"See that sheet of paper over there? $50 says it has the words "communicate", "listen", "avoid jargon" and "manage expectations" written on it within the hour."
Dean Leary (25) is an up-and-coming financial planner, working for Wealthforce Financial Partners for the last year or so. He absolutely loves what he does, and finds it really weird that people pay money for his financial advice. He finds it particularly strange given the fact that he still lives with his parents, and doesn't really know the first thing about money or the best uses to which it can be put.
Today is Wealthforce's annual training day. The company hires out a room at a plush golf course, and various speakers impart wisdom on a range of financial topics. Despite the fact that Dean was looking at his phone under the table for pretty much the whole morning, he actually learned a fair bit from the morning speakers.
After lunch, a British man in a leather jacket confidently strode into the training room. He set up a large allocation of butcher paper in each corner of the room, and allocated a black marker for each one. Dean had no idea what was going on. All he knew was that the guy in the leather jacket looked suspiciously excited. He was pacing back and forth and making manic small talk with the people at the front of the room. Dean's colleague Brian James (27) explained what was about to happen.
"Hey Deano. You've never been to one of these things hey? It's about to get scary lame in here. See that butcher paper? 50 bucks says it has the words "communicate", "listen", "understand the client's needs", "manage expectations" and "avoid jargon" written on it within the hour."
Dean didn't have a clue what Brian was talking about. But soon everything became clear. They were separated into groups, and the overstimulated man in the leather jacket started asking questions like "How do you know what the client wants?" and "How do you make sure the client understands your advice?"
And then, like magic, Brian's predictions came true. And all the while the revved up Englishman kept pointing at people and exclaiming "Yes good what else?". First, the butcher paper had "listening" written on it. Then "manage expectations" appeared right on schedule. And so on. Pretty soon, Brian was starting to look like some kind of psychic, as all of his predictions came true.
Dean was very impressed, and asked how his mate did it.
"Yeah mate I'm not a psychic. 'Soft skills' pretty much always has the same script. It's the perfect storm- It's boring and predictable, but at the same time you can't just tune out because there's so much bloody crowd participation involved."
At the end of the day, Dean's mind had been numbed by his first ever soft skills session. But he feels confident that next year he can play the role of expert to the uninitiated when the butcher paper is unfurled.
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