Professional Development

Let’s get real, you can bet that even “Honest Abe” Lincoln told his fair share of little white lies.

Simply, no one is perfect.

Even the NFL believes the Patriots’ Tom Brady is lied about DeflateGate.

So are your employees, bosses, job applicants and customers always honest with you?

Not likely!

Their lies may not be as big as Richard Nixon’s, Bernie Madoff’s or Lance Armstrong’s, but more than likely you’re hearing a few tall tales.

“On any given day you may be lied to anywhere from 10 to 200 times,” says Pamela Meyer, author of “Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception.”

“And strangers lie three times in the first 10 minutes of meeting each other – remember that the next time you’re interviewing potential employees.”

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The only things Mick and I disagree about is the band, the music and what we do. – Keith Richards

Ha! So how is it, with all that dissent, that the Rolling Stones became one of the most popular and longest-surviving acts in rock music?

Disagreements are at the heart of destruction. But good people, and apparently even Keith Richards, know the value of handling disagreements favorably.

It’s true that people can disagree without being disagreeable.

With the intense turmoil on the national political landscape, this is a great time to review some of the most effective soft skills when it comes to handling real-life  workplace disagreements.

But first, just a reminder that soft skills aren’t always about being soft.

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Few skills are more important in this age of info-overload than delivering a knock-out elevator speech – on demand.

You have got to have one. You have 30 seconds. Go!

Summing up the unique aspects of what it is that you do – in a way that excites others – is a fundamental skill, whether you are raising funds for the local soup kitchen, speculative capital for a risky start-up, or just selling yourself.

You can have a jaw-dropping logo, the perfect slogan, the most dazzling brochure and hottest Web site … even a great smile. But if your elevator pitch is out of date, you’ll swing and miss.

The tried-and-true elevator speech takes upfront practice to get it right, and ongoing work to keep it sharp.

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