Tip #1074: Soft Skills are the Keys to Job Success
This Tip discusses findings that five soft skills are keys to job success, including analytic thinking, leadership, and self-awareness. Soft Skills are the Keys to
April 21, 2025
Equipping Nonprofit Leaders to Build Stronger Teams and Drive Lasting Impact
We provide management training for mid-sized nonprofits, teaching essential skills like delegation, motivation, and team building to improve employee retention and create a thriving workplace culture.
We have supported nonprofit organizations for the past 38 years. This includes working with nonprofit boards of directors to facilitate communication both internally and with the executive director. This also includes working with nonprofit executive directors to improve their leadership skills as well as the morale and performance of employees and volunteers
In addition to facilitating management training and board development services, Laurel and Associates, Ltd. offers employee development training to maximize employee effectiveness and minimize their stress. Our other services include curriculum design, train-the-trainer programs, and training audits.
Laurel and Associates, Ltd.’s Management and Team Development programs strengthen your leadership skills in areas like communication, delegation, motivation, and team building. We provide training that equips your managers to lead more effectively, fostering a productive and engaged workforce.
Laurel and Associates, Ltd.’s Management and Team Development programs are being converted into online training programs. We provide training that equips your managers to lead more effectively, by fostering a productive and engaged workforce.
You know how nonprofit executives often have high burnout levels because of heavy workloads and high expectations without support?
What we do is provide comprehensive leadership training and board development so that the executive director is able to set realistic goals, delegate tasks, ensure high staff morale, and collaborate with the board of directors to manage expectations.
At Laurel and Associates, Ltd., we believe that effective training creates lasting change. We help organizations across industries improve employee performance and leadership capacity by designing training programs that are practical, engaging, and grounded in research-based methods.
Our approach centers on adult learning principles, ensuring that every workshop or course we design for you is relevant, interactive, and immediately applicable. From novice trainers to seasoned executives, our solutions are crafted to meet your unique needs of your workforce.
Introduction: A state agency sought to develop a more cohesive management team.
Challenge: Preliminary survey results and individual interviews indicated that there was a low level of trust and a lack of open communication both within the team and outside it.
Strategies: Facilitate a full day in-person retreat with highly interactive skill-building learning activities that enabled the team members to get to know each other better, develop team operating principles, and collaborate in a problem-solving activities.
Results: Participant evaluations indicated a positive response to the retreat. A survey conducted two months after the retreat indicated that the levels of trust and open communication had increased dramatically.
Impact: The team members felt that the management team now fostered a culture of collaboration and cooperation.
Introduction: An international nonprofit organization needed to help its managers become more comfortable with coaching poor performers.
Challenge: The managers tended to avoid handling issues of poor performance.
Strategies: Facilitate a full-day in-person workshop with highly interactive skill-building learning activities that enabled the managers to learn how to give coaching feedback to poor performers and then practice their new skills to build a level of confidence.
Results: Participant evaluations indicated a positive response to the workshop. The effectiveness of the program convinced the nonprofit to provide the same skill-building training program to additional managers from around the world. They, also, learned how to give coaching feedback and then practiced their new skills.
Impact: Both groups of managers became more comfortable with coaching poor performers.
Conflict Management: What is Conflict?
Conflict Management Skills Week 1:
Any time individuals are involved, whether manager to employee or team member to team member, conflict will inevitably occur at one time or other. Personality differences and opposing conflict management strategies can be the source of the conflict. This week will begin with a look at different perceptions of conflict. If you are a manager who is currently dealing with conflict or knows you will have to manage conflict, please join on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on April 22nd at 10 am CDT.
Conflict Management: Good and Bad Aspects of Conflict.
Conflict Management Skills Week 2:
Conflict has both positive and negative aspects. To a great extent, the difference lies in your perspective and how you handle conflict. Negative consequences of conflict that is not managed well can include a toxic environment and staff attrition. But conflict managed well can be very positive, leading to increased creativity and productivity. This week we will consider both aspects of conflict. If you are a manager who would like a better understanding of how to minimize the negative consequences and maximize the positive consequences of conflict, join us on our LinkedIn Live series What Managers Need to Know on April 29th at 10 am CDT.
Conflict Management: Shark and Turtle Strategies.
Conflict Management Skills Week 3:
There are five basic conflict management strategies. They vary in terms of their focus on achieving goals and maintaining a positive relationship. This week we will analyze the behavior, underlying rationale, and when it makes sense to use or not to use the conflict management strategy of the Shark, who competes, and the Turtle, who avoids conflict. If you are a manager who uses these strategies or interacts with someone who does, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on May 6th at 10 am CDT.
Conflict Management: Teddy Bear, Fox, and Owl Strategies.
Conflict Management Skills Week 4:
There are five basic conflict management strategies. Some are more effective than others in helping to find an amicable resolution to a conflict. This week we will analyze the behavior, underlying rationale, and when it makes sense to use or not use the conflict management strategies of the Teddy Bear, who accommodates, the Fox, who compromises, and the Owl, who collaborates. If you are a manager who uses these strategies or interacts with someone who does, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on May 13th at 10 am CDT.
Conflict Management: Why We Respond the Way We Do.
Conflict Management Skills Week 5:
We all have conflict management styles that vary, based on our upbringing, our life experience, and our values and beliefs. But we may not be aware of what motivates our responses to conflict. Those responses may be effective or ineffective. So, the more we know why we react the way we do, the more we will be able to adjust how we respond when others are in conflict with us. If you are a manager who faces conflict regularly or worries about facing conflict with employees or peers, join us on our LinkedIn Live series What Managers Need to Know on May 20th at 10 am CDT.
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Thank you Deb for all the great learning!!!
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