Soft Skills Workshop

Become a better communicator to advance in your career

This one-day workshop will help you gain a better understanding of key soft skills and how they can complement and leverage your existing skill set. Soft skills are multifaceted and can include interpersonal skills, social skills, communication skills, attitudes, and teamwork and leadership abilities. Typically, soft skills are more difficult to measure, but they are immensely valuable, especially as your career progresses.

Benefits of Attending

Soft skills and your career

In recent years as the tech boom continues to explode, Seattle is attracting more and more job seekers with strong foundations in computer science, engineering, IT, data analytics, and other technology related hard skills. These skills can get you in the door, but in order to continue to advance in your career, it is important to develop your soft skills as well. According to a CareerBuilder survey, an overwhelming majority of companies say soft skills are just as important as hard skills.

During this workshop, we will focus on helping you:

• Gain a better understanding of your own communication style and the styles of others.
• Understand the nuances of cultural differences as they relate to team work, negotiation, and leadership.
• Improve your presentation skills.
• Develop your executive presence.
• Learn to foster collaboration of teamwork through a dynamic team exercise.

Content Overview

Communication Signals and Styles

Poor or miscommunication in a workplace can often lead to frustration and a loss of productivity. In order to be a better communicator, it is important to first understand your own style and know what your tendencies might be. During this session, you will become more aware of your communication style and also learn some techniques to identify the styles of others. With this understanding, you will be able to craft and adjust your style to communicate more effectively.

Difficult Conversations

Taking what you learned about communications styles, this section will explore further different ways to approach difficult conversations. We will take a closer look at some scenarios and practice with exercises.

Presentation Skills

According to Forbes, it takes just seven seconds to make a first impression. If you are trying to give a persuasive presentation to a group of key decision-makers or influencers, that does not give you much time. So what can you do to gain positive feedback in a limited amount of time? During this session, you will learn how to leverage your verbal/body language as well as utilize simple techniques to raise your persuasive positioning.

Team Exercise: Bringing It All Together

This team exercise will incorporate what you learned throughout the day. You will utilize your creativity, communications, and teamwork skills while engaging in a competitive environment. Through this experience, you will be able to gain some insights into your strengths and weaknesses, especially in interacting and collaborating with others under pressure.

On-Going Development

As you continue your professional journey, what areas do you need to grow? Studies show that executive presence could account for over 25% of your ability to get promoted, but what does that mean for you?

PRACTICAL INFO FOR IN-PERSON SEMINAR

Program fee includes parking, lunches, and learning materials. 

Location

Bank of America Executive Center (BAEC) University of Washington Main Campus 4275 NE Stevens Way Seattle, WA 98195

Parking

Parking for our classes is offered in the Central Plaza Garage at 15th Ave NE and NE 41st Street. You will receive a parking code from the program manager via email prior to the start of the class.

Directions for accessing the Central Plaza Garage and the BAEC building.

Commuter info

Please see these resources for information about commuting by bike, bus, or train:

• Biking to campus
• Transportation Services info on bus and train commuting

Disability accommodation

The University is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education, and employment for individuals with disabilities. Please see this reference about submitting accommodation requests.

Continuing Education Credits

Participants are eligible to receive 0.63 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for this seminar. You must request tracking of your CEU credits when you register. More information about CEUs.

PRACTICAL INFO FOR LIVE ONLINE SEMINAR

Like our in-person courses, online courses from Executive Education are designed and led by Foster School instructors and taught using the same evidence-based research and application. Students will participate in discussions, breakout sessions, and direct interactions with our instructors. Courses are conducted via Zoom, which facilitates participation via webcam and text-based chat.

In addition to the instructor, your program manager will provide guidance throughout the course. You will be contacted by the program manager via email and provided with course logistics.

Continuing Education Credits

Participants are eligible to receive 0.45 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for this seminar. You must request tracking of your CEU credits when you register. More information about CEUs.