Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/130708
INSIGHT FROM ... Mark Kaiser, President/CEO Lindquist Machine Corp. and chairman of the NEW Manufacturing Alliance Why all the talk about soft skills? How leadership, team building and critical thinking can boost your business Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the need for students to develop effective soft skills that can be used in the workplace. Why all the fuss? These skills allow businesses to innovate and grow, compete globally, create new jobs and contribute to an expanding economy. What do we mean when we use the term soft skills? » Leadership – not to be confused with management. Effective leaders provide vision, tools, and coaching/ mentoring; managers micromanage their people, spoonfeeding them tasks as they see fit. Leaders put their people in a position to innovate; managers don't trust their people to make basic business decisions that they are in the best position to make. » Team building – the ability to work cohesively with a group of people that is able to reach a desired outcome. Effective teams operate best when each member understands where the boundaries are for behavior when working together (core values are an effective way to define organizational behavioral boundaries) and that any breach of the boundaries will be quickly dealt with. This environment will allow individuals on the team to share their ideas, professionally challenge the ideas of others on the team and ultimately arrive at the "best" solution. » Conflict resolution – arguably the most difficult skill to develop in an individual or team. As people, we prefer not to engage in conflict, mainly because a poor outcome puts the relationship at risk, and we are not willing to take that large of a risk. However, contrary to popular belief, effective conflict resolution can strengthen relationships and put teams in a great position to innovate. » Critical thinking and problem solving – the ability for a team or individual to use standard problem solving skills (root cause analysis, brainstorming for solutions, and solution verification) to resolve persistent organizational or customer issues. These skills are difficult to teach, master, and measure, yet are key in providing an organizational culture that can be the basis of a truly sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Businesses in countries that are low-cost producers generally employ The Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance has partnered with several manufacturers and Lakeshore Technical College to create the Leadership Academy, targeted to develop soft skills in front-line production workers. traditional hierarchical organizational structures that produce managers that stifle innovation and growth. U.S. companies that build a soft-skills-driven culture are able to develop new/improved products and processes continued > w w w.in s i g h t o n m f g . c o m May 2013 • / insight on manufacturing | 23