothing in his experience to relate to this kind of activity (his filters will actually act more like walls), and he's thinking more about the story you're going to read to him in a few minutes than to your instructions. You would have to explain the process to him several times. His feedback to you? Watch how he tries to brush his teeth and see whether or not he is doing it properly.

This kind of situation can apply to us at work, too. When a computer tech starts explaining why something isn't working, it usually doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't know the vocabulary (to me, RAM is a big sheep), I don't have experience or the training foundation, and since I really don't care how computers work … I'm sorry, did you say something?

The keys to making the feedback loop work include:

• restating the message in your own words
• keeping an open mind
• asking questions for clarification
• actively listening

There are tons of resources available if you need to build your communication skills. If you're not sure whether your skills are good enough, check out the resources listed below. Or just ask the people with whom you spend a lot of time. Just make sure they know you want an honest answer.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Focus on Soft Skills: A Leadership Wake—Up Call, Carole Nicolaides
Women in Career and Life Transitions, Sandy Anderson, Jist Works, ©1999
Transferable Skills Survey, University of Minnisota
Measure Your Soft Skills, Monster.com
Learn how your personality affects your communication style, Meryl Runion