Are you a technical professional at a career crossroads and realize you need additional skills to move up in your organization? Have you been promoted and now have non-technical responsibilities but find yourself uncertain about leading and managing others? Do you need to communicate more effectively within your team, with other technical teams, and with non-technical professionals? Are you responsible for presenting solutions, updates, and recommendations to clients, your boss, or your team?

If you, like many technical professionals, who got involved in design, engineering, coding, analysis, or some other discipline because you appreciate the process and workflow orientation that aligned with your own approach but now recognize that there is more to the job and your career than just the technical skills, then this course is for you!

Welcome to Smart Tips: Soft Skills for Technical Professionals. In this course, I’ll provide short lectures on a range of skills that will help you do something new and fast that you can try in your work and personal life. The videos are all independent and are grouped into general topics - Self-Management, Communications, Productivity, Teamwork, and Career Progression. That means you can pick and choose the particular lecture or topic that feels most relevant to you and provides tips to gaining the knowledge you need when you need it.

I created this Udemy course to be practical, actionable, and applicable to situations you are likely experiencing. Like you, I am a technical professional who faced the challenges of being assigned non-technical responsibilities and wanted to be as accomplished and effective in those areas as I was in my technical discipline. Becoming more effective - and valuable to my organization - meant I had to embrace a different way of thinking to lead teams with confidence and achieve my career goals. And what I came to realize in leading teams, managing projects, and working with clients was that the “soft skills” don’t have to be scary.

This course is designed for technical professionals across industries who are looking to understand what skills will eventually be required, to start acquiring new skills, or to brush up or sharpen some existing skills through targeted and practical tools and techniques.

In this course, you will learn to:

• Develop greater self-awareness and emotional intelligence to manage yourself and your relationships with colleagues, clients, and co-workers

• Challenge your mindsets for professional growth

• Recognize your resilience and unlock your creativity

• Present your ideas persuasively and with polish

• Ask the right questions and to listen with intent

• Manage time and productivity by dispelling perceptions, planning, and prioritization

• Maintain balance between work and home

• Give effective feedback that can be heard, understood and acted on

• Receive feedback without getting defensive

• Foster teamwork through positive conflict and greater collaboration

• Enhance your professional persona

• Sharpen your critical thinking and what is getting in the way

• Own your career and set personal and professional goals

In addition to the video lectures, there are a wealth of resources and downloads available to you that can help in the process of discovering your strengths, areas of development, and personal goals in addition to examples that can be applied to your individual situation. The format of the course is great for busy professionals and presents the strategies in a direct and actionable way.

I give you the benefit of more than 30 years of experience leading and managing technical professionals and teams and the lessons I learned in acquiring and mastering the “soft” skills - those critical in organizational life - that I needed to advance my career and achieve my personal and professional goals.

So, what are you waiting for?

Join other busy technical professionals and give yourself the support and competitive advantage to help you take control of your career and unlock your inner leader.