Most of the international students are engineers with an extremely technical education. This narrow focus is somehow celebrated in this magical land of startups, V.C.s, burn rates, and unicorns. What can we offer the students that will help them in their quest for entrepreneurial success?

We have no technological background nor are we even V.C.s. We have a few clients with software and high tech products, but we are not their technical advisors. However, we are their business advisors. We help them make better business decisions and keep them on track to their ultimate acquisition. It’s what we’ve done. It’s what we’re experienced at.

So, when we looked at these groups of international tech students touring through Silicon Valley, we realized that the best thing we could do for them was to share a different skill set they need to be successful – soft skills.  These are generally not taught in the technical schools. Nor are they generally shared by the enshrined V.C.s who got rich and famous strictly on their technology.

Soft skills can increase your credit and terms, reduce your turnover, and turn customers into advocates.

In fact, one of our most popular talks is “How Soft Skills Earn Hard Cash.” In this talk, we explore how soft skills can positively affect the three key business relationships; Vendors, Employees, and Customers. We advocate empathy and putting yourself in the other guy’s shoes as the foundational soft skill from which all the others flow.

As an example, one of the soft skills that seems to be disappearing these days is simple acknowledgment and confirmation. Let’s take Bill, for example, a recent Engineering grad. He just got funding for his new tech startup.

When Bill is asked to research something or execute a project, he does not extend the courtesy of reassuring the requesting party that he got the request. He doesn’t give them a date for completion. And he does not notify them in advance of a delay.

By not acknowledging or being responsive, he reasons that he can get to it or not and force the requesting party to get back to him to see if he completed the assignment or dropped it. This may take the pressure off Bill, but it hurts his business, no matter how tech savvy he is.

Many folks who lack soft skill training will actually complete the project but not report. That way if they don’t get around to it, they figure they haven’t committed. Plus there’s a chance the requesting party may forget altogether. But if they have completed, and they don’t report, they figure they can say, “Oh yea, that project, I completed it last week.” It’s as if to say confirmation and status reporting are not necessary because you can count on me, kind of a “just trust me” scenario.

The fact is that the anxiety this work style causes for the requesting party hurts Bill’s relationship with them.

Now the employee, vendor, or client is less likely to extend special considerations to Bill because they feel he is less reliable and unresponsive.

Bill had better get that second and third round of financing from the V.C. (and give up more of his equity). That’s because he will be paying top dollar for everything, have limited or no credit, and a revolving door that his trained people are leaving through.

Bill’s tech business can take a dive because he missed the opportunity to build trust with the very people he depended upon. A simple soft skill like confirmation and timely status reporting builds the kind of trust that can significantly reduce your cost of doing business. This is just one of many important soft skills that can help any business.

Oh, and as far as the tour of tech-campused Silicon Valley is concerned, when they are done seeing all the concrete, glass, steel, and conference rooms, we take them on a tour in the wine country and the redwoods where we share lessons about how soft skills can earn hard cash.  Want to come along?

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Confirmation Is More Than a Courtesy appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Our friend recently graduated with an advanced degree in Nursing. To celebrate, we invited her and her friends over for a party. A week before the party, we went to our friendly neighborhood grocery store where a young man does barbecuing out in front on the weekends. We thought, “Why not keep the money in the neighborhood and support a local merchant?”

So, we went to the barbecue guy and asked him if he was going to be barbecuing the following weekend. He said he would start at 11 AM on the day of our event. So, we ordered several chickens and several sides of ribs, enough for everyone. It was a sizable order. We told him we would pick the order up at 2 o’clock on the day of the event. He agreed and took our name and number.

On the day of the event, we showed up at noon to add to the order as the RSVPs had increased. But to our surprise, no barbecue guy! We went inside and asked the store manager what was up. The store manager said the barbecue guy wasn’t going to be there that day and there would be no barbecue!

Yikes! Now we were panicked! We had all these folks coming over and no barbecue. We quickly got on the phone and found another barbecue guy who was barbecuing in the next town. Luckily, they could fill the order by 2 o’clock. We had to drive a one-hour round-trip to pick up the barbecue. Problem solved.

Then at 3 o’clock, we get a phone call from our original barbecue guy. He wants to know when we’re going to pick up the order. We told him that the store where he worked said he wouldn’t be there that day and so we had to go elsewhere for the barbecue. We felt sorry for the guy but felt we had no choice under the circumstances taking the action we took.

A Growing Problem

We see this is a problem on the increase everywhere. Many folks don’t think to advise those who are depending upon them about the status of their requests. The local barbecue guy expected his customer to blindly trust that he would perform even though he knew that announcements had been made indicating that he could not. He did not feel obligated to call to reassure us. Perhaps he will next time!

To put this problem another way, some may think avoiding acknowledgement, confirmation and proactive status reports is a type of protection. They may think their silence insulates them from criticism. That way, if they perform, great. If they don’t perform, it’s up to the person who’s made the request to get back and ask where they are. That way they don’t really own the job.

The problem with this line of thinking is that most people who have been disappointed in the past assume their request will be dropped if they don’t get acknowledgement, confirmation, and timely updates. They have to! They have taken responsibility for the action whether or not the person they asked performs.  That’s because they do own the job! And they will take alternative actions to meet the deadlines.

We’ve seen this minimalist approach in other forms like, not acknowledging a request, dropping an assignment until it’s re-requested, getting the requested information but not reporting it. These are all forms of not owning the job.

Removing Anxiety thru Acknowledgement & Confirmation

The key to being dependable is not give anyone who depends on you apprehension. They shouldn’t have to ask themselves: “Are they going to do it? Are they going to do it on time? Can I rely on them? Are they going to drop it? Do I have to go around them? Why haven’t I heard from them? And why do I have to check up on them anyway?” Remove all these types of anxiety with acknowledgement, confirmation, and status updates. When it comes to a job that others depend on you for, just own it!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Acknowledgement, Confirmation, and Status Reporting Demonstrate Responsibility appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.