Soft Skills for Enterprise Architects (SSFEA)
The Architecting the Enterprise Soft Skills for Enterprise Architects (SSFEA) course is designed for Enterprise Architects (EA's) and IT professionals wishing to develop their business soft skills in order to function at a higher level within their organisation.
The course is endorsed by the Institute of Leadership and Management the UK's premier awarding body for leadership and management qualifications. The training materials are based on Architecting the Enterprise's extensive training programs.
Why are soft skills important?
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a structured and integrated approach to business and IT transformation. It optimises costs, maximises business value and manages associated risks. As such, EA is the foundation for effective management of organizational change and provides a framework for managing complexity and orchestrating key activities. It also facilitates collaboration between key stakeholders and those responsible for realizing the transformation.
Enterprise Architects are key agents of such change and their performance is critically dependent on soft skills around leadership, communications and organization empowerment. For instance, during a difficult business merger or acquisition, where systems need to be integrated and interoperate, skills such a leadership, persuasion, and negotiation, plus the ability to communicate the value of particular options, are critical to success.
These soft skills, plus effective partnership with the business and strong governance are strong determinants of the successful use of EA in business transformation.
Soft skills are fast becoming the deal breaker in many of today's hiring decisions. Executives are rarely measured according to how well they can re-iterate the technical specifications of their products and services, but rather on their ability to motivate an organization, to assess the performance of their staff, to make clear and well-balanced decisions and their ability to develop and communicate ideas and visions.
Who is SSFEA course geared to?
These courses are designed with the EA/IT professional in-mind, and are geared to understanding business thought processes to ensure effective communication with key stakeholders when making recommendations for change or implementation. However, other professionals can also benefit from attending the courses.
Objectives and benefits of the course for the delegates
- Enhance effective engagement with key Stakeholders
- Facilitate communication flows in complex environments
- Gain commitment from key stakeholders and contributors
- Harness technical skills and assets to create significant business value
What is the value?
By effectively pitching value messages to Business Leaders and other key Stakeholders in their language, the Architect would be viewed as a 'partner' rather than 'just the technical specialist', and someone who facilitates a joined-up approach to driving business growth.
Course content
Delegates can expect to cover areas such as Effective Communication, Leadership, Empowerment of Teams and Change Management over the duration of this two-day course.
The course concentrates on the key aspects of stakeholder management and provides the Architect with the competitive advantage by equipping them with the required soft skills to relate to business leaders on their level.
The core of the course covers soft skills in the context of the change management necessary for effective EA practice and business transformation and includes the following critical soft skills:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Leadership
- Effective Communication & Transactional Analysis
- Stakeholder Management
In addition to the training modules, the course makes extensive use of exercises with critical assessments so that the delegate receives feedback whilst it's still fresh. Additionally, delegates will be required to undertake a short work-based assignment which may be externally verified by the Institute of Leadership and Management.
The course underpins several success factors including:
Leadership - Motivating change
Great leaders inspire people to achieve successful outcomes. We will address key characteristics of leadership, leadership style and gaining better insight into the needs and incentives that drive behaviour.
Communication - Understanding change
Communication is fundamental to making sure everyone is on board with business transformation. We look at skills for exerting influence, persuasion, and negotiation, as well as how to focus on business value as the basis for propositions.
Management - Organising change
Finally, people need to be organised to deliver desired business benefits, so we address the need for governance and effective team building as critical success factors.
Current schedule:
Completion of this Course
Successful completion of this course is dependent on:
- Active participation in the course
- Successful completion of a work-based assignment to demonstrate understanding
Certification
Successful candidates will be issued with an Institute of Leadership and Management endorsed, Architecting the Enterprise certificate of competence.
For more information on course options, dates and pricing please contact sales@architecting-the-enterprise.com or call +44 (0) 208 1229 150.
