Love & Connection
Kindergarten Skills
How Preschool sets you up to be a great employee (or boss).
Experience, achievements, and qualifications are always in the mix when it comes to bagging your dream job.
However many companies are taking on staff using different criteria to those they traditionally used.
‘Soft skills’ are valued more than ever before as companies have to work hard to both snag and keep workers during the biggest shift towards self-employment in history.
Communication, Teamwork, Problem-solving, Time management, Critical thinking, Decision-making, Organisation, and Stress management are all valued like never before.
This is something we are asked to facilitate sessions in, so we know a thing or two about it.
The buzzword(phrase) is ‘Kindergarten Skills’ or which is what we call pre-school in the UK.
So here they are;
1. Saying please and thank you.
Good manners are important in the workplace just as they are in kindergarten.
It’s amazing how these small words can make a big difference to getting things done
And equally important how many people forget them?
2. Eye Contact.
When I used to teach musical theatre to really young children, we’d start by learning a good handshake, how to look each other in the eye, and confidently introduce our names.
All of these are essential work skills – we all know the horror of the wet lettuce handshake or that guy who looks at the ladies’ boobs when he talks to them.
It may be nerves more than pervs – but either way, it’s worth sorting that stuff out
It’ll make you look more interested, friendly, and confident (and less likely to be called into HR for that ‘little chat’)
3. Asking For Help.
People forget they can do this, worried they will look weak or ineffective.
We all need support, and we are allowed to ask for it in the workplace.
4. Show Respect.
This is a big deal at Kindergarten, and much of any session is spent dealing with transgressions as children learn the rules of being a decent human.
Treating everyone with courtesy, kindness, and politeness is incredibly valuable at work.
Even if the person you are dealing with is a bit of an arse, it is incumbent on us to keep it professional.
Anything out of the limits of acceptable behaviour FROM your boss or customers should be dealt with by the proper routes, of course.
Respect has to be from everyone – and if it’s not OK at Pre-school, it sure as heck isn’t OK in grown-up land.
5. Play Fair.
Sharing toys, taking turns, not telling fibs, and doing your fair share are great training for the adult world of work.
Of course, not everyone around you will have the same impeccable standards as you – but integrity and good character is what will set you apart.
No hitting, kicking, or flicking bogies.
If you did this at Pre-school, you would be in time out.
You’d also need to say sorry and mean it.
Soooo-reeeeee with a stamp won’t cut it.
The same goes for the office.
If someone hurts other colleagues’ feelings, they have to make amends for the working environment to function.
Genuine spoken, or written apologies and official sanctions, are the kinds of time-outs that can go some way to making bad office behaviour – right.
Bogey-flicking is probably never OK in the office.
Nor is passive aggression, bearing grudges or bitching behind people’s backs.
6. Working Together.
Children do projects, create masterpieces, perform and play games to learn how to be part of a team.
They get opportunities to lead and be led for, often, the first time in their little lives.
If you can lead a team or be a valuable part of one – either in the work environment or in a hobby or sport – you’ll be highly sought after in the work environment.
? Questions:
Which Kindergarten skills could some of your colleagues brush up on?
What about you?
Can you think of an elegant way to introduce thinking like this in your workplace?