Remaining authentic when incorporating soft skills

Last Wednesday I gave a talk to the British Council Leadership Forum at the Sarova Stanley. My presentation was entitled "Why your Handshake might be costing you money: The importance of Soft Skills in Business." One of the questions that was raised during my Q&A was about remaining authentic when incorporating some of the soft skills as part of your repertoire in business. I want to elaborate a little on that. This does not mean being a fake. You can be authentic and show who you are and also adapt people skills that will help you. Above all be above board and transparent with your dealings with people. Do let your personality come through – you do not be to be straight jacketed into something you are not. But never forget we make immediate judgements about who we want to talk to on appearance and body language. This is followed by how people sound, not what they are saying. The impression a person, a place or an organisation makes on you is very important; however, try to beware of jumping to snap decisions - especially about people. Some of us are better at evaluating our fellows than others, and although we should take notice of initial reactions they must not prejudice us against exploring further.