1

EMPLOY ABILITY

The Complete Soft Skills Program

Success in any business is 85% ability to relate to

other people and attitude, and only 15% job
knowledge and technical skills. Dale Carnegie

Contents

•
•
Introduction to Hopstaken
Soft Skills work!
2
3
2011
• The Soft Skills Program 4 EDITION
• Interviewing for the Right Skills 5
• Contact information 6
2
Introduction to Hopstaken
20 years of training experience, delivering exclusively to companies
In 1991 Loek Hopstaken founded Hopstaken Bedrijfsadvies, a training & consultancy firm located in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At the time he was working as a Senior Quality Consultant for what was
soon to become ING Bank. As a seasoned project manager and specialist in 3 areas: personnel,
organization, and communication, his passion became sharing his knowledge & know-how. Over the
years he delivered his services to thousands of leaders, managers and specialists. In 2003 he was
invited to teach at international management schools. This awakened his interest in Vietnam. After
several business visits he decided to live and works in Ho Chi Minh City, as a business trainer,
consultant, coach and university teacher. Besides running training programs, he is a Guest Lecturer at
Vietnamese and foreign universities, delivers both public and in-company seminars, and regularly
appears as a jury member in the Key to Success TV-show on VTV1.
He retains his post as Guest Lecturer and Professor at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences in
Apeldoorn (The Netherlands). In 2009 he was appointed by its Director as its Resident Representative
in Vietnam.
‘Professor Loek’ as his Vietnamese students often call him—is married to a Vietnamese lady. Since his
Vietnamese wedding he lives the Vietnamese life. This means: being integrated into Vietnamese family
life, formally and informally being introduced to Vietnamese business leaders, Vietnamese dinner
parties, and last-but-not-least, a stable circle of both Vietnamese and expat friends.

Pricing policy
• A company team pays a group fee. This includes an intake meeting. A team consists of max. 20
participants.
• Returning customers receive a 10% discount, starting with the 3rd service.
• Payment must be made 50% before start of the service, and 50% upon completion.
• When the service is delivered outside Ho Chi Minh City, client pays the expenses.
• Hopstaken delivers his services through his Dutch, or an associated Vietnamese company.
• In this case, a red invoice can be provided. Note: all prices exclude VAT & PIT.

Through the years, Hopstaken has delivered services to:

