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The most successful companies are those that value soft skills in their leaders. But what is it about soft skills that brings about success? And what, exactly, are soft skills anyway?

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The Athena Doctrine is a New York Times best-selling book by John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio. During the process of writing their book, the authors surveyed 64,000 people in thirteen different countries. Two-thirds of those people said they thought the world would be a better place if men thought more like women.

Source https://www.slideshare.net/johngerzema/the-athena-doctrine

Gerzema and D’Antonio also asked 30,000 people to rate 200 traits on whether they were feminine or masculine. Below are the results:

Feminine traits:

• Reasonable
• Flexible
• Patient
• Collaborative

Masculine traits:

• Resilient
• Analytical
• Independent
• Proud

In this post you’ll learn:

• What soft skills are.
• Why soft skills can make a change in you and your teams.
• How team leaders can teach soft skills to their teams.
• How to measure results and share them.

What Are Soft Skills?

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Where Does the Term “Soft Skills” Come From?

The concept of “soft skills” was first mentioned in 1972 in a US Army training manual. That same year, Dr. Paul G. Whitmore presented his research findings at the CONARC Soft Skills Conference. In his research, Dr. Whitmore had used a questionnaire that concerned skills in the areas of command, supervision, counseling, and leadership. As he analyzed the answers to the questionnaire, he classified them as either hard skills or soft skills.

He concluded, “Soft skills are important job-related skills that involve little or no interaction with machines and whose application on the job is quite generalized.” However, this description leaves the impression that soft skills are weak and ineffective. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since that time, general understanding of hard and soft skills has evolved. In fact, many employers now look for soft skills in job-seeking candidates. Plus, they’re more likely to hire a candidate who appears to have well-developed soft skills over a candidate who presents with mostly hard skills.

What Is the Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills?

Hard skills are those skills a person acquires through formal education and training programs. For instance, obtaining a degree or a certificate is an indication of a certain set of hard skills. Other examples include knowledge about machine operations and computer programming.

On the other hand, soft skills are productive traits such as social skills. Commonly considered feminine traits, you can use soft skills to improve your social interactions and enhance your career.

However, just because soft skills appear to come more easily to women doesn’t mean that only women are entitled to them. These are traits that men have as well. It’s just that many men must learn now to develop and use the soft skills they already have.

Use These Five Soft Skills to Engage with Your Team

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While multiple soft skills have currently been identified in academic literature, there are five major skills that will make a difference in your leadership style. Moreover, they will be useful anywhere.

When you use these skills, you’ll be able to understand situations that might have been a problem for you in the past. Additionally, you’ll improve communication and begin to have a different perspective when you encounter a difference of opinion in another person. You might even change your thoughts without feeling as if you have failed as a leader.

1. Empathy

Empathy is about understanding what other people are feeling and making a true connection. It’s a vulnerable choice, since it will require you to remember a similar experience of your own. Empathy also requires a suspension of judgement . You must also learn to withhold any advice or feedback. Simply attempt to understand what the other person is going through.

Theresa Wiseman, in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, identified four attributes of empathy:

• See the world as others see it.
• Understand another’s current
  feelings.
• Avoid judging while listening.
• Communicate the understanding.

According to Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, of the University of Houston, “Empathy is feeling with people.”

2. Tolerance

Tolerance is the willingness to endure the existence of an opinion or belief in another that you don’t agree with. To put this particular soft skill into practice, try to understand where the other person is coming from before giving your own opinion.

For example, remember a time when your team rejected one of your ideas. How did that make you feel? Did you give yourself the chance to listen and change your thoughts? Did you try to incorporate your team’s feedback into your thinking?

Here are some
tips on how to grow your tolerance:

• Apply empathy. Try to understand another’s point of view.
• Ask for a full explanation to understand more. Don’t guess.
• Use “I” statements instead of “you” statements when trying to understand someone’s point.
• Value diversity. Learn about cultures other than your own. Open your mind.
• Analyze your feelings and strive to understand what is causing them.
• Make a lack of self-esteem isn’t affecting your judgment.

