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Unlocking Power
Skills: How to Kara Ronin

Help Your Team

Founder, Executive Impressions
Udemy Business Leadership Instructor

Communicate,
Lead, & Succeed
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
John O’Neill
Learning Partner, Udemy

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Today’s discussion

1. What are power skills and

why are they trending?
2. Power Skills & Leadership
Development

3. Steps to incorporate
power skills into your
4. Q&A

2022 learning programs

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“ Power skills have always been an
important part of workplace learning,
and their importance has only grown
more urgent as the global workforce
navigates the changes of the last few
years.

Enabling employees to develop power

skills related to communication,
collaboration, and change leadership is
“
key to building an agile business and a
strong company culture.
Udemy Business’ 2022 Workplace Learning Trends Report

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 What are
power skills?

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 Leadership Communication Empathy
Strategic Thinking Listening Assertiveness
Team Building Collaboration Coaching
Problem Solving Goal Setting Inclusion

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“ Hard Skills are soft (they
change all the time, are
constantly being obsoleted,
and are relatively easy to
learn), and Soft Skills are
hard (they are difficult to
“ Josh Bersin

build, critical, and take Founder, John Bersin Academy

extreme effort to obtain).

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Power skills have never been soft.

They empower employees.

They are highly transferable.
They turn output into outcomes.
They require ongoing investment.

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Reskilling in Power Skills
McKinsey & Co Global Survey, 2020

73%
Of respondents agreeing
employee satisfaction improved
56%
Of respondents agreeing
48%
Of respondents agreeing
internal hiring improved the bottom line improved

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 Why are power skills
currently trending?

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The demands
9/10
Organizations planning for

& expectations
permanent remote or hybrid
working arrangements

of work are
McKinsey & Co

changing, & fast.

52%
of workers preferring to work
at home permanently
Society of Human
Resource Management

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“ We are at a major inflection
point, and not just socially,
or in the political arena.
From the vantage point of
business, several forces
“
have combined to create a Homa Bahrami

new reality.
Lecturer & Author,
UC Berkeley

“Very big changes are coming very fast to

the American workplace”
Berkeley News, 2020

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New Reality

● People seek flexible work conditions

● Remote & hybrid work requires power skills
● Liminal period remains ambiguous and volatile
● Greater focus on employee well-being
● Leaders must recognize and respond to
change more and rapidly

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 “ Within the lens of
power skills, leadership
development is a clear “
priority for every
organization.
Udemy Business’ 2022 Workplace
Learning Trends Report

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 Why developing
power skills is essential
for every employee —
including technical teams.

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Why are power/leadership skills so important?

Helps employees move from good

to great

Unfortunately, formal education

neglects the importance of power
skills & leadership skills

Leadership skills need to be showcased

early in one’s career

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 “ To be a well-rounded
employee, people need
a good combination
“
of both technical and
power skills.
Kara Ronin

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How do power/leadership skills relate to the world today?
The Great Resignation
People are feeling overworked and
underappreciated
● Keeping talent is a priority
● Millennials list L&D
opportunities as a key reason to
choose an employer
● Lack of L&D opportunities
is a key reason why
people quit
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How Do Power Skills Help Short-term Fixes to
to Retain Employees? Retain Employees
Learning new skills gives employees Better work/life balance
the feeling of career progression
● Increase in salary
● You show you believe in your
employees ● Additional leave/vacation
● Increases job satisfaction & employee
retention
● You can continue your business with
less disruption
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LinkedIn Poll Results
5% 31%
Which incentive would make you want to
stay in your current job (and not quit)?
● Clear career progress (37%)
● Better work/life balance (31%)
● Higher salary/bonus (27%)

● Additional leave/holidays (5%)

27%

37%

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What leadership skills should you teach your employees?