In Vietnam: a.o. Type of business
• Tan Thuan IPC (seminars) Industrial development
• Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (presentation skills) MBA-IMC program
• RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, HCMC campus) (id.) BBA program
• PACE (public courses—HRM) Business training
• SPECTRA (seminars; in-company courses) Training & consultancy
• NIKE (performance management workshop) Shoes production
• CapitaLand (intercultural communication / business etiquette workshops) Real Estate
• Petronas Chemicals (team building workshop) Chemicals plant
• Royal Business School (seminars; public courses—HRM program) Business Training
• Vietnam Airlines (leadership workshop) Airline
• SONY Vietnam (public speaking seminars) Electronics
• Ministry of Labour, Invalids & Social Affairs (leadership seminars) Ministry (Hanoi)
• Hoanggia Media Group (Jury Member) Key to Success TV Show
• Unique Design (consultancy, coaching) Interior design
In The Netherlands, a.o.
• ING Bank (workshops, seminars) Financial services
• Philips (workshops) Electronics
• Heineken (workshops) Brewery
• Voerman International (workshops, consultancy, coaching, seminars)International
relocations
• Campagne (workshops, consultancy, coaching, seminars) Advertising, promotion
• Damen Shipyards (consultancy, coaching) Ship building & repair
• Dutch Delta & Wittenborg Universities (teaching, workshops) IBA—BBA, MBA
• Royal Van Zanten (workshops, consultancy, seminars) Pot plants, cut flowers
• WVL Staalbouwers (workshops) Steel construction
3
SOFT SKILLS WORK!
Did you ever have a colleague whose contributions were disappointing, despite his
impressive CV, lots of diploma’s and certificates, and an impressive list of job titles
and projects? Who failed completely as a team member? Sadly, this recruitment
mistake is being made daily. When faced with such a situation, it’s often hard to grasp
why academic brilliance and years of on-the-job experience apparently offer no
guarantee for sound performance. Still, there is a reason: lack of soft skills.
What are soft skills? (sources: Whatis.com; Yahoo! answers)
Soft skills are personal attributes that enhance an individual’s interactions, job per-
formance and career prospects. Unlike hard skills, which are usually specific to a
certain type of task or activity, soft skills are broadly applicable. Soft skills are
sometimes broken down into
a. personal attributes, such as: optimism, responsibility, sense of humor, integrity,
time-management, self esteem, and motivation. They also include certain artistic and
ceremonial qualities, including knowing how to dress to the occasion, and combine col-
ors.
b. interpersonal abilities, such as: empathy, leadership, communication, good manners
and etiquette, sociability, working as a team member, use of proper language, the abil-
ity to interact with colleagues, intercultural skills, ethics, persuasion skills, customer
friendliness and service, utilizing tact, courtesy and civility and the ability to teach.
A practical grouping of soft skills: a. Problem Solving; b. Communication; c. Inter-
personal Skills; Teamwork. (William Sterling; see page 5.)
When we are young, our parents and school teachers take care of our basic soft
skills education. Yet, many people grow up just copying weak ly developed or even
lack of soft skills from their environment—often, un-civilized companions. Some simp-
ly seem to lack the talent. Others simply forget their basic education.
Tailor made or done with a team
To enhance your soft skills, you first needs to find out your strengths and weaknesses.
When this is done, a tailor made program is designed to add missing and improve
weakly developed soft skills. The Soft Skills Program can be done in a group or with a
team, but also individually with a personal trainer/coach.
If soft skills get you a job, then they will also help you
keep it.
When managers would improve their soft skills, they
would have to spend less time on personnel problems
and have more time to spend on their management du- SOFT
ties.
SKILLS
When entrepreneurs would improve their soft skills,
they would be more successful in business – and in
their personal life. In fact, soft skills form the lubricating oil of cooperation.

The Soft Skills Program

Hard skills will get an applicant an interview, but soft

skills will get that person a job. Ian Morrison
4
THE SOFT SKILLS PROGRAM
Situation:
A person / team’s lack of soft skills
leads to tensions in the work
place, and/or loss of fine
employees and clients. Again and
again, managers and HR need to
repair the damage.
Solution:
The person / team follows a tailor made,
practical program to add missing and
improve under- developed soft skills. This
may take 1—8 program steps, depending on
the results of a soft skills scan. Each step
consists of one seminar and one workshop.

I. The Soft Skills Program

The objectives of the Soft Skills Program:
1. To train people to enhance their communicative abilities, so they can
2. function more effectively and efficiently in their organizations and teams.
The Soft Skills Program consists of a series of 4-hour seminars, each followed by a 1-day
workshop. The emphasis of the seminar is on theory, delivered interactively. The workshop
consists of exercises and practical assignments.
Note: each seminar-workshop may also be done in a 1:1 setting, with a personal trainer/coach.
The 14 Soft Skills most in demand:
• Personal Communication Skills THE SCOPE OF SOFT SKILLS
• Personal Ethics & Integrity Skills IN PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS
• Empathic Skills
• Problem Solving Skills
LEADERSHIP
• Team Communication Skills
• Intercultural Communication Skills MANAGEMENT
• Commercial Communication Skills
• Management & Leadership Skills RELATING CULTURALLY
• Persuasion Skills
• Presentation Skills RELATING WITH OTHERS
• Coaching Skills
• Skills for Dealing With Difficult People COMMUNICATION
• Dispute Resolution Skills
• Time Management Skills (Source: ‘Social Domain’
Leise, Beyerlein, Apple)
• Hospitality Skills

II The Soft Skills Train-the-Trainer Program

The objective of the Soft Skills Train-the-Trainer Program:
To train in-house, Vietnamese trainers so they are able to run the Soft Skills Program in Viet-
namese. The trainers participate in a special 5 day program in which they learn both the the-
ory and practice of running a Soft Skills Training Program.

