Soft Skills Development
The face of work is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence tools are spotlighting unique human capabilities and pushing us to enhance our human proficiencies.
Even before AI, the power of, well, human power was well-known. LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends reported that 92% of companies agreed:
With AI the new normal, can you really afford to NOT optimize your human talent?
What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills, also known as durable skills, are the more human-related skills and tend to fall into the following areas.
- Advanced communication and technical skills
- Interpersonal skills and empathy
- Leadership and management
- Entrepreneurship and initiative-taking
- Adaptability and continuous learning skills
- Teaching and training skills
Investments in soft-skill strengthening lead to improved productivity and overall firm performance.
Scientific research has found that firms’ revenues correlate with the motivation and social competencies of key personnel,[1] and workforce soft-skills training can bring a 20% increase in productivity with a 258% ROI in 8 months.[2] McKinsey research finds that 80% of C-suite executives worldwide are concerned with reskilling their workforce to enhance soft-skill capabilities.
Further, significant portions of the workforce will need this kind of reskilling in the near future: tens of millions of mid-career, middle-aged workers especially in advanced economies will need to develop their soft skills. The benefits are good, as taking those steps to provide soft skills training brings positive impacts to an organization’s workforce, including improved productivity and stronger results. McKinsey advises that organizations expand their soft-skill development initiatives for business longevity.[3]
We Know The Answer
We know what needs to be done—we need soft-skills development programs.
But no one really knows how to do it–yet. Scholars and global managerial experts are pondering the disconnect between this clear recognition that soft-skill development is key, and the reality of how to build those skills. No one seems to have that answer–yet. McKinsey even says that developing the required soft skills “isn’t as simple as popping in a training video” and that instead, companies have to change their employees’ processes and behaviors.[4]
Maybe that’s true for everyone else, but our doctors beg to differ.
Your Solution Has Arrived: The Alignment Portal
At The Alignment Portal, we specialize in developing soft skills.
We will solve your people problems.
McKinsey research in 2020 identified 9 skills that companies are increasingly focused on developing.[5] When all 9 practices are implemented, organizations report a nearly 100 percent chance of having a successful skill transformation. Four of those competencies involve digital and information processing skills, which we leave to our esteemed colleagues.
The Alignment Portal strengthens 5 of the 9 competencies McKinsey identified as needing development for today’s business world:
Indeed, quite contrary to McKinsey’s prognostication, our doctoral experts have handcrafted concise yet detailed instructional videos precisely for building these skills. At scale.
And even better, our method involves popping in a training video.
With most courses you get a 2-minute video and 1-minute task every day. We cover 1 point per day. Short. Simple. Sweet!
Our microdrop approach is slow but steady. A couple of minutes a day over time. We give you one point to focus on per day. That’s it. It’s not complicated. It’s one single idea. You listen to us talk about it, you think about it for a couple minutes, then you go about your day. The end. Tomorrow, another point. Pretty soon, you’ll see your world completely differently, in all of the best ways.
Daily live early morning meditations are offered by our partner yoga school in India. Wake up and meditate with us!
Give the program an easy and quick 20 minutes first thing to nourish your inner world then 3-5 minutes to think a little, every day, and watch your whole world change dramatically in a very short time.
There's More
Early Morning Meditation
A critical component of our program is live classes: Meditation, breathwork, yoga, and more. Start the day with a class that helps your mind ease and center, and you will have a more balanced and easy-going day. This practice also facilitates the kind of tremendously beneficial results to your overall well-being that occur with a practice of mindfulness meditation.
Live Meditation from India
Most of our live Zoom classes are led by the esteemed teachers and guides at Adwait Yoga School in Rishikesh, India, a school which is nestled in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains and along the sacred Ganges River, the world’s center of yoga for 5,000 years. We are honored to be supported by such dedicated and knowledgeable teachers.
Housemates Invited
Our members are invited and encouraged to attend these morning classes from home first thing in the morning, with or without camera on.
Housemates of our members are also invited to attend these morning relaxation and centering sessions as a special courtesy. We want to help make everyone’s day brighter.
Live Classes
Our live classes include meditation, breathwork, ecstatic dance, sound bath, energy clearing, and more. We offer morning classes intended to guide you to begin your day with various centering sessions such as meditation, breathwork, or light yoga. This live practice piece is a critical element of the program’s success as it aids tremendously in facilitating the kind of human change we are after at The Alignment Portal.
