#77

Welcome to Weekly Whisper #77.

Are your skills durable or perishable?

As someone who has built a living on developing ‘soft’ skills – for myself and others – it continues to irk a little when the intonation within ‘soft’ is dismissive and at worst irrelevant.

As our workplaces and practices evolve the ‘softer’ skills of communication, empathy, and collaborative problem-solving become ever more critical.

The tone of communication can affect the share price; the empathy at the core of human-centered design; the intellectual humility surfaced in allowing others to contribute to the progress of some of our most challenging problems.

I like the idea that building strength and mastery in skills that will endure is a worthwhile investment.

What are you doing to lean in to the hard task of developing soft skills?

Supporting Articles:

Chief Learning Officer

BBC Worklife

 
The things that make me different are the things that make me - A.A. Milne

For many years as we grow we’re encouraged to fit in, to get along, to not rock the boat, and to conform to certain socialised behaviours. All good suggestions as we learn to work alongside others.

I wonder sometimes whether that inadvertently leads to me losing the definitive essence of me?

I’ve become me in a completely unique way. No one has interpreted the experiences I’ve had, like me. No one has had the turn of events in the order they have happened to me, like me. No one has had the exact same twists and turns as me. No one has had life-shaping events at the same time as me. Therefore, by definition, we are – every single one of us – completely unique.

I wonder sometimes in an effort to remain social and part of something I’ve forgotten what makes me unique. Maybe it’s time to dust off the things that make me different and give them a voice now and again.

What makes you different? What makes you, you?

 
Question of the week:
How do others feel about themselves when they're with you?

I came across this question recently from a buddy during an overseas trip. The context was for leaders and their direct reports, but I think you can extrapolate it into any relationship.

When you pause and consider the impact you might be having on others do you leave them cold, warm, or neutral? Is their confidence diluted, strengthened or does it remain the same? Is their willingness to share what’s really going on for them encouraged, discouraged, or neither?

Whatever the feeling is – positive, negative, or neutral – I wonder how others feel as a consequence of connection with me?

How about you? Do you wonder?

Quote of the week:
Perfection is attained not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Whilst I’m not a believer in perfection, I am a believer in stripping things back to their most basic and raw.

Who would you be if you were stripped back to your most fundamental self?

Did you miss last week's Freedom Fridays Podcast Episode #61 with Melissa Marsden?

Catch up before next week's new release.

In episode #61 Pete chats with Melissa Marsden a working mumpreneur recently back at work after a 3rd child. Melissa’s specialty is workplace design, which is ultimately about life and success design as much as anything else.

The conversation starts with freedom as a value and moves through your unique definition of success and ends up making the distinction between “I have to" and “I get to”. Melissa shares some tips on making life choices and some of the trade-offs required to live a life by design, especially in how to retain the right and identity to say no.

          

           

 

That's all for this week. I hope you enjoyed Weekly Whisper #77.

Feedback is my fuel so if you have any comments please send me an email at [email protected] and let me know your thoughts.

Cheers

Pete