Startup Week Saint Louis 2021

"Anxious about public speaking? Worried about your next (or first) pitch? Eager to hone your leadership skills? Ready to make inclusivity a priority in your organization?  Research shows that soft skills are vital to success in startups; however, they are often lacking in the start-up community, specifically STEM related startups. Leaders at startups will create more effective and inclusive communication climates when they make a concerted effort to develop soft skills along with the requisite hard skills of their sector.

In this session, facilitated by communication experts who are also start-up entrepreneurs, attendees will gain practical knowledge and take away strategic tips they can immediately put into action to begin addressing the soft skill gap between what team leaders need and what team members can provide.

Key soft skills that promote effective communication that will be addressed in this session include: understanding leadership styles and types of leadership power, addressing communication anxiety, and adapting technical and persuasive messages for lay audiences to pitch ideas and products or gain funding.

Communication effectiveness is often the priority for team leaders, but we argue that communication climates cannot be effective without also being inclusive. Soft skill training and any professional development for that matter should be couched within an understanding that systems of privilege, power, and oppression permeate even the most lateral of organizational structures. The session will conclude with a discussion of the importance of leaders speaking the language of diversity and inclusion while also modeling inclusive communication behaviors for their team."