3. Collaboration

Collaboration is the process of two or more people working together for the same purpose through different tasks. This sounds simple, but it can be difficult to put into practice. However, a good leader can guide a team toward fulfilling their common goal.

Follow these steps to have effective collaboration in your team:

• Make sure everyone on the team has the information they need and knows how to complete their tasks.
• Make your expectations clear from the beginning.
• Use task management tools to create clear goals for each member.
• Acknowledge everyone’s strengths.
• Huddle during projects so that each member remains in the loop.
• Recognize and reward collaborative behaviors.

A good example of collaboration is when a team member prioritizes a task that he or she knows affects their partner’s performance.

RELATED ARTICLE: 5 AMAZING STATISTICS ABOUT REMOTE COMPANIES

4. Effective Communication

One of the most critical of all the soft skills is effective communication. This is all about delivering and understanding messages correctly.

For example, effective verbal communication is more than just talking. You must know how to express an idea. You must also listen and know how to negotiate.

Additionally, learn to pay attention to body language. Body language plays a big part in what you are saying. For example, you could verbally say you like someone’s idea. However, if you say that with crossed arms, you might appear skeptical to the other person.

Below are some tips from Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD, author of The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help.

• Boost your confidence with a power
  pose.
• Show that you’re listening. Make
  eye contact with the person who is speaking.
• Remove barriers by taking away
  anything that blocks you from your team.
• Shake hands to create an instant
  human bond.
• Smile! This simple action makes
  you approachable and trustworthy.
• Mirror expressions to show
  agreement. In other words, subtly let your body take on postures similar to the
  ones of the person you’re talking with.

Make your communication objective by choosing the right words. When listening, rephrase and repeat to the other person what you understood. This will help to create a clear communication flow.

5. Flexibility

Flexibility is all about the willingness to change deeply held beliefs and opinions. It is about modifying your ideas about the way you do your work and make decisions. It’s about changing the way you expect results in your life. Being flexible lets you accept change while also being creative so as to come up with new solutions that meet the current challenge.

Flexibility might sound easy. However, frustration can get the best of you in challenging situations. There no magic pill that will make you flexible overnight.

The best thing you can do is to be patient with yourself. If flexibility doesn’t come easily to you try to remember that you’re learning a new soft skill.

Therefore, every time you come across a situation you didn’t plan on and you find yourself trying to resist the outcome, explore your emotions around the situation. Be present. As soon as you are able, let go of what you can’t control. The faster you let go of old ideas, the quicker you will be able to move forward.

Encourage Team Members to Master Soft Skills

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Everyone has every soft skill we have discussed in this article. Moreover, everyone has the ability to become more aware of the soft skills they already have. However, just because you gain awareness of the soft skills you have doesn’t mean you suddenly master them all.

First, you must understand each skill. Then, you must begin to apply each one. With experience, you will learn more about yourself. You will improve as time goes on.

When you begin to feel confident about your mastery of soft skills, the next step is to pass these skills on to your team. However, teaching them will bring on another big challenge. But the good news is that once you have your own experience to talk about, you will find it easier to explain these skills.

You’ll need to remember, though, that every person learns at their pace through their own experiences. Therefore, be patient and approachable. Continue to guide your team through this learning phase.

Some Tools for Teaching Soft Skills to Your Team

Start with Regular Group Talks

Institute weekly group talks, perhaps each Monday morning, with the goal of teaching the concept of soft skills. Focus on one soft skill each week.

Prepare a relaxed space for these meetings, possibly offering coffee and breakfast. Try to keep them relaxed and focused.

Use a slideshow to teach each concept. In your presentation, include a description of the soft skill you are teaching about. Use images and video to provide real-life examples.

After your presentation, open the discussion by asking a team member for their thoughts. Have they applied that skill recently? Alternatively, you could ask team members to investigate the term before that week’s talk. Ask members to share with the team what they learned.

Use Email Surveys to Evaluate the Team

Use weekly email surveys to reinforce the soft skill of the week. Let the team know that practicing this skill will add value to their professional profile. You can create your surveys with Google Forms and send them out at the end of each week.

