You want to be that person, when there's a new promotion open, you're the first person considered for that. You want to be the last person any boss considers when the boss is told we have to fire 20% get rid of the least productive people who don't want to be on that list. That's what having strong soft skills is all about. It's about protecting yourself and really making yourself indispensable for any organization, and for any industry and for any career. You don't remember all 11 skills, but think of it this way. If you have a colleague who has to travel across the country, three days a business trip, how do you get to be that person that is indispensable for this trip?

How do you get your colleague to say, Oh, yeah, we need that person with us for a variety of reasons, not just because you're fun or likeable, but because you're absolutely indispensable. That's what this course is all about. And I want to start off an area that may surprise you, I want to talk about technology skills. Now, I don't mean computer programming and learning c++ or HTML. I'm assuming that even if you have those skills, that's not why you're in this course, these are the soft skills that things that don't show up on the resume, where you would put computer skills. But when I say technology skills, I mean, simply being more patient, and being better able to use the technology in your office and in your industry.

Here's a simple fact, if you're the only person who knows the password into your office database, you'll never be fired. Here's simply seen as too indispensable. If you're the only person who knows how to get into the Twitter account for the office, and there's a crisis, you're going to be Seeing is indispensable. So what I mean by technology is simply learning the basics and not being the last person to the party. Unless you're really young, we all know people who had to be pulled into using Facebook. Oh, I don't want to mess with that.

I don't have time for that. And of course, they all eventually got on Facebook, or Twitter. Some of you may be old enough to remember those who refused to use texting, or even email. Don't be the last person to use communication technology. Be the first person be the person in your office in your organization, who knows how to help other people do that. Think of it this way.

100 Years ago, someone showed you a toaster. You look at what is that I don't know how to use this technology. This is crazy. Where's the electricity but now if someone hands you a toaster. You know what to do. You don't think of it as Oh, I'm now using the toaster technology.

Let me plug it in, let me know you just toast your bread to you. It's not technology. It's just a toaster. Well, increasingly with so many technology tools used in a career in an office, whether it's Facebook, whether it's Twitter, whether it's the database, whether it's autoresponders, for people who use it every day, it's just Facebook. It's just Twitter. It's not fancy technology.

You need to really be on top of that I had of everyone else and guess what, it doesn't require a computer science degree. Quite often, it just requires a little patience. It requires going to a Frequently Asked Questions section. One young man I hired many years ago, right out of college, he had no computer skills, other than he used email and a WordPress To search or write term papers, but what he had was patients so every single time we got new software for shooting videos or recording or editing, he was the person when I said, How do we do this? He said, I don't know. But I'll find out.

What did he do? Does he go to community college and study computer science programs 12 hours a day now. He simply went to the website, read Frequently Asked Questions section. And he had the discipline and the patience to call an 800 number for help. These days, when it comes to most technology that you're going to need in your office in your career. Unless you're a computer programmer, it's not about knowing complicated technology.

It's not about knowing complicated. Computer science programs are are wildly sophisticated databases. It's just about patient A willingness to learn willingness to call an 800 number, occasionally, a willingness to go to a frequently asked question section. So this is an incredibly important skill. Too many people have the idea. Well, I'm not a technology person.

I'll tell you what, a lot of bosses here when you say, I'm not a technology person, what they really hear is, I'm lazy. I don't want to learn. I want to be able to sit back and let someone else handle my problems. That's not impressive to me. But now the boss may be the same. I'm the same way sometimes I get lazy.

But if you want to focus on helping your career, you've got to cut through that. You've got to really get to the point where you might not be the earliest adapter with new technology but you are going to be earlier than other people in your office. People, then are already in your industry. That's the way you stay ahead. So here's the exercise for you. Right now, I want you to look at some aspect of technology you already know.

It could be how to create a Facebook group page, nothing very hard, but something you think might be of interest other people in your office, and then just let them know, Friday at lunchtime, you're going to be giving a little demonstration for 15 minutes, it could be in the office lunchroom. It could be at your desk, you'll take questions because if you pick the right topic, there will be people who are more senior to you, your boss, your boss's boss, other people within your organization who want to learn this as well. And they don't have the patience to go to a website or call an 800 number. This way you start to show your technologically savvy, you're not the tech Biologists you're not the IT department. But you're someone who is a little quicker, a little faster at learning things. So it could be how to put up a Facebook page.

It could be how to do a simple Facebook Live video, something I teach people on. Doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's using technology, sunlight and you're comfortable using it, and you can show others do that. And that's a soft skill that's going to help you for the rest of your career.