Do you know the secret to leadership and success?

Mother Theresa had a clean desk. Lincoln had a great filing system. NOT!

That is how Greg Conderacci talked about “soft skills” at a gathering of the Business Learning Institute's “Top Gun” instructors at our Thought Leader Summit last month.

BLI was created by the MACPA (see this Why BLI? clip) to develop and offer critical “success skills” after research from the CPA Vision Project in 1998, which was recently re-validated in 2011 with the CPA Horizons 2025 Project. The conclusion is that “soft skills” like leadership, collaboration, communication, syntheses, and business development will be the keys to success in a rapidly changing world.

Here are some of my favorite insights from these thought leaders:

• “It's got to be people first for this brave new social world.” — Bill Sheridan
• “BLI's entire focus is where can we help you make a difference in your day-to-day life.” — Frank Ryan
• We focus on “how to bring it into your workplace, your life, and even home, making a return on how you invest yourself.” — Gretchen Pisano
• We “bring what we are teaching down to a level where they can actually use it.” — Jennifer Elder
• Our prioity is “helping them to have those “ah-ha” moments.” — Ray Perry
• “As educators, we need to drive success.” — Peter Margaritis
• BLI is really about your competitive edge: “If you want a competitive advantage for the future, sharpen your saw now.” — Karl Ahlrichs
• “BLI: the hard edge of soft skills.” — Tom Hood

Or, as we like to say, our traning is designed to drive insights to action!

Check out this highlight reel from our meeting and you will feel the energy and passion that makes all the difference in the classroom:

 The conclusion at the end of our summit was this: There is nothing soft about soft skills, and there is a need to rename “soft skills” in light of their impact and growing  importance.

Some ideas were “success skills” and “performance skills.” What do you think we should call them?

Check out our customized training catalog (or download the BLI course catalog) to bring these “top guns” to your company, firm or organization. Programs are available in blended learning options — keynotes, webcasts, e-learning, and seminars (group live). 

Also, save the date for a special BLI Live track at the MACPA's Innovation Summit on June 27 in Baltimore.

The Business Learning Institute is the largest provider of in-house and on-site training in the industry and serves global finance teams and many of the largest CPA firms in the world. Shouldn't you be thinking about your competitve edge?