Leadership Soft Skills

Soft skills matter at all levels of the organization.

While soft skills have been a focus of leadership development for decades, the acceleration of change, the flattening of organizations, and the rise of empowerment have made soft skills a must for all professionals. Hard skills, the entry ticket to many jobs, are still crucial; however hard (or technical) skills alone are simply not sufficient. 

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are comprised of specific, observable, measurable attitudes and behaviors. When soft skills are over-used, under-used, or not used at all, relationships and performance suffer. Identifying and closing gaps is therefore key to success for individuals and for organizations.      

Good news: We can all develop our soft skills.

Certo helps clients identify gaps and develop the necessary soft skills by leveraging introspection, feedback, and best practice materials such as the KFLA™ framework to create a Soft Skill Development Plan. Different approaches can be applied (separately or together, individually or collectively) to help clients move from awareness to action. For example:

○ Coaching to raise awareness and develop new attitudes and behaviors

○ Consulting to build subject matter knowledge 

○ Facilitating workshops to foster exchange and practice with peers in order to experiment with new behaviors

What is the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™? 

The KFLA™ framework is a user-friendly yet robust tool that has been developed and refined over the years through experience-based research conducted across the globe with the purpose of determining those skills that matter most for performance.  

The framework is comprised of 38 specifically defined competencies organized in 4 families: Thought, Results, People, Self. Competencies range, for example, from "Communicates Effectively" and "Drives Results" to "Situational Adaptability" and "Cultivates Innovation".   

The framework draws upon the work of different Korn Ferry companies including Lominger, PDI NinthHouse, and Global Novations. It continues to evolve in order to stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing business world.