Placeit Mockup

Keep each survey short and to the point. However, be sure to include an explanation or definition of the skill at the beginning of the survey. Include only the following three questions, and use team members’ answers to evaluate their understanding of the skill:

• How have you experienced this skill during this week?
• Are you having trouble understanding and applying this skill?
• If you have had no experience with this skill this week, what will you do differently next week?

Promote Positive Feedback Among Peers

After a few weeks, divide your team into pairs and ask each person to give their partner feedback about how they’ve used the soft skills the team has been learning about. It’s essential that you conduct this exercise in a relaxing space. Afterward, gather as a group to talk about what everyone has learned.

The rules for
this activity are simple:

1. Each pair should answer these two questions:

• Which skills do they see in their partner and why?
• Which skills do they think the other person needs to improve on? Remind everyone to be positive as they give advice to their partner about how to improve.

2. Have each person write down the feedback they receive from their partner. This way each person can reflect on the feedback in private.

3. As the team leader, walk around the room and listen in on each conversation. Make sure all communications remain objective and respectful. Give some guidance if a pair seems too quiet or if a pair appears to be becoming upset.

Create Eye-Catching Internal Campaigns

Create internal campaigns to promote the idea of practicing soft skills. An internal campaign could be a simple newsletter, or it could be projecting slideshows or videos in common areas.

Come up with simple phrases about what soft skills are and use them as reminders to all team members. Make sure each phrase can be read in a glimpse.

For example, if empathy is your soft skill of the week, your phrases might be something like, “Use empathy to understand others,” or “Empathy is about understanding others’ feelings.” Another phrase might be, “Empathy is not judging, just feeling.”

Select a Format for Your Message

What is the best canvas for your message? Make it into a poster, send it out in an email, or create a video. Be creative and come up with other ideas.

Use Online Tools to Create Fast Content

Use online tools to create your content quickly and make it look more professional. For example, use templates on an email platform such as MailChimp. Or use a video maker to create and deliver a video within minutes. You can also find online design tools to help with creating posters and flyers.

RELATED ARTICLE: STANDUPLY WITH SLACK FOR SYNCHRONICITY IN TEAMS

Decide How to Communicate the Message

Once you have your material ready, whether it’s digital or printed, decide how best to communicate it. For example, you could place posters in common areas or send out personalized emails.

Measure Results and Share Them with Other Team Leaders

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Soft skills aren’t easy to measure. However, followup is still important. Therefore, have one-on-one meetings with each team member. Ask each person directly how they felt about applying their new skills. Further question them about which soft skills they think they need more practice with.

Additionally, It would give each person feedback and tips about how to further develop their soft skills. Share an example from your own life of what you did to develop that skill. Assign some good reading about a specific skill or assign them tasks that can help them develop the soft skill they’re weakest in.

People with Soft Skills Can Become the Company’s Greatest Asset

The time has come to think and lead differently. Soft skills will help you and your team to understand each other better, work more efficiently, and welcome positive change.

Start with teaching your team soft skills such as empathy, tolerance, collaboration, communication, and flexibility. These skills alone bring about a happier workplace. What’s more, its effects will bring improvement throughout the company.

About the Author

Veronica Madrigal is co-founder
of GeekGirlsMX, a community for women in tech. She currently collaborates as
content creator at Placeit.net where she writes about entrepreneurship, design,
and technology.

Today’s world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Moreover, the rise of social media, online shopping, and internet trends are all rapidly changing the business game. As such, it’s little wonder that people are looking at going international with their businesses.

These days, making the leap from continent to continent is easier than ever. However, it still pays to be well-informed. Check out these key tips for running an international business. Make sure you don’t make the decision blindly.

Enlist the International Professionals

If you don’t know a lot about shipping abroad yourself, then get the help of those who do. A lawyer in the know will be able to advise you as to international laws. Also, a ship broker will be able to advise you on the best way to ship internationally.

