Soft
Skills for Human Resource Excellence
Published in the Journal of New Swatantra Times,
Hyderabad, June 2007, Vol. XVIII, No.6. PP.26-27.
By Dr.Gandham Sri Rama Krishna
At the recent NASSCOM meet, it
has been emphasized that there is a wide gap between the skills imparted to the
students in their colleges and universities and the skills that the industry
looks for a prospective employee. The
changing industrial environment demands a wide variety of skills of academic
knowledge and industry relevant talent.
‘Soft Skills’ means all the
skills that are not part of the usual academic curriculum. Soft skills, are
said to be Transferable Skills. ‘Transferable skills’ are those skills
which can be passed on to the people by proper learning and teaching. ‘Skills’
means an ability to do something because
you have been trained. A person can be molded in any form through soft skills.
Like a layman molded into a martial arts man.
Communication skills are also considered equally important and today they are considered a must for every
job or any profession. Soft skills are
required for the students to improve the
skills in all walks of life and professions. The changing organizational and
social environment demands a wide variety of skills of academic knowledge and
industry relevant talent. These soft
skills can be broadly classified into the following aspects;
Ø
Communication skills: You must be able to
communicate your inner feelings and response to the outside world as a
testimony of your personality. The good communication skills are absolutely necessary
for promoting one’s personality. Communication achiever in life. The ability to
convey thoughts and feeling accurately
(a)
verbal expression : ability to express himself clearly
and concisely orally.
(b)
Written expression : ability to express himself clearly
and concisely in writing.
Ø Motivational
Skills: Motivational skills i.e., the ability to elicit desire,
enthusiasm and commitment and effective behaviour for goal achievement.
Motivation refers to the state within a person that drives behaviour towards
some goal. The most powerful motivation comes from within our belief system. To
move into action, we need to believe in what we do and accept responsibility
for our life. Your internal motivation comes from within, such as pride, a
sense of achievement, recognition, responsibility and belief. External
motivation comes from outside. Example of external motivators are money,
societal approval, fame, or fear.
Ø Interpersonal
Skills: Every person in this world will need the help of some one
else one-day or the other. All of us are
inter dependent and need one another for help. Interpersonal skills are
behaviours, used face to face, that
succeed in helping progress towards a useful outcome. Face-to-face covers a
whole multitude of different interactions between people including informal
talks in someone’s presence as well as formal meetings. If we can improve our Interpersonal skills
trough learning and practice.
Ø Presentation
Skills: There are a number of
opportunities in life when you have to address people formally or informally.
You have to make a presentation in
seminar, interviews, group discussions and conference. You may to deliver a
speech before a gathering. There can be a number of speakers to give their view
points. Initially the format of the conference is presented. There are
different steps to develop this presentation skill. Before the presentation you
have to a lot of spade work viz., select
the topic, define your purpose, select the theme. Do the reference work,
organize your material, rehearse, preparation, deliver the speech,
posture. Curriculum Vitae (CV) must be
presented neatly and professionally; it would then be evident to the reader
that you are serious, keen and professional. First impressions count. An untidily written and badly
presented resume is rarely read.
Ø Analytical
and Research Skills: The
candidate should have the ability to analyse a problem with reason. It is,
therefore, necessary to have a good knowledge of all the major problems of
Indian society today, the reason behind these problems and the way to redress
them. In simple terms the analysis of a problem means the positive and negative
aspects, the past and present situation as well as the future likelihood based
on rationality and facts. The ability to breakdown data and see how various
elements fit with each other and the way relate to other elements.
Ø Leadership
Skills: Leadership is the process in which an individual influences
other group members towards the attainment of group goals. Leadership is vital
because it has a powerful influence on individual and group behaviour. There
are several qualities that a person needs to develop in order to be an
effective leadership skills viz.,
vision, self-confidence, passion, self-sacrifice, role-model, planning,
coordinating, motivating, decision-making, mentoring, negotiating, interacting
etc.
Ø Conceptual
Skills: Though soft skills
consists of STEP viz., Social and Cultural, Technical, Economic, Political.
STEP can be important on any person to understand the changing social and
cultural environment etc. in the present changing society. The power of comprehending, analyzing,
distinguishing and judging thought not
necessarily connected with highly conceptual thought.
