Civil@Work: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Soft Skills for Business Success
Virginia McGowan PhD
Island author Virginia McGowan released her book, Civil@Work: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Soft Skills for Business Success, in July.
In a business world increasingly defined by complexity, change, and automation, one factor is proving more essential than ever: civility. In her new book, Civil@Work, Dr. McGowan, a Certified Workplace Relational Skills Practitioner and Trainer, makes a compelling, evidence-based case for why relational skills must become a core focus for forward-thinking organizations.
Drawing on years of experience as a workplace civility advocate and expert in developmental mentoring, Dr. McGowan explores how everyday incivility is silently costing businesses billions—through disengagement, absenteeism, turnover, and lost productivity. Yet, as she argues, these costs are avoidable when companies prioritize what she calls essential skills: social and cultural intelligences, civility and citizenship, change and continuous learning, collaboration, communication, thinking skills, and adaptability/resilience.
Civil@Work outlines a practical framework for business leaders to foster civility and develop critical interpersonal competencies. With insightful case studies, personal reflections, and interactive thought experiments, the book illustrates how modern leaders—especially those managing multigenerational, multicultural, and geographically distributed teams—can foster trust, inclusion, and innovation.