Client Facing Skills: How Do You Get Them?

[SimonMac]

[northernladuk]

Didn't AussieLong fail classes in this?

FTFY

[yasockie]

Of course, I am English.

I just do not like writing at all. I got a flipping 'F' in O'Level English. In fact, I hate writing, because I am not good at it. I prefer the sciences, which I did in A'Level before a year out travelling Europe and then doing a sandwich Physics degree at University. I so much prefer speaking rather than writing.

Just cheesed off finding myself in this situation. No worries, mate. Sorry to bother all of you. I will muddle on until the next gig. Opportunity will keeps knocking. Thanks for all the advice so far.

Here's your first round of problems - you're either not UK-born and too stupid to admit it anonymously to a bunch of other anonymous folk or despite being English native your writing is so horrible that it can't the message across - that's the first soft skill you can fix.

Remember - you're only as intelligent as you can communicate it - you could be a savant inside your head, but unless you get it across and get along nicely with people around you, you may end up looking a weirdo retard like "Rain Man".

Expressing yourself clearly, in speech and in writing is one of the most important skills right now - you may not have though about that but it doesn't have to be email that you write - it can be a bug ticket or a piece of code - if you're not making yourself clear, your value to the organisation drops massively.

[kaiser78]

To answer OP's question and their other related thread - How Do Measure Yourself Being Good At What You Do?, agree with NLUK that this comes with common sense, and also life and work experience. Knowing how to speak to people in the right way, how to get your message across, understanding how colleagues function etc etc. You can do various courses that focus on developing interpersonal skills in various situations, which I have done before and found useful.

I measure being good at what I do through being offered contract extensions, being offered a permie roles in the past and short gaps in between contracts. And also asking for feedback, something which a lot of contractors don't see as being the done thing, which I don't see a problem in asking for.

And...be confident in your own abilities without being cocky/arrogant. By that I mean know and work to your strengths, whilst acknowledging and working within your weakness boundaries.

And Scoi - a lamentable number of grammatical errors in your earlier post. Sharpen up sonny !

[captainham]

And to help improve your communication skills, please note that there is No Need To Capitalise Every Word In A Forum Title

[kaiser78]

Correct but being in a Business/Contracts section we need to maintain a level of seriousness for the OP.

[captainham]

Correct but being in a Business/Contracts section we need to maintain a level of seriousness for the OP.

I am quite serious; it is evident that the OP does not come across too well in written language, imagine if his CV has a similar style? He's dead in the water before he's even started.

OP needs to start with the basics and work up from there, he's not going to reinvent himself overnight and it sounds like he has quite some reinventing to do.

[IR35FanClub]

Just before my first son was born I got in a bit of a pickle at work and decided to get some advice. Went to this guy...
Manage Lead Succeed - Just another WordPress site

I've given him a plug as I paid up front for 5 sessions to get a discount. After an hour he'd given me some exercises to do at work - and I never needed to go back. Seemed I had a problem with assertiveness. I'm chatty friendly and a good team player, but generally too helpful and was taking on too much. And also wouldn't ask for what I wanted for fear of not getting it.

The best bit was I took voluntary redundancy, asked for 6 weeks paid garden leave and to go home the very next day as my wife was due with my son. My boss said yes. If you don't ask you don't get was never more true!

[SueEllen]

To be fair IR35FanClub, rocktronAMP seems to have a few more problems than you.

For starters he clearly claims he doesn't like communicating with people in writing because he is not any good.

Yet he doesn't seem to want to practise.

[bless 'em all]

To be fair IR35FanClub, rocktronAMP seems to have a few more problems than you.

For starters he clearly claims he doesn't like communicating with people in writing because he is not any good.

Yet he doesn't seem to want to practise.

Whilst not wanting to demean the professional forums I consider someone referring to another as "a bro" means he probably has bigger issues than simple written communication problems.