The document discusses essential personal skills for professional success, including negotiation strategies, team roles, coaching skills, and effective communication techniques. It emphasizes the importance of balancing different perspectives and avoiding common coaching pitfalls. The content draws on various frameworks and cultural dimensions to improve workplace interactions and leadership capabilities.

1. Personal skills for
Professional success
The Human Touch

2. Countdown to success
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You Others

3. TEN - idea generation techniques
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Use a framework for
thinking to give sufficient
structure to enable
creativity without
engendering panic and
‘freezing up’.
‘Think outside the box’
‘Supply an alternate box’

4. NINE – steps and strategies
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4. Close
3. Conduct
2. Prepare
1. Identify
Negotiation process Conflict management strategies
Competing Collaborating
Compromising Avoiding
Accommodating

5. EIGHT - team roles
Experiments by Dr Meredith Belbin concluded that the
most effective teams had a balanced combination of
these eight team roles:
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Team
worker
Good listener,
diplomat, team
focussed
Monitor-
Evaluator
Highly
analytical,
non-emotional
Resource
investigator
Make contacts,
find resources
Completer-
Finisher
Great attention
to detail, often
pedantic
Implementer
Turns ideas
into practical
solutions
Coordinator
Chairman,
provides
consensual
leadership
Shaper
Proactive
leaders, thrive
on pressure
Plant
Creative input,
‘innovators’

6. SEVEN - coaching skills
To be an effective coach, you need these critical skills:
1. Listen actively
2. Suspend judgment
3. Give and receive feedback
4. Recognise feelings
5. Summarise
6. Question
7. Silence
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7. SEVEN - coaching skills
Avoid these coaching pitfalls:
1. Sitting opposite the table from the coachee
2. Imposing ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ on the conversation
3. Pushing your own perspective… ‘what I think…’
4. Calling ‘time’ when the coachee is mid-flow
5. Not asking enough questions
6. Focusing on the coaching process at the expense of
listening
7. Forgetting the ability for ‘silence’
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8. SIX - thinking hats
Edward de Bono’s
approach defines six
different perspectives
from which to
address a problem
and direct the
thinking process.
Team members
should wear each hat
in turn, limiting to one
perspective at a time.
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9. FIVE - culture dimensions
Examples:
• Latin America (high power-
distance rating)
• USA (highly individualised)
• Japan (most masculine)
• Latin Europe (high in
uncertainty avoidance)
• The Netherlands (high
long-termism)
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Based on: Geert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov,
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the
Mind. 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill USA, 2010

10. FOUR - information discovery
techniques
These techniques combine approach (writing or speaking)
with group or individual participation.
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11. THREE - Vs in face to face
communication
Professor Albert Mehrabian’s defines three Vs:
• Verbal (words)
• Vocal (tone of voice)
• Visual (body language)
Ensuring congruence between our
own three Vs is fundamental for
building rapport, trust and empathy
in a face-to-face conversation.
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Words
7%
Tone
38%
Body
language
55%

12. TWO - leadership myths
MYTH 1 – LEADERS ARE BORN NOT MADE
Although truly great leaders appear to be wholly superior
from birth, the truth is that the major competencies of
leadership can be learned.
MYTH 2 – LEADERSHIP EXISTS ONLY AT THE TOP OF
AN ORGANISATION
Most modern organisations are creating small
entrepreneurial units and high performing teams.
The opportunities for leadership at all levels are growing.
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13. ONE – book that covers all this
and more
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• Building rapport and sustaining
relationships
• Management and team building
• Negotiation and conflict
• Leadership
• Coaching techniques
• Managing expectations
• Creative problem solving
Available to order from all good bookshops and online

14. Bestselling author team
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‘Working with people can bring unique
pressures – find out how to avoid them.’
Debra Paul, Managing Director, Assist Knowledge
Development Ltd.
‘When you say “our people are our key
resource” – show you mean it.’
James Cadle MBCS CITP
Director, Assist Knowledge Development Ltd.
‘You perform to your best when you have
great personal and business skills.’
Philippa Thomas, Director, The Celyn Group
Available to order from all good bookshops and online

15. Review quotes
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‘This book provides practical tools
that can be put to work immediately.’
Donald H. Taylor, Chairman, Learning and
Performance Institute
‘A useful guide for managers and
employers alike.’
Ann Brown, Senior Vice President HR,
Capgemini
Available to order from all good bookshops and online

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