The single most effective thing I have done to improve my soft skills is to take an acting class.
What is the single most effective thing you have done to improve your soft skills?
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+2
A:
Started answering questions here - the ability to explain complex things in a way other people can understand them is very useful.
sharptooth
2009-07-09 11:53:43
I disagree, answering a question from the safety of your keyboard isn't soft skills, for most developers, that's the centre of your comfort zone.
ninesided
2009-07-09 12:13:33
Reasonable, but pressure from not being shielded by the keyboard is not the only problem. Just being able to quickly provide a useful and easy to understand answer is a problem anyway.
sharptooth
2009-07-09 12:35:22
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A few years ago I attended a workshop about communication. And one thing that I learned there and I will never forget was: Try to understand why people act as they act, try to understand their motivation doing things as they do. That helped me a lot, especially in managing the management...
chrmue
2009-07-09 11:57:10
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A:
Not to be a smart-arse. People don't like smart-arses.
If you think you are right and everyone else is sure you are wrong, just agree and continue being right. Trying to argue it out just results in a negative outcome when people are not open to persuasion or are being stubborn.
Aiden Bell
2009-07-09 11:57:15
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A:
I took a teaching course and have been doing a lot of teaching.
Rui Craveiro
2009-07-09 12:02:19
+3
A:
Better appreciating just quite how dumb I really am.
Starting from the perspective of assuming that you're misunderstanding what's going on helps a lot.
Dave Gamble
2009-07-09 12:17:34
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A:
The best way to improve your soft skills is to use your soft skills. Put on a lunch time seminar for your fellow work mates. Nothing too scary, just pick a technology that you think could be introduced in house to make things work more efficiently, put together a five minute presentation and set some time aside for questions and discussion afterwards. You might even start a trend, one day a week a different person can talk about something that interests them.
ninesided
2009-07-09 12:17:48
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A:
Where I work currently has some material about improving one's Emotional Intelligence which is something that has been quite beneficial for me as it helps demystify some of how the world works.
In terms of not learning something, working on making small talk and being a bit more laid back has also improved my skills as not everyone wants every little thing analyzed to death and beyond.
JB King
2009-07-09 13:21:10
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A:
It's a tie between volunteering as newsletter editor for a local artists' group, and joining a small local theatrical dance group.
DarenW
2010-07-25 08:35:54