These leadership skills will

help you navigate Communication Coaching Empathy
the Great Resignation.
Critical to an effective Not enough managers and People are feeling
● Gives employees a
work environment leaders use coaching overworked and
feeling underappreciated
of career progression.
● Helps employees feel
Helps people work in Helps manager/leader to Willingness to understand
you’re investing in
harmony with one another identify problem areas and work through
their future. early on problems is paramount
● In turn, this will help
with job satisfaction
Helps remove Helps employees feel less Creates a kinder, happier
and employee misunderstanding alone and more supported workplace for all
retention. at work

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 How do I incorporate
power skills training
into my team’s
learning programs?

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Identify what skills your team needs

Use formal evaluations

E.g. 360-degree reviews, DISC, Clifton
Strengths.

Awareness Look at your team/companies future goals

Identify new priorities your team/company
have in this new world of work.
Consideration
Understand specific skills
E.g. Leadership is broad. Within “leadership”,

Decision what skills does your team need?

Have conversations with your team

Honest conversations can help you identify
skills each individual employee needs.

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Show that managers and leaders are learning too

Help overcome the misconception that Help breakdown any mental block when
power skills or leadership skills aren’t it comes to learning power skills
important
● People may think they’re not important
When lower-level employees see you (the
● People may assume they’re not helpful in
manager/leader) placing importance on power their career progression
skills & leadership skills, they’ll realize these skills
● Show that you, as a manager/leader, place a
are important for their career success too.
high-level of importance on power skills

● Change your team’s perception of power

skills

● Make it part of your everyday leadership life

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Don’t be afraid of investing in your team

● What if they leave?

● What if they don’t leave? Your

employees won’t be equipped to help
your company grow

● If you don’t invest in them, they may

leave anyway because they don’t see
any career progression

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 How the Udemy
Learning team
practices power
skills training

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Make a continual effort to:

● Make learning and development

collaborative and contextual

● Infuse power skills training into

existing programs and processes

● Create feedback mechanisms for

accountability and motivation

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Make it collaborative and contextual
Manager Labs
Manager Labs are social learning events designed to
make power skills contextual for managers. Managers
come together for group discussion, brainstorming,
and storytelling on power skills that address the
current needs of the business and their teams.
Recent Topics:
● Leading with Empathy
● Inspiring Growth Mindset in Performance
Reviews
● Allyship for Managers
● Remote Onboarding
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Work from Home Canvas
The Work-From-Home Canvas is a fillable PDF
employees use to identify, communicate, and
revisit their needs during remote work. The tool is
intended to support conversations between
managers and direct reports regarding well-being,
performance and individualized needs.
Content:
● Physiological Needs
● Connection & Belonging
● Structure for Work
● Personal & Professional Goals
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Infuse power skills into existing process and programs
Connect coaching skills to diversity, equity, inclusion, & belonging:

Provide power skill tools for existing programs & processes:

Work-From-Home Career Return-to-Office

Asynchronous
Canvas Coaching Conversations Manager
Work Tools
Tool Coaching Tool Enablement Tool

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Feedback mechanisms for accountability & motivation
“Jane is an inspiring leader who has
fantastic emotional intelligence.
She is inclusive, thoughtful and
empathic and builds effective
relationships across teams. She
demonstrates a ‘growth mindset’
and leads by example”
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“Something I really admire
about Don is his ability to fully
comprehend our daily
challenges. He's always open to
feedback and suggestions, and
takes the time to strategize
with the team to formulate best
practice for each of us in our
role.”
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“Lucy made a real point of
understanding how each of us
likes to receive feedback, and be
coached & supported. She
makes herself available to assist
where it can provide either an
opportunity to learn or drive a
deeper relationship with our
prospects & customers.”
Resources
Forward Replay

On November 10th, learning

leaders from around the globe
tuned into Udemy’s annual
event. Now you can
experience it on-demand. Each
session is designed to inspire
new ideas and leave you
feeling empowered to move
your company forward.

Check it out!

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Resources (cont.)
Udemy Business Course Collection

Kara Ronin’s Udemy Business Leadership Courses

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 Questions?
Send it our way via the Q&A area in Zoom!

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 Thank you!

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