What matters?

Two students graduate at the top of their respective college programs and enter the workforce:

• The first individual has transferred to six departments in three years. "She knows her stuff," her co-workers say, “but she’s so critical. No one wants to work her shift."
  
• In the same three years, the second individual has been promoted twice: first to operations director and then to department manager. She knows who she is and how she fits into the organization. She works hard for and with her team and has resolved many potential conflicts through direct attention, listening, and empathy.

Called “soft skills,” “people skills” and now “emotional intelligence,” these are ways of working with others are recognized more and more for their essential role in the business world and are not limited to any profession.

Soft skills make a difference between growth and stagnation, between serving more clients or less, and between governing well and doing damage control.

Our message is that these skills can be learned.

The Business Institute is sponsoring a presentation on these skills and their role in business today by Mary Lynn Luy, part-time instructor with the Business Institute and a staff member at the Chamber, on Tuesday, November 14 at the bi-monthly “Human Resources Luncheon” of the Freeport Area Chamber of Commerce. (see sidebar)

Laurie Gungel, Director, Business Institute
Train to Know– the Power to Grow

Goleman, Daniel (1998) Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books

Goleman, Daniel (2006) Social Intelligence
New York: Bantam Books

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