The Hard Truth about Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They'd Learned Sooner

by Peggy Klaus

Book Overview

What's the hard truth? Soft skills get little respect but will make or break your career. Master your soft skills and really get ahead at work

Fortune 500 coach Peggy Klaus encounters individuals every day who excel at their jobs but aren't getting where they want to go. It's rarely a shortfall in technical expertise that limits their careers, but rather a shortcoming in their social, communication, and self-management behaviors. In The...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061284149
• ISBN13: 9780061284144
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Book! (for entry -level and mature workers)

This book explained in detail, how to survive in the workplace. It has many examples on how to follow the unwritten rules (usually gained from many years in the work environment). I plan to purchase books for my employees and other young adults entering the workforce

Exactly what the title says

This book is spot on about being the "hard truth" about soft skills. We can often get caught up in what we think is "fair", what companies "should" do and how people "should" behave and all of those things are honestly irrelevant. It is not until people are ready to face the hard truths that they are able to make decisions about their willingness to make changes to their work styles that will impact their career track.

I wish this had been a college graduation present 20 years ago.

Peggy Klaus has an uncanny ability to lead us toward dissecting our shortcomings and self-destructive behaviors. Like the best of life coaches, she is benevolent and practical in analyzing workplace situations and suggesting behavioral strategies. This book will benefit everyone from the CEO, to the manager, to support staff, to teachers, to shop owners, to freelancers, etc... as it is really about interrelating even away from the office. I came away from this book with a list of easily assimilated action steps to incorporate into my working relationships. Klaus' use of case studies and alternate scripts makes this all the easier to think through and project into our own scenarios.

Soft Skills in My Real World

As someone who has read many self help books and taken a long look about improving relationships in my own workplace (Aa Montessori School), I have to say that Klaus' latest book has spoken to everything that I have experienced in the past 30 years. Where was Klaus' book 30 years ago when I begun my career. I found this book to be very inspirational and it helped me better understand the great need to even help my own employees (teachers) develop their special soft skills in our Montessori School, as well as work on my own skills. This book is a must for anyone feeling stuck at his/her workplace. Klaus' book on how to look at new behaviors; which encompasses personal social awareness, problem solving skills, critical thinking, self control and many other positive actions. Everyone learns how to do the skills in their job but no one has ever captured the importance of balancing skills with personal traits, attitude, confidence and risk taking. There is no substitute for real world experience; Klaus knows how to capture all levels of awareness to help everyone have a brilliant career.

Essential Soft Skills

The Hard Truth About Soft Skills is a self-help book in the deepest sense--the wisest and wittiest advice on not only staying clear-eyed at work, but also elevating oneself into the upper reaches of the work force. It is a lively, original guide on cultivating habits, staying positive and cool, listening, mastering company culture, eschewing gossip, transforming a tormentor into a teacher, among so many other essential and delicious necessaries. With a messianic zeal, Peggy Klaus's dazzling book insists on the freedom to change one's life, and implicit in change is the sense that we act for ourselves rather than are acted upon. The Hard Truth inspires us to hone our vital soft skills--people skills!--and deserves a wide readership among those who work, which is nearly all of us. Peggy's first book, the hilarious, energetic, and astonishingly practical Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, is about opening your eyes and reading yourself and, ultimately, how to live in the world, artfully bragging all the way. I am an ardent fan.