Effective Strategies and Activities for Developing Soft Skills, Part 2

Abstract

AbstractEmployers seek employees who possess soft skills. Employees who do not have excellent soft skills may not experience success in obtaining and sustaining employment. McEwen's (2010) framework for skill-building-introduce, explain, practice, and reinforce-was used to describe activities for enhancing soft skills. Soft skills building activities presented in this article include a pyramid building activity, a role play, a reflection journal, a listening activity, a What's on a Penny? activity, a line-dancing activity, and a story-in-the-bag activity.This is a two-part series. Part 1 provides information about soft skills, a framework for developing soft skills, and the assessment of soft skills. Part 2 will provide interactive teaching ideas for the development of soft skills.IntroductionSoft skills are skills that accompany hard skills. According to Lorenz,'Soft skills' refer to a cluster of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make someone a good employee and compatible to work with. Companies value soft skills because research suggests and experience shows that they can be just as important an indicator of job performance as hard skills (2009, para. 2).Employers are seeking employees who possess both hard skills and soft skills. Business educators need to teach soft skills as part of their curriculum along with hard skills in order to prepare students for the world of work.The purposes of this two-part article are (a) to provide business educators with factual information about soft skills development strategies and assessment, and (b) to provide business educators with a variety of interesting teaching ideas and resources that they can use to help students develop their soft skills. Part 1 of this article addressed the first purpose, and Part 2 of this article addresses the second purpose.The skill-building process model used in the activities for this article follow McEwen's (2010) model: introduce the skill to be developed, explain and/or demonstrate how the skill is developed, practice the skill with instructor guidance, and reinforce the skill based upon evaluation.Activities for Developing Soft SkillsA wide variety of activities can be used to develop and refine soft skills. Selected activities are presented here to illustrate the development of different types of soft skills, including listening, interpretation, leadership, followership, communication, collaboration, work ethic, reflection, detail orientation, and presentation confidence. Useful activities for developing soft skills include the pyramid building activity, a role play, a reflection journal, a listening activity, What's on a penny? activity, a line-dancing activity, and a story-in-the bag activity.The pyramid building activity. The purpose of the pyramid building activity is to develop communication skills and collaboration skills, two of the four Cs discussed by Glenn (2011). The materials required for this activity include ten paper or plastic cups, five strings, and one small rubber band for each team of five students (Dayley, 2004). The activity requires about 20 to 30 minutes to complete and may be used at the secondary level as well as subsequent levels of instruction.To introduce the activity, the instructor will ask the students if they have ever built a pyramid with paper or plastic cups without touching the cups with any parts of their bodies. Many of the students will answer, No. The instructor will then respond, Okay, here is your opportunity.To explain the activity, the instructor shares the full instructions. The instructions include the following:1. The students must build the highest pyramid by using the cups, rubber band, and strings in the shortest amount of time.2. Everyone in the team must participate in moving each cup into place without touching the cup with any part of his or her body; only the string and rubber band may touch the cup. …