Hardcore Soft Skills Podcast

This episode marks the end of Season 3. We have learned about skills such as curiosity, agility, mindfulness, change management, writing, grit and others. One skill that for many of us is quite difficult to master is personal branding.

How can we make this less uncomfortable or basically how can we just feel better about promoting ourselves? In this episode you will learn each step to do so. My gust Peggy Klaus (https://peggyklaus.com/ ) is the author of two best-selling books BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It and The Hard Truth About Soft Skills (needless to say I love the title).

For more than two decades Peggy has shared her vast expertise in leadership and communication with C suite executives, and managers. Today we talk about the right way to do personal branding bot in person and virtually. We also discuss office politics and why this should not be considered a dirty concept.

If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/ Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

In this episode we talk about Mindfulness. My guest Jon Macaskill (https://macaskillconsulting.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmacaskill/) is a a retired Navy Seal Commander who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Panama. He is now co-host of the podcast Men Talking Mindfulness (https://mentalkingmindfulness.com/) and he is also a mindfulness and meditation teacher.

Jon talks how mindfulness and meditation helped him deal with the experiences in combat zones. He discusses some of the myths of meditation and gives us some key steps to improve on the skill of being mindful.

If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/ Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

Today we will talk about Confidence. Have you felt at any point in your career that you were underqualified for a role? Or perhaps you fear that at any moment someone will find out that you don't really deserve that position?

Impostor Syndrome is very real and frequent among many of us. My guest has focused his career studying this and providing solutions for people on how to beat self-doubt. Dr. Richard Orbe-Austin is a psychologist and career coach (https://www.dynamictransitionsllp.com/). He and with his partner Dr. Lisa Orbe-Austin wrote the book Own Your Greatness which addresses specific techniques on overcoming impostor syndrome and gaining confidence. They also have a great Ted Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2zbcZBI0Do) on how it affected their own lives

In this episode we talk about some of those techniques in the book, the misconceptions about impostor syndrome and how you can take cation today.

Today we will talk about what you need to do make change happen. My guest is the authority on change. John P. Kotter (https://www.kotterinc.com/) is a best-selling author, award winning business and management thought leader, business entrepreneur and Harvard Professor. One of his books Leading Change was selected by Time magazine as one of the most influential books ever written. We talk about his 8 step process for leading change, how you can become a better change agent and the opportunities we have after the pandemic. If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/ Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

This week's interview was one I had wanted to do for a long time. I work as Product Owner working closely with software developers creating apps at a military organization. We use the Scrum framework, which is one of the multiple agile approaches focused in delivering solutions quickly to customers. The approach is not just about being technically savvy, but on making good use of those critical skills like teamwork, listening and management.

As many organizations are talking today about becoming "agile" it is important to know what it really means. Dr. Jeff Sutherland (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsutherland/) is the ideal person to discuss this. He is the chairman and founder of Scrum Inc. (www.scruminc.com) , a signatory of the Agile manifesto, coauthor of the Scrum Guide and the creator Scrum@Scale. He is also the coauthor of the best selling book Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time.

Today we talk about the misconceptions of Agile, the origins of the Scrum framework, ,and how his military experience and his work doing scientific computer modeling influenced him.

In this episode we talk about Curiosity. This time we talk about the scientific research on Curiosity with Dr Alison Hostmeyer (https://www.dralisonh.com/). She is a humanistic researcher and talent development consultant. Her research focuses on curiosity and associated mental, emotional, and motivational attributes. Dr Hortsmeyer is also adjunct faculty for USC Marshall School of Business Executive Education and the inaugural Research Fellow appointed to USC Annenberg Center for Third Space Thinking.

Today we talk about science says on curiosity and what can we do to cultivate this skill.

You can read some of her work here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WZvA_lhtY8GoXzkFrS1fUa4vlop8wmLeq8os2s9yl8s/edit

If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/ Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

Today our focus will be not on the concept of skills but attributes. If you are a frequent listener of this podcast you know I really enjoy talking with current and former members of the military because they have great insights learned on the field which we can apply basically anywhere.

I was very happy to have this guest on the show to share his lessons as a Navy Seal Commander and which he captures in his book The Attributes (https://theattributes.com/buy/)

Rich Diviney draws upon over 20 years of experience as a Navy SEAL Officer where he completed more than 13 overseas deployments – 11 of which were to Iraq and Afghanistan. Since retirement a few years ago, Rich has worked as a speaker, facilitator, and consultant with the Chapman & Co Leadership Institute and Simon Sinek Inc.

We talked about attributes and you will learn how he differentiates these from skills. The attributes he talks about are quite similar to those we address here

These are grouped into the categories of mental acuity, drive, leadership, teamability and grit.

You can take the Attributes Assessment here: https://theattributes.com/blog/about-the-assessment/

You can get in touch with Rich via

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richdiviney/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rich_diviney/

If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/

Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

In this episode we talk about one of the skills most difficult to master: good writing. My guest is Leslie O'Flahavan is a get to the point writer and experienced instructor. She is the owner of the company E-write (https://ewriteonline.com/) and she has provided customized writing courses for Fortune 500 compnaies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. She is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor with courses on writing for social media, chat and others.

This is one of the episodes where we will really delve into some tips we can use right now. We also talks about why she is not a fan of the term "soft" skills.

You can get in touch with Leslie via

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslieoflahavan/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeslieO

If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/

Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

Tech- savviness or being Tech-Savvy is not just about knowing a 'how to,' but about cultivating the desire to always be learning more. This is what we will talk about today with my guest Bob Fabien Zinga (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfabienzinga/)

Fabien is a cybersecurity executive and US Navy Reserves Commander with 23 years of experience in Information Technology and areas such as leadership, business operations, and project management. He is also part of the Forbes Technology Council of Experts panel. You can see his contributions here: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/tech/profile/Bob-Fabien-Zinga-Head-Director-Information-Security-Information-Warfare-Commander-Directly-Inc-U-S-N/fcf91616-0afb-4518-94aa-93103b562d3c

I invited him because he is always sharing great information both to the tech experts about the latest trends and about the fields we must learn more about. We talked about his fascinating life story, and his views on why we should educate ourselves in business.

If you want to receive more information, subscribe to my newsletter via https://www.hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com/

Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]

Today we will talk about Grit and our expert is former Army Colonel David Fivecoat (https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-fivecoat-b5860b75/ ), who served twenty-four years as an infantry officer, leading men and women during contingency operations in Kosovo and Bosnia, three combat tours in Iraq, and a combat tour commanding a battalion in Afghanistan. He culminated his service by overseeing the gender integration of the US Army's Ranger School. David is now retired from military life but has now launched the Fivecoat Consulting Group (https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/) with the mission of helping leaders, managers, and organizations be the grittiest leaders that they can be.

We will be talking about some of the key lessons from his book Grow Your Grit: Overcome Obstacles, Thrive, and Accomplish Your Goals (https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/books)

Connect with me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yadiraycaro/ or email me at [email protected]