Meditation Bank
Enjoy access to our meditation bank at your convenience.
This is Where the Magic Happens
We agree that most people don’t have what it takes to create training videos that will actually make a difference in building these immensely opaque proficiencies. But we do. We’ve put our doctoral degrees and training in the field to work to develop profoundly helpful instructional materials for you.
Course list includes Strong Self-Esteem, Social Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Intuitive Living, Quiet the Ego (or Choke on It), Ethics, Conscious Leadership, Conscious Productivity, Time Management, The Path to Peace, Elevate Your Vibe, Forgiveness, Apologizing, Assertiveness, Managing Cognitive Load, How to Be Quiet, Moving Energy, and many more. We currently have about 30 courses in development. All are targeted to help you redirect your thoughts, energies, and behaviors into practices that are profoundly healthful.
Exponential Growth in a Tiny Package
The program offered by the Alignment Portal is unmatched anywhere in so many ways.
Our programs are discreet and unobtrusive, designed for the business environment. We don’t want to take over your day or your life with a long class. We want to discreetly creep in for just a few seconds a day, to quickly and quietly bring a healthy perspective to one or another aspect of life, suggest a way or two to better understand the concept, and leave you to your day. It’s expert instruction delivered in a powerful tiny package. And its impacts will blow your mind.
The Alignment Portal is envisioned and created by Communication scholar Dr. Michele Poff, PhD. Michele has lived in Central America since 2013. A scholar in the jungle, she has had plenty of time and space to deeply contemplate and study the path to a healed and happy life. She is well-versed in improving soft skills, well-being and internal alignment not only through scientific approaches, but she’s quite experienced with less traditional methods as well. On the journey of meditation and energetic discovery since 1996, Michele has found a vast array of extremely useful tools and insights to making each day healthier and happier. This process involves adopting healthier outlooks as well as healing old wounds in simple, easy, and relatively pain-free ways. The collection of insights is absolutely unique to Dr. Poff because it reflects her own unique toolkit of healing techniques.
The Alignment Portal represents a breadth of healthful techniques, with depth of insight on each one. Here, we talk about strengthening areas no one else is talking about, such as self-esteem strengthening and transmuting the energetic wounds of old traumas that we pack around with us wherever we go!
Michele has graduate-level training in adult instruction along with 15 years of experience creating and teaching courses in university and corporate classrooms along the US west coast and in Western Europe. As an instructor, she has always received exceptional feedback and ratings from all stakeholders. She is naturally gifted as an instructor and exceptionally well-trained. This is another facet that separates the Alignment Portal from anyone else out there.
Mak is a visionary thought leader and accomplished learning strategist with over 12 years of experience in Organizational Development, Learning & Development, and Risk Management. Mak has spent her professional years in New York City, helping organizations align for success. As a Six Sigma Green Belt, Mak integrates data-driven methodologies with strategic foresight to drive talent management, operational excellence, and corporate alignment for multinational organizations. Known for impactful leadership in DEIB and cross-functional collaboration, Mak has successfully led geographically dispersed teams across North America, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA, delivering transformative solutions that elevate engagement, retention, and financial performance.
In addition to a distinguished corporate background, Mak is a seasoned educational leader who has contributed to workforce development initiatives at both state and federal levels. This unique combination of corporate and educational experience informs Mak’s dynamic approach to fostering high-performing, resilient teams and fortifying organizations from within.
Dedicated to fostering innovation and strategic alignment, Mak’s work at The Alignment Portal empowers organizations to achieve sustainable growth and cohesion through targeted alignment and development strategies. This holistic, people-centered approach equips individuals and teams to reach their full potential, ensuring measurable impact across industries and regions.
Most of our live classes will be led by the yogic professionals at Adwait Yoga School, located in Rishikesh, India. Nestled at the base of the Himalaya Mountains and along the sacred Ganges River, Rishikesh is the world’s home of yoga for more than 5,000 years. Adwait Yoga School is led by visionary yogi (and software designer) Sri Yogi Anand Ji. Adwait Yoga School guides students through powerful techniques to unlock their inner potential. Sound healing, kundalini, yoga, chakra healing, and meditation–all brought to us live from India through the magic of technology.
