Serious Soft Skills

Patience makes the list of soft skills. We'll explain why and how it fosters opportunities at work and in careers.
 
Introduction
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘0:20'): Welcome to Serious Soft Skills, Episode 15. With me is Bob Graham. For you newcomers, welcome. Let's set the stage. We have uncovered a list of 55 soft skills from our review of academic research and our teaching of college students, and our work in diverse industries. We use our keen eye on soft skills to help uncover how they work and how we all can improve them. We look at what they mean and why they matter in today's workplace.
Porterfield (‘0:48'): Now we are going to take a look at patience. As I say that Bob, I feel like I need to take a deep breath. Let's. Deal. With. Patience. I feel relaxed when I say it.
Bob Graham (‘1:00'): I have been waiting forever for you to ask me that question. I am at the edge of my seat. Could he have gone any longer with that introduction and the guy with the really good voice that we paid so much money for. Then back to you. I just can't wait any longer. I am just going to jump right into it.
Porterfield (‘1:23'): Maybe patience isn't your thing.
Graham (‘1:23'): It is not. I openly admit that. This is one that I cringe to see some of the people who are around me to hear that I am talking about patience. I am not a very patient person. I am hoping we can learn some things from our discussion. I did some research because it is not my strong suit.
Getting a Handle on Basic Patience
Graham (‘1:47'): There was a good article about patience in the Huffington Post in April 2015. It's by Dr. Heiger Zayed. I apologize if i misstated that name. He really explained where we start with the idea of patience. He say:
Patience gives us the option to cool down and to extend the grace to ourselves and others in the immediate moment — when we need it most. To be patient means we don't react mindlessly to minor irritations and inconveniences. Patience gives us the freedom to respond in a more kind and gentle way.
Graham (‘2:42'): He ends with a really interesting idea, which is that it is one of the greatest virtues in all religions. And if you think about that, it is really true. We really value patience — like we value gold because it's hard to find gold. And it's hard to find patience, and when I find it, it's often by just luck. I don't think I am consistent with patience at all and that's part of the challenge with it. But you want to talk a little differently about patience? Can you explain why it's a soft skill and why we think it's important?
How Patience is a Soft Skill
Porterfield (‘3:18'): We cast patience as one of our Individual skills that we bring to the workplace, but it's not one we naturally bring to any relationship. It is something most of us have to work on, myself included. It gets back to that core element. It can be so damaging to a relationship to not have patiences involved. My concern with including patience or encouraging it in the workplace is that it can run in conflict with the need to be proactive. We want to be careful that we cast patience and some similar ones that we talk about with respect for the people we work with. Empathy is one of them. Patience isn't about how we deal with time management or how we deal with proactive or taking initiative. Patience doesn't mean sitting back and letting things come, but as Zayed had said, allowing us to take a breath and think about that next step and not respond in a way that will be inappropriate or damaging. We really are talking about being patient with other people and being patient even with ourselves and our situation.