My whole world is about equipping professionals with the business soft skills they need to add value to their clients, their firm and themselves. It’s the focus of all my training and coaching.

So you can imagine how frustrating it is for me to hear someone remark when I present a skill, “Yeah, I know about that already.”

“I had a seminar on having difficult conversations.”

“I saw a presentation on how to ask the second question with prospects.”

“I read about how to delegate effectively.” 

My snarky inner voice wants to say, “Well, if you’ve learned it already, why aren’t you doing it?” The problem isn’t that you heard about it. It’s that you ONLY heard about it. You never got around to incorporating it into your practice so you are more effective. You’re just storing something in your brain that you can recall but can’t and don’t do.

Your technical development is different; more cerebral. You acquire knowledge and, once you absorb it intellectually, you are able to apply it in your practice. Not so with personal and interpersonal skills. Knowing isn’t the same as doing.

• Just because you know about good listening skills doesn’t mean you are a good listener.
• Just because you know how to deliver unfavorable feedback doesn’t’ mean you do so.
• Just because you know the five steps to effective negotiation doesn’t mean you use them.
• Just because you know the prompts to prevent procrastination, doesn’t mean you follow them.

For this week, what is one lesson you have learned recently that, if you applied or practiced consistently, would make you more valuable, would improve you professional stature and would increase your sense of satisfaction? Get past hearing about it and make your learning stick.