This element that Adwait brings to our program allows The Alignment Portal to offer truly tremendous journeys of inner fortitude, self-discovery and life transformation.
The teachers at Adwait are experts in the yogic arts and we are thrilled to have them augment our program through masterful delivery of energy clearing and meditation sessions. They will be delighted to meet you and share the true joy that this practice brings.
Namaste
You won’t find anything else like this program anywhere.
And you won’t be disappointed in this one.
Ready to Elevate?
Start your journey with us and witness a transformed, strategically aligned workforce.
Every day, we help businesses achieve stronger engagement, improved retention, and a thriving corporate culture.
Join us in fortifying your corporate performance in every way—sign up today!
Drive Strategic Alignment, and Leverage your Crew at its Best
Every quality leader knows that in order to be a strong team, you need strong individual players. The Alignment Portal corporate program strengthens your individual team members so they are ready to perform optimally when called for the team.
When your entire crew is aligned, they work together in harmony, like a bee colony. Each worker has an assignment, and everyone knows what to do and how to optimally perform their assigned tasks. All are targeted toward the same objective: company growth and success.
When alignment happens in your organization, you can feel it. Everyone can feel it! The synergy is captivating.
More to Know about Strategic Alignment
Our Expertise
Developed by industry-leading experts, The Alignment Portal is backed by years of experience in corporate training, psychology, and wellness. Our methods combine proven learning strategies with innovative techniques to inspire, align, and empower.
Achieve Strategic Alignment
Bit by bit, your entire team undergoes a monumental perspective shift. And one day soon, you look up to see that you’re running a very well-oiled machine and everyone is smiling! Everyone is operating at their best and every day is better than the day before.
This is where alignment happens. This is what alignment looks like.
From here, alignment among the workforce ensures effective strategic execution of organizational goals.
And that’s just the beginning. We continue rolling out courses and techniques en route to full internal alignment.
Organizational Importance of Strategic Alignment
If you want to align your company so that you can move into the market with your forces peaked to achieve your organization’s strategic goals, first you must align your people. Internal strategic alignment is essential to an organization’s strategy for alignment.
Many organizations overlook this critical foundational component to strategic alignment within the organization because honestly, it’s too hard to address and too hard to find help with. What kind of strategic initiatives can teach your people to have better self-esteem or be better communicators so the entire workforce gets along better? How do you teach them to be nicer to each other so everyone can move forward together as an organization? How the heck do you heal a toxic work environment? How can you improve your retention rate? How is your engagement? Team strength?
Our Alignment program is designed to solve all of these problems. And more. In just a few minutes a day.
You know that investing in your people by putting a few resources toward alignment is a business investment and a smart enterprise strategy. You also know that if you choose the right program, your ROI will be off the charts.
Drive Strategic Alignment, and Leverage your Crew at its Best
Alignment Definition: Understanding Strategic Alignment
For us, strategic alignment is the process that ensures an organization’s success because its people are better and more internally aligned every day in every way.
Internally aligned individuals in the workplace are poised to positively influence organizational alignment. Individual alignment ensures much greater likelihood of organizational alignment. With an internally aligned workforce, it’s also much easier to maintain strategic alignment in the organization as a whole.
Internal alignment helps an organization reach its overarching strategic goals for growth. Strategic alignment is critical. Alignment throughout the organization creates a refined organizational force. Internal strategic alignment ensures easier alignment efforts at the organizational level and stronger strategic alignment within an organization as a whole. Alignment of your organizational business units and business functions will easily lead to winning business performance.
When we talk about strategically aligned organizations at the Alignment Portal, this is what we’re talking about!
Achieve the strategic goals that strategic alignment helps achieve. Bridge the gap between strategy and performance. Alignment is the prudent arrangement to launch you into easily meeting your business goals.
Strategic Alignment is a Process
Like everything else in life worth having, strategic alignment is a process. Real progress is seen with consistent effort over time.
Strategic alignment also is a business investment that can positively affect every aspect of your company.
