What Academia Doesn’t Teach

What Academia Doesn’t Teach

by Peggy Klaus

It’s back-to-school time once again. Here in Berkeley where I live and work, I always enjoy watching the annual return of the students as they move into dorms, say good-bye to parents, and fill the streets with their eager faces. Last weekend, after seeing two Cal freshmen struggle to move a couch up a set of stairs, I recalled my own college years and thought about what these students will be learning—and not learning! —during their next four years.

In my work as a communication and leadership coach for firms from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, I frequently hear senior managers complain that their newest employees severely lack the personal and “process” skills critical for success in the business world. Whether it’s making pitches and presentations, giving and receiving feedback, or speaking and listening effectively, college grads rarely show up at their offices already trained in these fundamental areas. Even business schools—from which students are expected to glide seamlessly into corporate America—are not touching on these real-world, must-have skills. But business schools are not the only institutions turning a blind eye. They are joined by everything from law schools to medical schools, from doctoral programs to engineering programs.

So why does traditional academia disparage personal and communication skills as “soft science?” Tell me, please, what’s soft about peddling a start-up company to a skeptical group of venture capitalists, convincing a potential client to let you manage her $50 million in assets, or communicating with staff and the media during times of crisis?

Studies show that corporations are now beginning to rate their employees’ interpersonal capacities as more important than their analytical abilities and where (or even if) they earned their degree. Businesses want employees who know how to collaborate, motivate, empathize, solve problems, and think outside the box. Although having an MBA is no longer a prerequisite for advancement in the current economy, especially in the dot-com world, the ability to get along with other people is.

In the 21st century economy, firms find themselves becoming more international and cross-functional. “We have 50-somethings talking to 20-somethings on a regular basis; we have North Americans teaming with Europeans and Asians; we have women supervising male colleagues. But the collective level of their communication expertise hasn’t improved to meet the complexities they are dealing with. The challenges are very real,” says a managing director at a Wall Street investment bank.

In any interaction, from meeting with a client to making a speech in front of 300 people, a businessperson needs to be part educator, part entertainer, and part salesperson. To be effective, presentations must quickly marry style and substance. Corporate trainers are scrambling to design skill-oriented executive education that fills in the gaps of their employees’ formal educations. Far-sighted companies are putting time and resources into in-house trainings that teach workers how to read audiences, draw out clients, craft arguments, and build relationships-all while bringing their humanity and personality into the mix.

It’s to the credit of these firms that they are nurturing good people skills. Just as coursework in proper bedside manner should be mandatory for medical students, communication-skills training needs to be a core part of the college curriculum, a prerequisite for graduation. And this doesn’t mean the stodgy “platform skills” taught by well-meaning lecturers who tell students more about what they can’t do (“Don’t cross your arms” or “Don’t put your hands in your pockets”) than what they can do—which is to bring warmth, ease, and authenticity to the forefront of every encounter.

Let’s face it—success is based not only on what you know, but also on how effectively you can communicate it. Business schools do a wonderful job of teaching the intricacies of portfolio theory, supply chain management, and financial analysis. But a traditional, academic preparation is only half the equation. It’s time to start cultivating the emotional intelligence of students by training them how to listen and be heard. Anything less is a disservice to the graduates and the organizations that hire them. Until academia takes off the blinders, it’s still up to the real world to teach our freshly-minted grads truths like these:

• The Art of Listening
  Nobody (and I mean nobody) listens as well as they should. In our day-to-day routines we don’t take the time to really concentrate on what is being said to us.
• Making the Perfect Pitch
  You may have an incredible idea, the best product, or the most dynamic company in the world. But without a compelling marketing monologue that excites the audience about what you and your company offer, you’ll miss the target.
• Speaking Effectively to Audiences
  Speaking in front of an audience is an extremely daunting task for so many of us. It takes practice to become a persuasive, charming, and entertaining speaker. Winging it just doesn’t work.
• The Beauty of Brevity
  From elevator pitches to email, from voicemails to sales presentations, people need to understand that the opportunity to make a good impression is fleeting. To be successful in today’s workplace you must be able to make your point quickly while still eliciting interest, excitement, and admiration from your audience.
• Understanding Visual Cues And Body Language
  Communication experts estimate that only 10% of our communication is represented by the words we say, 30% by our sounds, and 60% by body language. How well we understand and respond to others strongly influences how they respond to us.

 Peggy Klaus, President of Klaus & Associates

You may have seen Peggy Klaus on Nightline, the Today Show, and 20/20 or read her advice in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Newsweek, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and O magazine. You may know her as the “brag lady” or—as one newspaper called her—a “bragologist” because of her popular book, BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It (Hachette Books Group, Hardcover 2003, Paperback 2004). Or you may know Klaus for the soft skills savvy she promotes in her second tome, The Hard Truth About Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner (Collins, January 2008).

For more than a decade Klaus has provided communication and leadership training programs, keynotes, and executive coaching at leading corporations and organizations worldwide. Her client list reads like a who’s who of Fortune 500 companies, including firms such as JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard, Computer Associates, Chevron Corporation, Deloitte, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, The National Football League, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, American Express, Mattel, Booz Allen Hamilton, Kaiser Permanente, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, among others. She also has served as a lecturer at Harvard University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

With advanced degrees in drama, speech, and theatre from London’s Royal Academy of Music and the Drama Studio, Klaus began her career as an actor and classical singer. She then moved to Hollywood to become a producer, director, and coach who worked with actors, comedians, musicians, and broadcast news talent for productions at Paramount Studios, Warner Brothers, ABC, CBS, and NBC TV, among others.

When she is not coaching, training, lecturing, making television appearances, or giving keynotes in the US, Europe, and Asia, Klaus can be found in Berkeley, California, where she lives with her husband.