A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing the Value of Soft Skill ProgramsAs organizations rise to meet the challenges of technological innovation, globalization, changing customer needs and perspectives, demographic shifts, and new work arrangements, their mastery of soft skills will likely be the defining difference between thriving and merely surviving. Yet few executives champion the expenditure of resources to develop these critical skills. Why is that and what can be done to change this thinking?For years, managers convinced executives that soft skills could not be measured and that the value of these programs should be taken on faith. Executives no longer buy that argument but demand the same financial impact and accountability from these functions as they do from all other areas of the organization.In Proving the Value of Soft Skills, measurement and evaluation experts Patti Phillips, Jack Phillips, and Rebecca Ray contend that efforts can and should be made to demonstrate the effect of soft skills. They also claim that a proven methodology exists to help practitioners articulate those effects so that stakeholders' hearts and minds are shifted toward securing support for future efforts.This book reveals how to use the ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills programs. The authors guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes: -business alignment-design evaluation -data collection -isolation of the program effects -cost capture-ROI calculations-results communication. Use this book to align your programs with organizational strategy, justify or enhance budgets, and build productive business partnerships. Included are job aids, sample plans, and detailed case studies.

Unfairly Labeled challenges the very concept of generational differences as an unfair generalization, and offers a roadmap to intergenerational understanding. While acknowledging that generational stereotypes exist, author Jessica Kriegel argues that they are wrong--and that it's unreasonable to assume that the millions of people born in the same 20-year time span are motivated by the same things, attracted to the same things, and should be dealt with in the same way. Kriegel's experience as Organizational Developer at Oracle puts her squarely in the talent strategy realm, where she works to optimize leadership development, team effectiveness, and organizational design. Drawing upon her experiences with workers of all ages and types, she shows how behaviors know no generational boundaries and how to work with people based on their talents, strengths, and weaknesses rather than simply slapping on a generational label and fitting them into an arbitrary slot.

There are 80 million Millenials in America, yet there are myriad books on managing Millenials and working with Millenials and the problem with Millenials. This book shows that whether you're working with Millenials, Generation X, or Baby Boomers, age is not the issue--it's the interpersonal dynamics that matter most.

• Examine the concept of generational issues
• Explore the disparate reality of each 20-year generational span
• Learn to understand and work effectively with other generations
• Facilitate intergenerational understanding sessions

The human mind craves categorization, so the tendency to lump people together is natural. It may, however, be holding your organization back. The members of each generation have only one thing in common--their age--and even that varies by two whole decades. Why assume that they should all be managed the same way? Unfairly Labeled shows you a better way, and provides a roadmap to a more effective organizational strategy.