In the 70s, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard issued the leadership theory [1] of Situational Leadership, which is, in a nutshell, "the right leadership at the right time" [2].
As solutions to develop, identify and measure soft skills are becoming mature, it is needed to create a leadership theory to enable the activation of the right soft skills in the right place at the right time : it is the theory of Contextual Soft Skills.
Like the Situational Leadership theory which has the Situational Leadership Model pattern, the Contectual Soft Skills has a design pattern, which is called Contextual Soft Skills Glass.
Where Situational Leadership Model shows a board of four quadrants and a table, the Contextual Soft Skills Glass model shows a four layers structure which is thinner in the middle [3].
To train professionals to activate the right soft skills in the right place at the right time, the creative SME Do-Khac Decision proposes
- a portofolio of training sessions of which learning approach is self-determined ("heutagogic") [4].
- a portofolio of joyful collaborative tools such as La Maitrise d'Usage, SoftSkills48 or DISC Governance.
[1] 10 leadership theories : a genuine table with emblematic authors, X-Soft-Skills, march 2021
[2] The Center of Leadership Studies, USA
[3] Après le leadership situationnel, les soft skills contextuels, Répertoire de l'entreprise numérique créative, août 2021
[4] An heutagogy for upskilling / reskilling : the Enterprise Adventure Game, L'entreprise numérique créative, aug 2021
[1] Develop soft skills while learning maths at college and high school, X-SoftSkills, aug 2022
About the creation of the Contextual Soft Skills theory
The Contextual Soft Skills theory is the result of design thinking research on management and hands-on experience.
Besides a review of leadership theories [1], an exhaustive study of theories artefacts such as soft skills frameworks (Fr : référentiel) was performed. The list of reviewed soft skills frameworks includes some works published by various French actors (adminstration, state agency, academic institutions, non governmental organization,...) [a]. These research were critical to create the Contextual Soft Skills theory.
About the probable creator
Tru Do-Khac (X79), a Vietnamese French consultant, has a hands-on experience of a diversity of enterprise cultures [B]
In
the first part of his career, he served companies of worldwide culture
reputation (IBM and Accenture), an european company (Alcatel NV, today
Nokia) and a French large company which has become international (France
Telecom, today Orange). After serving Alcatel and before entering Accenture, he joined a telecom consulting SME
based in Paris.
In the second part of his career, as a freelance professional, he has been
delivering consulting services, designing soft skills tools, making
self-funded research on management, writing two books, nurturing several
blogs, while volonteering in social activities.
[a] Une étude sur les référentiels de soft skills, Do-Khac Decision, avril 2020
[b] Linkedin profile
