Analytic soft skill: Presentation and presentation

Today begins with an interesting start with some colleagues from the business school. The topic of discussion revolves around soft skills. Many of them expressed their concerns about the soft skill set of analysts who tend to be pretty ‘hard’ people.

Analytic as a field is indeed one which favors people with harder skill sets as compared to other areas. However, there are two very important skills that analysts need to do well in the field – present and present.

The first type of present is the ability of the individual to present their individual image. A poor image is highly undesirable for most generic purpose and the effect is amplified when it comes to analytic. Most people are rather skeptical about analytic leading to rather defensive attitude towards the analyst. To avoid such confrontation, one will need to be rather empathetic to the needs of these resistance. Making sure that you are dressed in a presentable manner helps to enhance your professional outlook making you look empathetic to their cause.

The other present is the ability to present the analysis in a presentable manner which is platable to laymen. Very often analysts tend to be so excessively technical which alienates the audience. Good presentation should follow the Feynman’s principle on presentation to make them easier to understand.

Remember – present and present.