The Soft Skills Program addresses one skill at a time, during

a half day seminar plus a full day workshop.
These are delivered in-company to groups of 4-20 participants.
Anyone who feels the need to improve her/his soft skills is welcome.
Contact loek@hopstaken.com for information & booking.
 5
Tool: How to determine a candidate’s level of soft
skills during a selection interview
In ‘Interviewing for the Right Skills’, William A. Sterling gives tips for pre-
paring a job interview, and for selecting new employees (on www.apwa.net):
“So how do you prepare your interview for a new employee or prepare for that exciting
new position? Hard skills got you the interview; soft skills will win (or lose) the job. Some
examples of questions you or the organization might prepare for include:

Problem Solving
• What are the critical factors you look for in evaluating the work of others? How did
you develop these concepts and how, specifically, do you use them?
• Describe a situation in which you found yourself to be very good at analyzing a
problem and deciding on a course of action.
• Describe a situation in which you had to solve a problem without having all the in-
formation you needed. What did you do and what happened?
Communications
• Tell me about a time when you made a serious mistake. What happened?
• What has been your experience in dealing with the poor performance of subordi-
nates?
• What types of experiences have you had dealing with irate citizens?
Teamwork
• Describe the types of teams you have worked in and tell me what worked well and
what did not.
• Give me an example of a situation in which you managed or led a team and were
able to create a high-morale, high-productive work group.
• Tell me about a time when you had difficulty getting others to work together. How
did you handle?
Interpersonal Skills
• Describe how you developed relationships with others when you were new on your
current job.
• Describe a time when you had problems with a supervisor and had to communicate
your unhappy feelings or difficult disagreements. Tell me what you did. What hap-
pened?
• When you are dealing with co-workers or citizens, what really tries your patience
and how do you deal with that?

All of the above questions are geared towards what I call soft skills. Yet, you normally
don’t put them on your resumé. Another thing you should notice is that the questions are
open ended, requiring the candidate to give answers which may reveal a soft skills abil-
ity. These types of questions require a story in response.
You may not even be prepared to answer these types of questions at the interview; but
you should. It isn’t your purpose to sit there and hope the right questions will be asked.
Remember, the interviewer is looking for your personal accounts, not the ‘textbook’
answer”.

“The best news of all is that soft skills can be developed

and honed on an on-going basis through good training,
insightful reading, observation and of course, practise,
practise, practise.” Impact Factory
 6

Do you want to know more about the

content of my services, and the possibility
of training and/or consultancy packages?
Feel free to contact me:
email loek@hopstaken.com
skype id mrloek

After an 18 year career in Dutch banking

(HRM, PR, TQM) and a 15 year career in
training and education, Loek Hopstaken
works in Vietnam as a business trainer,
consultant, coach and teacher.
His specializations include:
• personnel issues (HRM)
• organizational development
• communication.
Loek is familiar with many types of
companies and organizations. He is a
Professor and Guest Lecturer at Dutch
and Vietnamese business schools, and a
regular Jury Member of the VTV1 ‘Key to
Success’ business game TV show.
’Professor Loek’ lives with his family in Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Twice a year he
returns to The Netherlands, for busininess,
and to see family & friends.

Hopstaken International
Trainer/Consultant:
Prof. A.A.M. (Loek) Hopstaken
62/44 Duong So 6, Phuong 5, Go Vap District,
Ho Chi Minh City
Mobile: 090 888 9450
Assistant: Ms. Vo Ngoc Lien Huong
Mobile: 090 888 9451
Email: loek@hopstaken.com.
Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/loekhopstaken