Ø Logical
Skills: Man is logical
animal. The glory of man is his capacity to think logically. His supreme
instrument is reason. When he causes to be logical, thoughts are reduced to
confusion and gibberish ; sound and fury signifying nothing.
Nothing succeeds like success- thinking and
Nothing fails like
failure- thinking
Ø Creative
Thinking Skills: The ability to see new relationships to produce
unusual ideas and to deviate from traditional patterns of thinking. One great
secret of success and achievement, often over-looked, is
creative visualization. It is a process by which you can consciously create it
the your own reality and can create it the way you want. The outcome of
creative thinking may be a new and unique way of looking at the world around
us. A lot of mental work is involved in the process that leads to the creative
solution of a given problem. The emphasis in creative thinking is on the word
‘New”.
“The human
mind is like a parachute, it only works when it is open”
Ø
Problem Solving Skills: The ability to
elicit relevant and reliable information to locate and identify real difficulty
and solve problems. It is the soft skill
that makes the persons to attain leadership qualities or sharpen the leadership
qualities within him for problem solving.
The problem solving sequence widely used because it is so easy. This
method of planning involves seven steps
1.
list you goal
2.
define your current situation
3.
brainstorm possible ways to get
4.
choose one way
5.
define the way you have chosen
6.
put that into practice
7.
evaluate how well you did.
Ø
Decision-making Skills: Intellectuals
always take decisions effectively and efficiently in their day to day work
life. Right decision leads to a bright future. Decision-making is the process
of choosing from among several alternatives. Decision may be regarded as a
“Choice”, whereby a decision-maker comes
to a conclusion about a given situation. a decision represents a course of
behaviour selected from a number of
possible alternatives. Decisions are not static and have to be respective to
varying situations. The ability to weigh all available and relevant facts to
evaluate various available sources of information and within a reasonable time
determine the course of action that is to be followed.
Ø Team-building
Skills: The ability to create
an atmosphere in which different people
can co-operate in the accomplishment of
agreed upon goals. A team is a small
number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common
purpose, common performance goals and an approach for which they themselves
mutually accountable. Working in teams
is a great opportunity to glow. Yes, two people who join hand to work on some
thing with commitment are much more capable than one who stands working alone.
Learn to work in teams. The word team is
said to stand for together each achieves more.
Ø Spoken
English Skills: Language as a
tool for communication performs the organizational function. A language is used
in two ways for the purpose of communication i.e., spoken and written. The
medium of speech is more important than writing, speech is primary. Speech
comes first in the life of an individual. Speech as a medium of communication
is used more than writing. English is the spoken as first, second or foreign
language all over the world. In India
is used as a second language. It is an association official language. Most of
the communication that takes place in real life situation is oral i.e., either
face-to-face or telephonic. Learners need to develop this skills of speaking
for their existence. Speaking skills are
developed through exposure and practice. We formulate ideas in our mind, decide
for sentence structures and words and express them. Group work is a very
effective technique of developing spoken skills. Different trades need different tools. Spoken
English is not a product, but a process-something that can only be carried on
and presented at the same time. Here you have to produce language as part of an
ongoing communicative process. Here you have to communicate. Talk to people as
on individual to another. By organizing your language into ‘here-and-now
communication units’. But putting your language to actual use.
Ø Personality
Development Skills: There are so many things which are important
for an impressive personality. Personality embraces all the unique traits and
patterns of adjustment of the individual in his relationship with others and
his environment. Some ingredients are essentials for personality development
such as self-confidence, communication, decision-making, self-esteem, positive
attitude, possibility thinking. There are four dimensions of personality viz.,
physical dimensions, mental or moral dimensions, intellectual dimensions, and
spiritual dimensions. A harmonious growth of all these aspects constitutes the
real personality. One must strive for sound health, strong mind, and spiritual
growth simultaneously.
Ø Multi-tasking
Skills: Through the learning of the soft skills any person gets
qualitative knowledge in acquiring multi-task capabilities and competencies.
1.
Positive attitude i.e., the candidate must have a
positive attitude towards various problems. This does not mean that the
negative aspects of a situation should be ignored.
2. Time
management is a process by which an individual manages use of the time
available to him/her.
3. Self-confidence
is one of the most desirable traits of dynamic personality. The ability to take
action without being told, can undertake with minimum instructions or act
independently or does not look someone to lean on.
4. Risk-taking
i.e., the ability to have the courage to undertake new assignments, projects
that carry/ involve risk.
5. Team
spirit i.e., participates willingly and cooperates whole heartedly with the
other members of the team.
6. Flexibility
and Adoptability i.e., the ability to respond quickly to different people
changing environment and situations.
7. Initiative
i.e., the ability to take action without being told, can undertake with minimum
instructions or act independently or does not look for someone to lean on.
8. Predictive
Ability i.e., the ability to make reasonable and reliable estimates, forecast
and to predict possible outcomes. The ability to foresee effects of his
judgment and decisions on other activities. The ability to forecast the
probability of future courses of action on the basis of present and past
behaviour.
9. Ambitions
i.e., having a desire to succeed or to achieve a particular goal or to strive
hard to move up or achieve a particular goal.
10.
Task
Orientation i.e., the act of determining one’s learning or setting of a sense
of direction or relationship in moral or energies towards the task.
11.
Versatility i.e., adapting or embracing a
variety of subjects, fields or skills, having the capacity of turning with ease
from one thing to another, having a wide range of skills, aptitudes and
interests, many sided or all round.
Ø
Organizing and Management Skills: Ability
to mobilize, coordinate and direct various resources and to delegate
adequate responsibility and appropriate authority. The managerial skills are to
draw up series of activities and utilization of resources necessary to achieve
a specific goal. Managerial skills are
getting things done through other people. It does mean that management can get and use the skills, knowledge,
ability etc., through the development of skills, and utilizing them again and
again. Managerial skills are
utilization of human resource
effectively and efficiently. Managerial skills are basically depends upon on communication skills, leadership skills,
negotiation skills, team-building skills.
In the process of developing your
personality, the above parameters of
soft skills must be imbibed, nurtured and practiced for success in your career.
In today’s competitive world, where there are more job seekers than the jobs
available, one must continuously try to improve one’s soft skills to be
successful. There are many skills, which are essential for success in life. For
example, in one’s career are knowledge,
presentation skill, conceptual skill, communication, creativity and innovation,
leadership ability and teamwork. Selection tests and group discussions are
designed to assess these soft skills also. Skills combined with a good strategy
can only assure success. The above will help form the road map of your journey
for success in an interview and in your future career.
All that your degree can do is
taking you to the door of a company, but to get in, you have to compete and
succeed in the interview through adopted soft skills. Considering today’s
competitive age, where there are more candidates than the jobs available, one
has to plan and prepare really well to ensure success. It means that one must set one’s career goals,
should know what it takes to achieve these goals, then prepare to develop the
required soft skills and knowledge, and finally, should be competent enough to
apply them to succeed in the interviews.
Today, mere educational
qualifications are not at all
sufficient enough to ensure a successful career or even an entry into a job at
the lower level of the industry. Industry looks on for a lot of other criteria apart from academic
qualifications. The importance of soft skills other than regular academic knowledge
has increased in manifold in the recent years. Skill acquisition is the need of
the hour. Majority of Human Resource
Management (HRM) manager today opine that they often find it difficult to
select the right candidate for the jobs
due to the lack of soft skills. In the present global
scenario soft skills are main requirement for achieving the goals. To what degree you possess soft skills matters very much and soft skills
plays a very vital role in this maddening competitive world.
References
1). S.K.Mandal (2004),
How to Succeed in Group Discussions & Personal Interviews,
Jaico Publishing House, Delhi .
2). D.S. Paul (2004), Interview Skills, Vee Kumar
Publications (Pvt) Ltd, New Delhi .
3). S.R.Pandya and Pratima Deva Shastri (2004), Personality
Development and Communicative English, Himalaya
Publishing House, Delhi .
4). Raghu Palat (2004), Interview Tips, Jaico
Publishing House, Delhi .
5). Karampudi Bhaskar (2005), Soft Skills, “Prathibha Plus”, Eenadu
News Daily.
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