However, if you feel you can’t afford to get professional help, then be prepared to do plenty of research. But beware, as this can take some time.

One of the best things you can do is listen to advice from people among your acquaintances who have experience in the industry. These are the people who will have encountered problems you might also run into. They will be able to tell you the best options to choose and what to avoid.

Also, it’s worth looking into all the details before you make any final decisions, as laws are constantly changing. Check this link out for a good place to start.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHY WEBSITE LOCALIZATION MATTERS

Speak the Language

Similarly, if you’re conducting business in international markets, take a moment to consider translation.

If you can speak the language, that’s perfect. Fluency in the language of the country you’re planning to set up in will definitely be an asset, professionally and socially.

In a world in which English is increasingly becoming the de facto language of business, the ability to speak English fluently is an immediate advantage. However, don’t rely upon this. Speaking in the local language is not only polite but also necessary to avoid misunderstandings.

Additionally, if your international business transactions are being conducted through a translator, you want to ensure that any translation is reputable. Otherwise, misunderstandings can happen easily. And misunderstandings can cost you both time and money.

For this reason, don’t rely on automatic translating apps or online services. The stakes are too high. A reputable translator is best if you can’t work your way through the language yourself.

However, even a phrasebook or business dictionary can help. Whatever you do, though, don’t just assume that everyone else in an international setting can speak English!

Thanks to Pixabay on Pexels for the image

Consider Your Market

It’s not enough simply to take the same product and transfer it as-is to a different country. Cultural differences might mean that what works in one country won’t work in another.

The best thing you can do, if possible, is to visit the country yourself. Look around the stores, speak to the locals, and ask questions as to what works and what doesn’t. Some fundamentals are likely to remain the same, of course, such as the age group that’s using your product.

However, since values differ from country to country, you might need to vary your marketing strategy.

A quick glance on YouTube will tell you that advertising is different in different parts of the world, even when it’s for the same company. So look at the international ads for a big multi-national brand like McDonald’s. This can give you an idea as to how the same or similar product is marketed internationally.

Take the International Market by Storm

Do your market research beforehand and set out a strong plan to take the international market by storm.

Photo by Freddie Collins on Unsplash

When there is a sharp depreciation in the value of a currency, we call that a currency crisis. This can cause volatility in the financial markets and upend the everyday lives of ordinary people.

A sharp appreciation in the value of a currency can also cause a currency crisis. Moreover, the reasons behind currency crises can vary significantly. These reasons range from a monetary policy that follows a fixed exchange rate, to economic failures and political crises.

Currency crises have happened throughout history. In fact, currency crises involving the Russian ruble and Turkish lira are just two recent examples.

RELATED ARTICLE: FOREX: HOW DO FOREIGN CURRENCY RATES AFFECT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS?

A Currency Crisis Brings with It Extreme Volatility

The volatility that accompanies a currency crisis often draws the attention of speculators as well as central banks. However, when a currency crisis occurs, it generally comes unannounced. But usually the causes for it can be easy to explain in hindsight.

Some currency crises have a short-term effect, while others last longer, sometimes for years.

Some Common Crises

There are a number of reasons a currency crisis could occur, including:

Inflation

Inflation is the single biggest threat to currencies. Typically, governments charge their central banks with the responsibility of maintaining price stability. However, inflation can start to creep up nonetheless. Examples of inflation leading to a crisis include the one in Zimbabwe that began in 2007 and the more recent one in Venezuela.

Debt

It can be said that debt fuels the economy. However, under general circumstances, governments tend to keep a close watch on the amount of borrowing in the economy. This is because when lenders learn about potential factors that could lead to a cut in credit ratings, they raise the cost of borrowing. This can eventually lead to a freeze in borrowing.

Political Instability

A crisis in a country’s currency can occur because of political reasons, too. Basically, a stable economy requires a stable political environment. However, political infighting or riots against the government can lead to instability. This spurs foreign investment coming into the economy, which has an indirect effect on that currency’s value.

