297 Soft Skills Are The Final Frontier

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">A number of years ago, I recall reading in</span> <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">Japan’s</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US">Spa magazine</span><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">,</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">the results of a survey</span> <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">they completed</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of purpose.</span><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU"> </span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US">Apart from not enough money, in a time of massive corporate profits, the other issues</span> <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">they flagged</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">are all about leadership soft skills.</span> <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">Here we are today, finally emerging from deflation, but wages are not moving much and these other issues are still with us.</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">Dale Carnegie Training did a global study of engagement. The results for Japan were consistent with the global trends. Japan’s scores were also consistent with every survey I have ever seen on the subject of engagement in this country. The percentages of those who are not engaged are always gob smacking.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US"> Why would staff feel underappreciated? The reason is obvious. No one in a leadership position has shown them any sign that they are important, that what they are doing is important and that they have a</span><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">n important place</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">in the organisation. Part of the reason is cultural. Japanese prefer understatement and subtlety</span><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">,</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml: