Sunday 5 August 2018

Quotes on ‘Soft Skills’ by Professor M.S. Rao, PhD in Soft Skills―Share if You Care







Dear friends,

I have earned my PhD in soft skills in 2011 and published six books and I am striving hard to achieve sanctimonious status to Soft Skills as a discipline globally. I debunked several myths about soft skills and offered right definition to soft skills. I do research regularly to measure soft skills and ensure takeaways to learners and leaders at all levels including chief executives. Here are my quotes on Soft Skills:

“Soft skills are a collection of skills that are essential to survive and succeed in personal, professional, and social life.” ―Professor M.S. Rao

“Soft skills are polite and pleasing way of communicating with others, whereas hard skills are what you contribute in the workplace. Soft skills complement your hard skills. Precisely, soft skills are presentation of your hard skills in the workplace. Soft skills are interpersonal skills, whereas hard skills are job-related skills.” ―Professor M.S. Rao

“With hard skills, you can manage your boss; and with soft skills, you can lead your boss.” —Professor M.S. Rao

“Your hard skills help you acquire employment and your soft skills help you ensure your employability.  Hence, integrate hard and soft skills to fast-track your career.” —Professor M.S. Rao

“Hard skills can be automated, not soft skills because soft skills are interpersonal skills and closely related to emotional intelligence which are hard to teach, train and impart to humans.” ―Professor M.S. Rao

“The way hard and soft skills are essential to achieve your career success, what you know and who you know are essential to fast-track your career.” ―Professor M.S. Rao


Note: Here is the link to read and share free chapter of my upcoming Book “Soft Leadership: A New Direction To Leadership” URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2018/08/free-chapter-professor-ms-raos-upcoming.html  

References


Share if you care.



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Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao
Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants India




Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below, I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.



Copyright©2018 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in.  This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.

Free Chapter ― Professor M.S. Rao’s Award-Winning Book “Soft Leadership: A New Direction to Leadership”




Dear friends,

I am excited to share with you that I authored a book on soft leadership titled, “Soft Leadership: A New Direction to Leadership.” It is dedicated to Peter Drucker who is the father of ‘Modern Management’. Philip Kotler, Father of Modern Marketing wrote the foreword for this book.  Here are the details about the book with a free chapter. I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts about this book on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About The Book
“Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.” ―Peter F. Drucker

This book is a short course on soft leadership, engaged leadership, employee engagement, millennials, emotional intelligence, innovation, soft skills, and hard skills. You can easily toss the book into a briefcase or purse and read here and there as time allows. It is a quick reference guide for scholars, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and leaders at all levels.   

“Soft Leadership” is the Future Leadership

“Soft leadership can be defined as the process of setting goals; influencing people through persuasion; building strong teams; negotiating them with a win-win attitude; respecting their failures; handholding them; motivating them constantly; aligning their energies and efforts; recognizing and appreciating their contribution in accomplishing organizational goals and objectives with an emphasis on soft skills. It is based on the right mindset, skillset, and toolset.” ―Professor M.S. Rao, Father of “Soft Leadership”

When you look at leaders like Booker T. Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Dalai Lama, and Aung San Sui Kyi, there is a common thread connecting all of them ― soft leadership.  They are all soft leaders who silently performed and led the people to accomplish their dreams. They have character, charisma, conscience, conviction, courage, communication, compassion, commitment, consistency, consideration, and contributed extensively toward society and made a difference in the lives of others.


What is Soft Leadership?

I have coined a new concept ‘Soft leadership’ to overcome the drawbacks in the existing leadership styles.  I have authored a book on this concept titled, Soft Leadership: Make Others Feel More Important and published several research papers and articles for international journals and magazines. It is getting overwhelming response globally. One of the award-winning research papers titled, Soft leadership: a new direction to leadership, URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00197851311320559/full/html
was amongst the most frequently downloaded in Industrial and Commercial Training, Emerald UK.  Here is the description of soft leadership.

Various leadership researchers, experts, educators, writers, consultants, and practitioners in the leadership domain have pioneered specific styles and types of leadership. As a result, we have various styles and types in leadership, thus enriching the leadership domain. Similarly, soft leadership is another new concept to add value to the leadership literature.  

Soft leadership is leading through soft skills and people skills. It blends soft skills, hard skills, and leadership. It emphasizes the significance of precious Human Resources. It helps in managing the emotions, egos, and feelings of the people successfully. It focuses on the personality, attitude, and behavior of the people, and calls for making others feel more important. It is an integrative, participative, relationship, and behavioral leadership model adopting tools such as persuasion, negotiation, recognition, appreciation, motivation, and collaboration to accomplish the tasks effectively.

Soft leadership is not a submissive leadership or a lame-duck leadership but an assertive leadership where soft leaders adopt pleasing and polite communication to execute the tasks.  It is a blend of courageous leadership, thought leadership, servant leadership and inspirational leadership.


Professor M.S. Rao’s 11 C’s and Soft Leadership

Leadership basically depends on three aspects — how you communicate with others; how you make decisions; and how you take action. When you can execute these three activities effectively you become a successful leader. However, to evolve as a soft leader, you must communicate with an emphasis on soft skills; make decisions by blending your head, heart, and gut; and take action keeping the ground realities and goals in your view without compromising task-orientation. There are 11 Cs that constitute soft leadership. They are character, charisma, conscience, conviction, courage, communication, compassion, commitment, consistency, consideration, and contribution. It is highly challenging for people to cultivate these 11 characteristics. However, if people possess more than 6 traits they get into the fold of soft leadership.  


Soft Leadership and Knowledge Workers

Soft leadership helps lead knowledge workers effectively. Previously there were more manual workers who needed various leadership styles. However, in the present rapid changing digital scenario, the knowledge workers need a different leadership style — soft leadership style. The knowledge workers are ambitious, intelligent, and tech-savvy. They have totally different expectations and aspirations than their predecessors. They have an advanced mindset, toolset, and skillset gained through unique professional experiences. And soft leadership is the ideal fit for their needs.

Currently, the employees are more diverse than ever, and this offers both opportunities and threats. Opportunities include creativity and innovation to improve products and services; and threats include looking at differences, not similarities. Hence, we must convert this threat into an opportunity by celebrating diversity in the workplace. It also calls for a unique leadership style that brings employees into one common platform to achieve the organizational goals and objectives.


Soft Leadership is the Future Leadership

Globally the philosophy of ‘employees first, customers second, and shareholders third’ is gaining momentum. Keeping this philosophy in view, global organizations need leaders who can navigate their organizations through a network of relationships. Presently the days of positional power work less and referent power works more. Above all, global organizations must be networked, flat, flexible, and diverse. Hence, soft leadership can work for any company and country regardless of its size or budget.

The days of command-and-control leadership doesn’t work anymore. What works presently is trust-and-track leadership. As the world is changing rapidly, the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential for employees are changing rapidly. The employees are reinventing themselves to keep pace with the rapid changes in technologies. Additionally, they are more focused on their careers and are ready to sacrifice their families to fast-track their careers. Their expectations and aspirations are rising. Hence, leaders at the top must reinvent with their leadership styles, tools, and techniques to lead their employees in this digital age. To conclude, exploring soft leadership helps greatly for the leaders to satisfy all stakeholders to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness.

Note: Links to read Kindle edition and post your reviews: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087NGS5GG or https://www.amazon.in/dp/B087NGS5GG






Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below, I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.


Copyright©2018 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in.  This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.

Tuesday 31 July 2018

Free Chapter―Professor M.S. Rao’s Book “Stop Talking and Start Leading”





Dear friends,

I am excited to share with you that I authored a book on inspirational leadership titled, “Stop Talking and Start Leading.” It is dedicated to the Honourable Chief Minister of Telangana State, India, Mr. K. Chandrashekar Rao who is an inspiring orator, voracious reader, continuous learner, and a great leader. Here are the details about the book with a free chapter. I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts about this book on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

 Introduction―Be Curious and Creative to Make Your Life a Masterpiece of Service



Curiosity is a great characteristic that people rarely sustain in their lifetimes. Some people struggle to sustain curiosity because of their internal and external challenges. They cannot encourage curiosity to come to the fore as they condition their mindsets with their learning, experience, and environment. However, there are very few individuals who sustain their curiosity levels throughout their lives to excel as extraordinary achievers. In this context, we will discuss curiosity and the tips to spark curiosity.


Are People Born with Curiosity?

Undoubtedly, we all are born with curiosity. Children are more curious and observe when they were born. They question a lot when they are kids. As they reach the next stages such as adolescence, young age, middle age, and old age, the curiosity level drops as they are conditioned to think as per their observations, environment, and education. That means they get into a box mentality. Only the extraordinary achievers maintain their curiosity levels by continuous reading, learning, and leading. They keep upgrading their knowledge, skills, and abilities to sustain their curiosity levels. It makes them relevant, acceptable, and honorable to lead a complete and meaningful life. 


Curiosity and Technology

Technology is both a boon and a bane. With the advent of technology, children are used to gadgets, and they get everything on a platter without applying much thinking. It kills their creativity and imagination. It is great to hear that children are habituated to technology but it is also a challenge because they get ready-made answers for their questions through their smartphones.


Tips to Spark Your Curiosity

Authors are curious and creative because they must be curious to learn various perspectives to create their own perspective. Here are some tips to create your curiosity.
  • Focus on your art and craft.
  • Don’t conform unless substantiated with facts and figures. Question rationally. Be rebellious, if required.
  • Observe people around you.
  • Identify your biological clock to unlock your creativity. Find out the time at which you are the most productive to leverage it effectively.
  • Journal regularly for a few minutes every day to capture your ideas.
  • Synthesize your ideas. Mix and match them to apply practically. 
  • See the big picture.
  • Experiment and explore the world unbiasedly.
  • Read books regularly.
  • Be prepared to learn from your experiences especially from your failures.
  • Above all, lead by example.

Every child is curious to know things. Children observe a lot and learn from others’ behavior and environment. They emulate their parents and the people around them. In educational institutions, they emulate educators because they spend their most time in the educational institutions. Succinctly, if you want to sustain your childlike curiosity, you must travel widely, read regularly, learn continuously and lead by example.

Educators create curiosity while teaching to invite and sustain the attention of their students. They often ask questions to their students to involve them in teaching and engage them effectively for a longer time. It helps students discover, analyze and understand themselves. It helps students apply the acquired knowledge, ideas , and insights in their real lives to excel as healthy citizens.


Curiosity in my Professional Life

I read books from different genres regularly. I explore new things and experiment in new areas. I don’t mind when I fail. In fact, I failed many times because I explored immensely and learned many lessons. I know that I am a morning man and I leverage that time which is the most productive to author books and write articles. I am aware that I am highly creative after I wake up from sleep. Hence, I intentionally sleep in the afternoon for some time so that I can concentrate and be creative to write.

I am curious to learn. Hence, I talk to people around me when I am traveling or in the gym to understand different perspectives from people on various topics because everyone is unique in the world. I often throw a question to someone and listen attentively to capture their perspectives on various topics. The diversified experiences in my life including military, business, teaching, training, research, and consultancy sustained my curiosity levels. Hence, everyone must learn from multiple sources including from their observations, education, experience, teaching, and training to sustain their childlike curiosity.


Conclusion

Lots of inventions have occurred because of curiosity. Advanced technology and comforts are the outcomes of curiosity. We have grown as a civilization because of curiosity. To conclude, curiosity is inborn in all humans. Everyone must hone and sustain it to make their lives as masterpieces of service.

Link to purchase this book: https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387799425  



Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao
Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants India



Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below, I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.


Copyright©2018 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com.  This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.

Monday 30 July 2018

Free Chapter ― Professor M.S. Rao’s Upcoming Book “Success Secrets to Become a Superstar”






Dear friends,

I am excited to share with you that I authored a book on inspirational leadership. It is tentatively titled, “Success Secrets to Become a Superstar.” Here are the details about the book with a free chapter. I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts about this book on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

About The Book
“To be the best in the world necessitates your drawing upon all your capacities. In the doing, you will draw on what is unique in yourself. No one can replicate it.” ―James Strock

This book unveils success secrets to become a superstar. It helps you dream and achieve big in your life. It explains dreaming, learning, communicating, networking, branding, marketing, teaching, training, living, caring and making a difference to the world. It outlines inspiring leadership lessons from Meka Ramakrishna Sayee who overcame several challenges to accomplish his lifetime ambition to acquire overseas education in America. It unfolds ideas and insights from interviews.

This book is a short course on inspirational leadership. You can easily toss the book into a briefcase or purse and read here and there as time allows. It is a quick reference guide for learners, leaders and entrepreneurs.   

 Introduction―Chase Your Dreams to Become a Superstar

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” —Oprah Winfrey

The term ‘success’ is widely discussed and understood but least practiced globally. In this digital era, achieving success has become much more challenging as most people are aware of the secrets and strategies to achieve success and are well equipped with the tools and techniques of success. In reality, very few people achieve success who follow the road less travelled and walk their talk. Hence, let us discuss about the secrets to achieve success to excel as superstars.


Tips to Touch Your Tipping Point

Although there are innumerable tips to achieve success, here are some of them to achieve an amazing success and touch your tipping point.  
  • Dream but don’t daydream. Take action. Remember, time and tide waits for none.
  • Chase your dreams. Work hard and smart to accomplish them.
  • Identify your natural talents. Build skills around them.  
  • Explore alternative options to accomplish your dreams when you are hit with the roadblocks.
  • Explore ideas rather than to brood over thorny issues.
  • Never lose your hope. Trust in your abilities. Follow your gut.
  • Build a network of positive people. When you surround with positive and encouraging people you live with positive vibrations. You become more optimistic and inspire others.
  • Don’t bother for failures. When you want to achieve big, you tend to make big mistakes. Learn lessons from them and move on quickly to your next higher level.  
  • Focus on curricular and extracurricular activities equally to lead a meaningful life. If one of your extracurricular activities become your profession, sky is the limit for you because you enjoy what you do throughout the day and throughout your life.  
  • Everything is possible in this world. When you look at inspiring people including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, and Colonel Sanders, they bounced back from their failures and carved a place for themselves in the history.

If achieving success were easy everybody would become an achiever and the word ‘success’ would lose its relevance. In fact, success comes with lots of struggles and sacrifices. What the outside world perceives about the achievers is that the luck played a major role for touching their tipping points. In fact, it is the years of their consistent efforts that helped achievers reach what they are from where they were. If someone achieves success overnight, it goes away overnight. Presently some people come to limelight on social media instantly but fade away immediately because success came to them by luck.


Conclusion

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” —Arthur Ashe

Everyone is blessed with a huge potential. However, only a few people recognize their inherent talents in their early stage and chase their dreams throughout their lives. 99 percent of the people sacrifice and compromise their dreams and aspirations due to social pressures and cultural constraints. The only people who succeed at the end are the ones who invest their efforts with a focus consistently and relentlessly to accomplish their dreams. Hence, don’t compromise your dreams. Chase your dreams despite setbacks. Remember that you have one life. Live your life fully to avoid regrets later.

Note: Here is the link to purchase my bestselling book ‘21 Success Sutras for CEOs: How Global CEOs Overcome Leadership Challenges in Turbulent Times to Build Good to Great Organizations’ http://www.amazon.com/21-Success-Sutras-Ceos-Rao/dp/162865290X


Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao
Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants India




Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below, I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.


Copyright©2018 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in.  This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.