Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry

PART IIITools

THE LAST PART DISCUSSES the tools for managing and successfully accomplishing tasks. If you want to successfully manage yourself and others, you should master the tools described in the following chapters. Effective management stands or falls on the proper use of tools. Professionals usually think of tools as their computer and software applications (apps) or their smartphone and tablet. The following chapters will only mention technical tools, not cover them. The pandemic, in particular, has led to collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom changing a professional's day‐to‐day life. Rather, the tools for effective management presented here are about self‐management, the psyche, in the form of mental strength, rhetoric and the way professionals communicate, and communication tools. Finally, I present a tool with the Work‐Life‐Balanced‐Scorecard, which helps you to bring balance into your life and thus combine the aspects of professional success and private happiness.

For a top athlete it is a matter of course to train on a regular basis. Only through repeated practice do they reach mastery. Anyone who wants to learn a new language knows that they will only succeed through regular practice. What is natural for an athlete or a person who wants to learn a language should also be natural for a professional. There is only one way to master the following tools: regular practice! Professionals often have a penchant for perfectionism. Sometimes, perfectionism can ...