Ep. 75 - Season 3 Recap: Developing Soft Skills to Cultivate Better Business Relationships and Drive Work Momentum - with Connie Steele and Alexis Anthony

Podcast

Jun. 9

Written By Strategic Momentum

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This season, we’ve covered topics ranging from entrepreneurship and management, to understanding and building up your soft-skills like networking and navigating office politics — all of which are critical to being able to move dynamically upward in challenging times. For our 75th episode and season closer, we recap some of our favorite tips and advice from the last 11 episodes of 2020.

As a note — this show is geared toward providing actionable tips and practical advice with context so you can employ these words of wisdom in your day-to-day environment. So, we’ve decided to move toward the term “podcourse” to describe the listening experience.

So, in this episode, Connie is joined by Strategic Momentum Marketing Manager Alexis Anthony to discuss the key takeaways from the podcourses this season.

Developing Management Skills & Team-Building

Kim Scott from Candor, Inc., Jennifer Trzepacz from Wildcat Venture Partners and Michael Wilkinson from Leadership Strategies covered being a better boss, developing effective teams and working effectively in virtual meetings, which many of us now have to adapt to.

In episode 73, Kim Scott explained that you can be a compassionate leader who cares and still is effective in motivating your teams to do great work. And that starts by understanding the best way to give feedback and also knowing how to receive it.

Everything comes down to balance and in team-building balance is also key— it’s taking into account both the hard and soft skills as JT told us in episode 70.

And given the current state of the working world -- with so many more businesses switching to remote work -- team-building has never been more important.

Michael Wilkinson informed us in episode 69 how advanced meeting planning is critically important to do given the virtual world we now live in. Realizing what outcome you want is necessary to scope for prior to having the meeting—not right before or during. He explained the “round robin” technique, where the meeting leader or moderator systematically calls on someone every 10 to 15 minutes. That way everyone pays much closer attention and the meeting is faster and more productive, but also gives everyone a chance to share their thoughts.

Getting Comfortable with Failure in Navigating Business & Career

Rick Lindquist from LegUp Ventures in episode 66 focused on how to set up the right environment for you and your team so that it's safe to fail. And that way you can fail fast and fail often in order to build business momentum.

Being comfortable with failure is a fundamental part of entrepreneurship. In episode 67, Bryan Stolle from Wildcat Venture Partners talked about getting back to the basics, which means making sure your team is the right fit from the foundational level because you have to get them to do irrational and unnatural acts to make things happen.

Being comfortable with failure is fundamental to career momentum as well as business momentum. Joe Saul-Sehy, from The Stacking Benjamins Podcast gave us some valuable tips about navigating the career pivot, saying “Fear is a passenger that's in the backseat wherever I go. And I just have to get used to the fact that that's the case,” but “the clearer you are about what you want to be, the easier it's going to be to get there.”

Mentoring, Office Politics & Networking

Having someone to champion you is a huge help in navigating the unknown. Julie Kantor from TwoMentor advised us on how to establish mentor-mentee relationships that are effective in driving change in one’s career. The trick is to come prepared with a strategic plan for the relationship -- with goals and objectives clearly defined so there is a baseline for the mentor to provide direction.

Creating a strategic plan in everything that you do is a common theme we've continually heard throughout these podcast episodes. When it comes to soft skills like mastering office politics and navigating relationships, there is still the importance of building that plan.

In our episodes on office politics, we learned how to decode and reframe what it is as well as how to manage it. It comes down to realizing navigating politics is about building relationships. It's a network that exists, which you have to understand.

Jordan Harbinger, in episode 74, offered additional insights in building that village to support you in the future. He preaches that networking isn't about transactions and getting the deal done; it's actually about changing the mindset from “Always Be Closing” to “Always Be Giving.”

Managing Social Anxiety

At the end of the day, networking, politics, management and diving into the unknown all come down to having the confidence to have conversations and put yourself out there. But for people who have social anxiety, opening up can be physically impossible.

Mark Metry taught us in episode 72 that overcoming social anxiety takes understanding the science behind the condition and working on rewiring your brain to fix it. You also need to create a plan to start small and continually build up your social skills and well as your physical health to improve your overall well being.

As Connie says, “It's about getting back to basics… Start small, you're testing, you're learning, you're growing and you're building along the way. And from that, you're going to continue to create this momentum to help you break through those challenges that you commonly have.”

Coming Up in Season 4

Starting in August, you’ll hear from more experts on topics covering personal branding, pivoting to find your purpose and passion, and advice to help you manage conflict at work and in your career.

In the meantime, on our website you can continue the learning through articles, videos, and downloadable content that we’re continually adding based on the trends we’re seeing in the workforce. So Let us know what topics you want covered or suggestions for guests. Please send us an email at strategicmomentumpodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening to Strategic Momentum.

Key Quotes:

“If you're pushing yourself hard enough, you are going to have failures and you need to be comfortable with it.” - Jennifer Trzepacz
“The trick is to set up situations where it's safe to fail. Then you can actually take time to learn from it.” - Rick Lindquist
“There's no such thing as an organization that isn't political.” - Preston Lewis
“Networking is like the insurance policy that money can't buy.” - Jordan Harbinger
“We've got to transcend networking and build meaningful connections, and also be reciprocal.” - Julie Kantor
“You need to listen with intent to understand and not to respond.” - Kim Scott
“Leaders of the future are not necessarily those that are more tech-savvy. They are those that have the strongest level of psychological resilience toward the point where they're not abusing technology.” - Mark Metry
“At the end of the day, you have to want to build something great. It's not about the money.” - Bryan Stolle
“Your job as a leader is really to paint a picture of what's possible and praise is a much more important tool than criticism for painting a picture of what's possible.” - Kim Scott
“[To build the right team], it’s a balance between technical skills and the soft skills to achieve this business result.” - Jennifer Trzepacz
“What you need to do is to continually learn outside of your field because I think that it very much, in very weird ways, informs what you do” - Joe Saul-Sehy
“Office politics are the combination of humans being humans at work combined with objectives and organizational dynamics of a company” - Jen McDonald
“Conversations ultimately influence relationships, which directly impact politics and career success.” - Preston Lewis
“If you've been able to successfully network with people, it doesn't become maneuvering. It becomes having conversations so that you can meet your objective.” - Kimberly Henning