Reality check.I am a soft skills trainer at a time and place thatIs witnessing a flight of training budgets from soft skills to technical training.Is the soft skills training industry trying any measures to reverse that?Well, you could say so. People (and the businesses they run) pay to counter what is bothering them. They pay to resolve or gain ground against concerns, challenges and problems.On that note,Two words that I have been hearing a lot off late are1] differentiator2] trust (& trust deficit)No wonder our soft skills training industry has been harping and tooting (rightly too) that in a world levelled by technology, the only land still fertile for growing differentiators is soft skills. Ditto trust, but for very different reasons. When I was younger, the world was simpler.If I wanted to know about investment options from BANK X, the world was in two parts - BANK X people and non-BANK X people.I would get my information from the former and not from the latter.Today,I may receive calls "on behalf of" BANK X"Trying to sell me schemes.These are external agents the bank has authorised to receive my money for their packages although they are not empowered to do a single thing if I face issues post-purchase.So, the agent(like anyone else making a living today and any businesses they run) faces a steepTRUST-CHALLENGE. So that was a general reality check.I would like to narrow down to something very basic for today -- THE SMILE.The good old smile is under seige. It is! Old man Dale Carnegie, an evergreen favourite of us soft skills trainers,Had put the smile down as one of the staples (n0 5, to be precise)In one's essential people skills toolkit. His wisdom is so self-evident thatWe in this day feel driven to invest in teaching (programming) our robots to do that right.If you have not witnessed robot Sophia in action, I urge you to watch her on YouTube or anywhere else. Slow down!There is empirical evidence pouring in from everywhere that highly successful people in society smile less rather than more.If you want to be spared in-depth study,Please at least watch a quick, brief video or two by VANESSA VAN EDWARDS on YouTube. You are likely to be convinced. Ms Van Edwards is NOT anti-smiling.(noone needs convincing of that as her videos do so well).An young lady I know, though, said she was." Deb,Is there any real value in smiling any more ?" she asked me.I responded with an invitation - "let's find out" "By the way,", I asked,"Did you really smile at me just now when you asked me this question?"" Ohoho, please!I know you are safe to smile at. You know it too""I agree. Was that a smile, though?Let's find out that too" HERE'S WHAT WE DID TO FIND OUT! I stood around 10 feet away from herAnd asked her to pretend she had not seen or heard from me for ages.So, ages later,I was at a mall checking out shirts (/whatever)And she spots me from 10 feet away.She recognizes me (I have not seen her yet) , approaches me and calls me by my name. I TURN AROUND AND SMILE AT HER.ButWe do this entire thing TWICE.  "How was your feeling different the second time?""Oh, I felt that you had not recognized me the first time. You were warmer the second time."" Um.Let's do it a third time and I will, from my side, do what I did the second time.Let's see how you feel about it"I did it the 3rd time just like the 2nd time AND THEN said ' sorry, I don't remember where we met, m'am" "SHE STILL FELT AT LEAST BETTER (& more) RECOGNIZED THAN THE FIRST TIME. So, what had I done with her?I did A SOFT SKILLS CLASS ACTIVITY.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T0OcHZjtII&t=1s )

DID YOU WATCH ME DECODE THAT? Good! So, soft skillsAre indeed your differentiators AND your trust triggers,BUT NOT IF YOU HARDSELL THEM.Put differently,Your winning differentiator isTHE SKILFUL HUMAN TOUCH.  I help you have that.