Economic Factors

The global economy also plays a role in a currency crisis. For example, when there is a faltering economy, central banks lower interest rates. However, if a country is following a fixed-rate policy, this can cause difficulties for that country’s economy.

Examples of Currency Crises

Ruble Trouble in 1998

In 1998, trouble with the ruble got so bad in Russia that the nation had to devalue its exchange rate. One of the reasons was falling productivity amid a higher fixed exchange rate. As a result, the Russian central bank had to intervene in the markets to devalue the ruble. The economic emergency got so bad that Russia had to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Swiss Franc Emergency in 2015

In 2015, the Swiss National Bank shocked the foreign exchange markets by announcing that it would de-peg the exchange rate of the Swiss franc (CHF) from the Euro (EUR). The Swiss Bank took this radical step because of fears that allowing the two currencies to remain wedded would eventually lead to hyperinflation.

EURCHF Currency depeg

Turkish Lira Devaluation in 2018

In 2018, the Turkish lira (TRY) made headlines when, amid high inflation and rising borrowing costs, the Turkish government used its power to influence the actions of the Turkish central bank. This only added to the chaos. The TRY became strongly devalued, falling to only 4 US dollars (USD) per Turkish lira. In comparison, the exchange rate in 2005 was about 1.34 USD/TRY.

USDTRY Currency Crisis, 2018

The effect of the devaluation in the Turkish lira reached into Europe, since Europe investors had invested a significant amount of money in the Turkish economy.

Conclusion

While volatility is often low in the financial exchange markets, a currency crisis can deeply affect the exchange rate, and the effects can be felt far and wide.

Over the last few years, the social media advertising landscape has changed dramatically, and the obstacles that prevented small businesses from investing in social video ads are no longer a challenge. This is because tools like Yala have made it easier for small businesses to hop on the trend of video and succeed on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

In this article, we take a look at some of the main features on offer with Yala and help you understand how your business can benefit from it.

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What
Is Yala?

Video ads are the
most common way customers learn about new brands before buying their products.
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are among the top social media sites
influencing audience behavior through social video ads.

Most Social Media Users Watch Social Video Ads

According to Statista, 85% of social media users in the United States watch online videos. Moreover, Nielsen reports that the time spent watching video content has been on a steady increase over the past few years.

Yala is a powerful yet simple social media creation and scheduling tool. It supports integration with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Also, it brings together video ads with smart schedule posting features. This increases reach and improves brand engagement.

You’ll Be Able to Easily Organize Your Ads

Additionally, Yala allows you to easily organize your posts and ads. It enables you to efficiently design high-performing video ads and assign posting schedules, all from one place.

Now that you know
what Yala is and what it can do for you, let’s dig deeper to learn more about
its key features and how your business can benefit from them.

Key
Features on Offer with Yala

Here we’ll step through some of the standout features on offer with Yala. This way, you can see how it fits into your existing social media marketing tech stack and whether you think it might be a worthy addition.

Video
Ad Creator

Yala features a neat, point-and-click video creator that makes it incredibly easy to render stunning videos without any technical know-how. Also, for each social video ad, you’ll be able to enter your own marketing copy. Additionally, you can select a custom color palette and choose from a library of backgrounds, animations, and clips to add visual appeal.

Notably, Yala is designed for users who don’t have experience with video production. This means that you won’t have to invest time and money into learning new software. Instead, you’ll be able to focus on increasing your social media presence with social video ads.

A Library of Video and Graphic Design Templates

It also gives you access to a library of video and graphic design templates. These will allow you to quickly create, design, and edit video posts that evoke emotion and engage viewers. You’ll be able to reuse professional-looking graphics and artwork to create social media ads, memes, gifs, and other types of visual content.

With Yala, you can create an unlimited number of videos. Moreover, you can custom-label them with your own branding—in both mp4 and gif format. Then, you can upload them to your social media profiles within seconds.

Yala is an ideal tool for both freelance and in-house marketers. Yala’s wide range of resources are especially useful for businesses that are looking to gain visibility for their products and services on social media in an easy and cost-effective way.