Strategic Alignment as Business Strategy
Strategic alignment means everyone knows what everyone else is doing (horizontal alignment), and everyone at all levels are on board with the same focus (vertical alignment). Strategic alignment requires unwavering focus on the goal. Naturally, this becomes more of a challenge in larger siloed organizations, making a program like the one offered here at the Alignment Portal even more worthwhile and perhaps even necessary.
When you incorporate the Alignment Portal program into your strategic planning process to drive alignment in your organization, you will be amazed at how quickly you see results in the quality of your people and their increased commitment to the organization’s shared goals.
Due to strategic alignment demands, if you want your organization to be truly aligned, your efforts at alignment must include strategies for aligning your personnel as well. Lack of strategic attention to helping align your personnel will render further efforts at organizational alignment and market strength not so efficient.
Strategic Alignment in Your Organization
For many organizations, the fundamental purpose of strategic planning is to align everyone with a strategic plan to make sure you’re moving forward as one. Today, it’s clear that strategically aligned organizations have a better chance of success in an increasingly demanding marketplace.
Develop Strategic Alignment Throughout Your Workforce
At the Alignment Portal, the process of aligning is an exciting one. Because when you use our guide to strategic alignment to create strategic alignment in your organization, you will personally develop strategic alignment in the context of work and alongside your coworkers. Your strategic direction, strategy, and goals are shared. What drives strategic alignment is one in the same for everyone, and the discoveries and excitement at revealing beautiful parts of yourself are both shared and yours to keep.
Organizational Challenges to Strategic Execution of Alignment Ideals
When you want to work towards long-term success in any business environment, you know that your organization’s strategic objectives must include growth. You create an overall strategy for progress. Your strategic plan is the roadmap that helps you navigate from one place to the next.
Then comes the fun process of human capital management. Your task is to build alignment across all departments within an organization to ensure project success. This involves getting everyone on board to work toward common goals and objectives. How is that going for you?
Effective project management partly means ensuring proper buy-in by all team members across all teams and departments, guided by a business strategy that works toward measurable progress while remaining agile and responsive to a changing environment. Anyone who has ever found themselves facing the gap between strategy alignment ideals and realities knows that actual full alignment requires a lot more than just the bosses asking for it to happen and running a couple of ice-breaker activities.
Strategic Alignment Maintenance and Strategic Misalignment
The strategic alignment process is best experienced in rounds. Alignment, like strategy, is not a one-time focus. Overall strategic alignment often dissipates without persistent focus.
Strategic misalignment is the result of not paying attention to your strategy needs or enterprise strategy throughout the organization. Without strategic alignment, efforts to communicate strategy and create interconnections among your workforce become much more difficult as your listeners have too much of their own internal noise going on to hear you. An organization lacking strategic alignment will be unfocused in a lot of ways.
It is definitely in your interest to allocate resources on a maintenance basis, after the initial alignment process has succeeded. This continued attention to internal corporate alignment will help you go far in your strategy execution as you move forward as a company.
Success in Today's Challenging Business Environment: The Alignment Portal
At the Alignment Portal, we take alignment to a whole new level. We want to make individuals stronger and better so they can make companies stronger and better.
Because any institution that invests in its people at this level, for internal personal growth, deserves to be at the forefront of their industry, kicking tail and taking names. We support you! And together, we strengthen the world.
Only the Alignment Portal offers the breadth and depth of material to truly help your crew with their own alignment, which you absolutely can—and should—leverage to fortify your organization’s alignment.
You will be a force out there!
References.
[1] Caputo, F., Cillo, V., Candelo, E. and Liu, Y. (2019), “Innovating through digital revolution: The role of soft skills and Big Data in increasing firm performance”, Management Decision, Vol. 57 No. 8, pp. 2032-2051. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-07-2018-0833
[2] Adhvaryu, Kala, & Nyshadham, (Feb 2018) “The Skills to Pay the Bills: Returns to On-the-job Soft Skills Training,” NBER Working Paper No. 24313, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24313/w24313.pdf
[3] Avrane-Chopard, Potter, & Muhlmann (Nov 2019) “How to develop soft skills” McKinsey & Company https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-organization-blog/how-to-develop-soft-skills
[4] Ibid.
[5] Billing, DeSmet, Reich, & Schaninger, “During the pandemic, companies have made a significant shift toward skill building,” McKinsey & Company, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/sustainable-inclusive-growth/charts/soft-skills-strong-impacts