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Many who lead or who aspire to lead rightly champion the importance of hard skills. These are skills that are informed by quantitative measurement and analytical thinking, among others. Knowing the numbers, embracing leadership tasks, and implementing the right strategies are important but no longer enough to be an effective leader. Indeed, the best of the leadership literature consistently emphasizes the importance of soft skills as this quote illustrates:'The capabilities required of top leaders include new and often ‘softer'skills that are rarely explicitly recognized or fostered in the corporate world.'(Harvard Business Review, July-August, 2022, p.42)In The Softer Side of Leadership, Dr. Habecker, who spent 35 consecutive years as a CEO of two universities and one large NYC non-profit, makes the case for the integration of soft skills into every aspect of the leader's personal life and the organizational agenda. He draws from his own experience, that of other international colleagues, the leadership literature, and from the Scriptures.The first part of the book focuses on the soft skills that help to continuously fuel the healthy development of the leader's spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional foundations. The second part focuses on the skills that drive organizational effectiveness and contribute to healthier cultures. Each chapter includes'The Chapter Idea'summary and a practical application:'Putting the Idea to Work.'The essential idea of the book is this: As readers develop their soft skill competencies, including the skills, behaviors, practices, and disciplines presented in The Softer Side of Leadership, and combine them with their hard skill competencies, they will be better equipped to be more effective as leaders which will likely result in both healthier personal lives and healthier organizations.

Strengthen your soft skills and reach your leadership potential.If you read nothing else on developing your interpersonal skills, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you identify your social and emotional strengths and weaknesses, approach them with a learning mindset, and become a more effective leader today.This book will inspire you to:Focus your attention inward and outwardConnect with others to give more effective feedbackInfluence with and without authorityNavigate differences while maintaining relationshipsBuild trust through active listeningCommunicate the right message and deliver it with empathyThis collection of articles includes'The C-Suite Skills That Matter Most,'by Raffaella Sadun, Joseph Fuller, Stephen Hansen, and PJ Neal,'The Focused Leader,'by Daniel Goleman,'Making Empathy Central to Your Company Culture,'by Jamil Zaki,'Learning to Learn,'by Erika Andersen,'How to Get the Help You Need,'by Heidi Grant,'How to Sell Your Ideas up the Chain of Command,'by Ethan Burris,'When Diversity Meets Feedback,'by Erin Meyer,'Want Stronger Relationships at Work? Change the Way You Listen,'by Manbir Kaur,'How to Navigate Conflict with a Coworker,'by Amy Gallo,'Coaching for Change,'by Richard Boyatzis, Melvin Smith, and Ellen Van Oosten,'The Science of Strong Business Writing,'by Bill Birchard,'You Don't Just Need One Leadership Voice—You Need Many,'by Amy Jen Su,'Building an Ethical Career,'by Maryam Kouchaki and Isaac H. Smith.HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

Ever come away from a conversation thinking ‘I could have handled that better'?Soft skills are a dark art, but one you are already using when you are at your best.With her simple NALED framework, Lucy Harrison has already helped hundreds of leaders be at their best more often. Now you too can choose to hold a different kind of conversation.Designed and road-tested with busy industry managers, this guide and toolkit will help you improve team engagement, ideas and performance.LUCY HARRISON is the founder of leadership consultancy the Harrison Network, delivering training and coaching in organizational development with a focus on human-centred leadership.Foreword by Adrienne Kelbie, CBE

A leadership and learning expert shows you how to change your behavior, develop soft skills, and achieve personal and professional growth through a series of small experiments she calls “Flexing.” A personnel shift at your organization puts you into a leadership role you don't feel prepared for. Your boss tells you that you seem aloof and unapproachable in client meetings. You need to win the support of the members of a local community group for a project you feel passionate about.Addressing these diverse issues depends on improving your soft skills—such as time management, team building, communication and listening, creative thinking, and problem-solving. But this isn't as easy as it may seem.Sue Ashford, the chair of the Management and Organizations group at the Ross School of Business, has the solution. In this timely book, she introduces Flexing—a technique individuals, teams, and entire organizations can use to learn, grow, and develop their skills and knowledge with every new project, work assignment, and problem. Flexing empowers you to embrace any challenge and adapt to any change, yielding practical, valuable takeaways that ensure growth.Flexing helps you move ahead when you're confronted with a new challenge, or simply want to develop a vital skill. It's a journey that begins with setting a flex goal—stating explicitly what you want to learn and how you want to grow. Once that flex goal is set, you then begin to run experiments, solicit feedback from peers or colleagues, and monitor and tweak your progress on the way to achieving your goal. Flexing can be tailored to each person, allowing you to reflect on your own experiences and incorporate the lessons you learn in the next project you tackle. It's a growth mindset that will help you become the best version of yourself.Flexing also works with teams and organizations. Ashford teaches small groups and large how to implement flexing to ensure their members are ready for new challenges. With more people moving to remote working full-time and developing new ways of collaborating in teams, this warm and practical guide will help every professional and any organization on the journey to greater effectiveness.