Automated
Branding and Animations

Yala lets you upload your business’s logo to your account. Then it automatically detects the brand colors in your logo and pulls up a matching color palette. Therefore, you’ll have your colors as the primary color options for your social video ads. However, you can also tweak these settings manually. Also, the animations you add to your video ad will automatically adjust to your brand settings.

Yala enables small businesses to create the same sort of stunning social video ads as the big-budget corporations do.

A Wide Range of Tools for Creating Engaging Social Video Ads

Do you want to increase your social media engagement, get more followers, or simply send out a message to promote your new product? Whatever your purpose, Yala’s automated branding and animations can help you create an engaging social video ad. Moreover, your new ad will boost brand recognition and generate customer interest.

Most social media tools let you create colorful static content. However, you need something that catches your target audience’s attention right off the bat. To this end, Yala gives you a number of animation options to choose from. Use these tools to add life to your video ads. For example, take your pick of Sprinkles, Rubik, and Interstellar.

As a result,
you’ll be able to easily create consistent-looking and visually appealing video
ads for your business.

Library
of Human-Centric, Social-Media-First Footage

Yala has a built-in library of original, human-centric video footage. Users can utilize this footage to create engaging social video ads. All of the videos in its library feature people who are relatable and clips that are meant to stir up emotions in viewers.

This is especially important. That’s because emotions are what get people to stop swiping and start paying attention. Also, people are more likely to remember and reshare clips that are emotionally driven. In fact, a study by Unruly, along with the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, found that ads that touch people’s emotions have twice as much business impact as ads that appeal to logic.

Therefore, Yala offers an extensive library that features different clip categories for different sorts of emotions such as frustration, excitement, calm, confidence, and attention.

While most social media marketing tools only let you add over-used stock clips, memes, and emojis, you need something that’s unique to your brand. That’s because you need to speak to your customers in a direct way.

Perfect for Humanizing Your Brand

Another benefit of making social video ads human-centric is that it enables you to humanize your brand. More and more brands are trying to be personal and human-like in the way they communicate with customers. Seeing people in video ads allows viewers to imagine themselves as the person in the video, using your product, or going through the same experiences.

Therefore, if you’re looking to transform your business into a story-driven brand, Yala is a perfect fit for your social media marketing tech stack. It can help you easily create a stream of cleverly crafted videos and graphics to keep customers engaged with your brand.

AI-Based
Scheduling

Yala’s auto-schedule feature allows you to post video clips to multiple social sites when your target audience is most likely to see your content. This gives your ads more exposure and better engagement rates.

How this works is by tracking which times and posts result in the most likes, shares, and clicks. The AI engine then allows Yala to automatically make corrections, improve itself, and identify patterns that predict the best posting schedule for your videos over time.

Accordingly, you can choose to set the time (or day) when you’d like to post your content. Then, Yala will handle the rest. Additionally, you can configure it to focus on distinct audience segments and engage them with targeted content based on their previous behavior and interactions.

Plans
and Pricing

Yala offers three
different pricing plans. Here’s a full breakdown of what you get with each.

There’s a “free
forever” plan, as well as plans for $10 or $39 per month. All features are
available to all account levels, with two exceptions. With the free plan, you
can only post directly from Yala to one social media profile, whereas the
others have no limits. And only with the “premium” plan can you remove the
“Made with Yala” bumper from the end of your clips.

Conclusion

Yala is a social media video creation and scheduling tool. Yala makes it easy for small businesses to build and post visually stunning, branded video ads, even if they have no design skills. This is because it gives you access to a library of social-media-friendly templates and human-centric clips. What’s more, you can animate these tools to bring life to your ads.

Let’s quickly
recap some of the ways your business can benefit from using Yala:

• It’s amazingly easy and affordable to get started with, which means you won’t have to spend time learning how to use video creation software.
• It comes with a library of human-centric clips that you can add to social video ads to rouse emotions in your viewers and social media followers.
• It’s the perfect tool for marketers who are looking for a way to boost social media engagement through visually-rich social video ads.