John Brown, MA, MSc

"As we grow professionally, we have to become technical experts first, but we learn along the way that technical expertise only takes us so far. We have to persuade others, collaborate on complex teams, and lead groups of people toward consistent, high performance outcomes.

To be successful, we have to turn the mirror inward and become experts in ourselves, in our abilities to listen acutely to others, to keep our own egos in check, and to be able to view the world from different lenses.

We used to call these "soft skills," but in today's connected world, they are essential leadership skills, and in tomorrow's world, the building blocks of a professional milieu that manifests the best of our diversity."