•••BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2021 WINNER: SELF DEVELOPMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR•••Everyone says a great leader needs EQ, Emotional Intelligence, soft skills, blah, blah, blah. What does that even mean? Where do you start? Where's the line for that on the P&L? You might think that business is all about facts and figures. You probably prefer it that way. The truth is that as uncertainty and business complexity increases, successful leaders need to embrace soft skills to get the best out of their people in a sustainable manner. In this succinct, no-nonsense approach, Anne Taylor shares: Key soft skills relevant for leadership and practical applications of how to use them every day drawn from real-life case studies Straightforward tools to better understand yourself, because your leadership starts with YOU Simple frameworks to communicate with others to get things done while building a stronger relationship with them (at the same time, how efficient!) Logical ideas you can try immediately with on-line support if you want it. All done in an easy to read, logical, organized manner for people who prefer facts and don't consider themselves natural ‘people people.'In a direct yet professional manner, Anne combines the results-oriented focus from her extensive business background in Fortune 100 corporations with her passion for personal awareness and conscious choice to help you get better results through your people, fast. The Practical Principles in this book, when applied, practiced and honed, can improve your effectiveness, impact and bottom-line results.

This no-nonsense guide to social intelligence for project managers gives you a step-by-step process for building a bulletproof project team—no matter what gaps exist in personality, geography, culture, or communication style. High-performing teams don't happen by magic. You need processes that are designed in a socially intelligent way if your team is going to overcome the modern world's tough challenges with coordination. To be a star project manager, you have to communicate with people in their individual learning styles, provide accountability in ways that won't be demotivating, and run meetings and minutes that people won't tune out. Your processes must be constructed in ways that respect the complex realities of social dynamics step by step.You have to know your team before you can motivate them, and you have to motivate them before you can manage them. In this book are foolproof techniques to make sure your team connects with you, each other, and everyone they need to get the job done. After all, a team should be more than the sum of its parts—and it's up to the project manager to provide the glue that holds it all together.

Finalist: Business: Careers, 2020 International Book Awards Finalist: Business: Management & Leadership, 2020 International Book Awards Finalist: Leadership category, 2020 Book Excellence Awards Things move fast. Leaders need to create impact in each moment, to not lose that moment. Creating impact is a positive, powerful and authentic way to demonstrate you're taking charge, get more from your team and drive business results. But to succeed, you need to create the impact you WANT and need rather than relying on what you HAVE. The Leader's Guide to Impact will show leaders how to create the impact that will help them connect with others in a respectful way, to create trust, get others to listen to them, influence effectively, drive results and much more. And most importantly, the book will also show leaders how to do it in an authentic way that supports your reputation and brand effectively. Managing and creating impact is not a “nice to have”, it's a business necessity.'Impact is such an important and not really talked about topic. This book is about how impact starts from within.” Tim Noble, Vice President, Global Head of Sales, ICE Data Services “If there is one book you read on leadership, this is it. Be the best leader you can possibly be, by taking control of your impact on those around you.” Vanessa Vallely, OBE, Managing Director, WeAreTheCity, Author of “Heels of Steel” Mandy Flint is an international expert on teams, cultural behavioural change and leadership impact. She is CEO of Excellence in Leadership and works across the world delivering transformational change programmes and C-suite coaching. Mandy studied at Harvard Business School and is a fellow of the London Metropolitan Business School. She is also an established speaker at leadership and cultural change events. Elisabet Vinberg Hearn is an international expert on leadership impact, teams and people-first digital transformations, operating as leadership strategist, speaker and executive coach. She is co-founder of Think Solutions and CEO of Katapult Partners. Elisabet has an MBA in Leadership & Sustainability and has studied Sustainability Management at Cambridge University and AI strategy at MIT CSAIL. Mandy and Elisabet have written two multi award-winning books on team leadership.

This book underscores soft skills, career and leadership success to excel as leaders and CEOs. It Outlines tools and techniques to fast-track your career. Unveils seven steps to achieve your success. Implores you to build your career capital to enhance your employability. Encourages women to grow as leaders and CEOs. Offers answers to your questions on career and leadership success. Inspires you to be a giver to build a better world! The book is useful for lifelong learners including students, educators, entrepreneurs, leaders and CEOs.