Soft Skills

An Overview
By Akash Choudhury
B311006 EEE

CONTENTS
1. Soft Skills??? 2. Soft skills contribute to3. Soft skills table 4. Focus on humility and self confidence 5. IQ gets u the job but EQ lets you keep it 6. The Ever increasing importance of personality 7. Language of the subconscious 8. Being Soft is as Powerful As being hard

Soft Skills???
Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people. Soft skills complement hard skills (part of a person's IQ), which are the occupational requirements of a job and many other activities. Soft skills are personal attributes that enhance an individual's interactions, job performance and career prospects. Unlike hard skills, which are about a person's skill set and ability to perform a certain type of task or activity, soft skills relate to a person's ability to interact effectively with coworkers and customers and are broadly applicable both in and outside the workplace. A person's soft skill EQ is an important part of their individual contribution to the success of an organization. Particularly those organizations dealing with customers face-to-face are generally more successful, if they train their staff to use these skills. Screening or training for personal habits or traits such as dependability and conscientiousness can yield significant return on investment for an organization. For this reason, soft skills are increasingly sought out by employers in addition to standard qualifications.

Soft Skills contribute to:

Leading People -Leading a team, leading yourself, conflict Management, interviewing and selecting new Members, delegation, coaching, networking, Developing others. Managing Activities- Product quality, workplace safety, customer care, Fund raising. Managing Resources- People, finances. Managing Information- Decision making, problem solving, meeting Management, persuasion, presentation skills.

Soft Skills table:Soft Skills Humility and Self confidence What The Leaders Do The ability to allow others to contribute to the vision while maintaining confidence that the vision is well-founded Sensitivity to the emotional aspects of life and how personal attitudes and expression influence company success & personal satisfaction Focus on using personal strengths enhances the ability to see them in others. This can reinforce the delegation of tasks to those Who can do them better. Awareness of the knowingdoing gap Enhances the opportunity for integrity. The goal becomes doing what should be done When it should be done. Awareness of what should be said, to whom, and when are matters of strategy and responsibility not emotion What Others Get The ability to contribute to the vision in order to generate a sense of ownership.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

A personal sense of feeling good at work (and at home) that can assist in managing the stress of being an entrepreneur.

Build on Strengths & Minding your Core Incompetence

Working in an area of strength builds self-efficacy, self-esteem, job satisfaction and loyalty. Who wants to leave such rewards?

Integrity in Speech & Action

Trust and security grow in an Environment where integrity is the goal. Surprises in this context are pleasant and excitedly anticipated.

Sensitivity to Context

Hearing/knowing information intended to be confidential can lead to insecurity, mistrust, decrease in morale, and leaks to competitors

Managing Perceptions

Understanding that perception is reality by virtue of its ability to create reality. What you say and do is critical.

Appreciation for others roles

Teamwork is Key

Focus on Outcomes and Process

Recognition that the function of others is critical to success and that the pride of success is magnified by the organized cooperation of many. Recognizing that others are not merely extensions or duplications of your mind and body parts. The enterprise is the composite Of many hearts, hands, and minds. The distribution of profits reflects your understanding of this principle Weighing progress by process and product rather than personal investment.

The perception of success extends Beyond personal contribution to the product or service. The image of success is created by all members of the enterprise, not just the leadership. Recognition for good performance enhances the perception of selfefficacy as well as pride

Personal satisfaction from individual and unique contribution to the outcome. Satisfaction and pride resulting from the share of the profits reflecting your true contribution.

Continuous Learning

Competent leadership requires continuous learning. When growth stops decline begins.

The security of knowing what is expected and that some amount of failure is expected relative to pursuit of excellence Boredom is not satisfying. The lack of new learning can be felt as status quo Replaces innovation.

Focus on Humility and Self Confidence

Humility is looking at life from different perspectives (not just from your own); will allow you to see what others cannot. Humility gives you a perspective to do what needs to be done to make your venture successful. Arrogance can blind you. When you see yourself superior to other founders, smarter than your employees and directors, savvier than VCs, and more capable than professional executives you and your company lose. It is that simple. In the conceptual and development stages of the company, you should balance humility with selfconfidence (not arrogance). Listen to criticisms of your ideas and play with openness but dont lose your confidence. Dont show-off or have an attitude of holier than thou or smarter than you because that puts prospective partners (who could be customers, VCs, collaborators, employees) off. It doesnt build your future or create good buzz about you and your ecosystem. To partner with others, who have different set of skills than you do, and to hire and manage people better than you, you need to have healthy sense of confidence in yourself. You must find the right balance between inner strength and outward humility combined with a genuine sense of leading a whole team and not advancing ones isolated, personal gains. When you get to the execution and growth stages of your company, humility will keep you in the loop. It is important for you to be able to listen to VCs, professional managers and directors with appropriate self-confidence and knowing where you can make the most contribution to the growth of the company

IQ may get you the job but EQ lets you keep it!
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Intelligence Quotient (IQ), representing logico-mathematical intelligence, may get the company started: EQ i.e. Emotional Quotient is essential for it to become successful. IQ points to what need to get done, and EQ addresses the context sensitivity and helps you come up with right process -- when and how -- to get things done. At every stage of your companys development, your EQ makes or breaks its development and growth. Emotional intelligence competencies include self-awareness, self-control, and team-focus, influencing others, and building relationships. These are especially important in the prelaunch phase of a new venture when you are making many sacrifices and commitments. Commitment is one of the factors critical to a ventures success. This commitment must come from all stakeholders: yourself, your spouse and family, and the friends and relatives who will be directly or indirectly connected with your venture. Keep in mind that your family/friends will be making sacrifices in addition to you, as you focus more and more time In your company with less time for them. Self-awareness begins with being in touch with your strengths (and weaknesses), knowing the role that you are expected to play (and knowing that you are not your role), your style of communication and management (the effectiveness of it and how others perceive it), the context in which you assert yourself and the context in which you listen and your own intentions and expectations of yourself and others (stated and unstated). Self-control has to do with the following: learning how to present yourself; when to focus on your strengths (and assert your point of view) and when to be quiet and listen (even if you are right); when to pull people up (just focusing on their tasks and making sure that you respect who they are); and when to let go allowing others to make their own mistakes (developing their leadership capabilities). Self-control means having a priority in terms Of what needs to be done and when. It is not running the company in the initial stages as a dictator or know-it-all or competing for control with your executives in later stages rather than supporting them. Most importantly, it is about controlling your passion as well as anger, outbursts and frustrations in public. It is important to remember that what makes you passionate can also make you and others frustrated unless you practice self-control.

The Ever-Increasing Importance of Personality

It is the deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour in a human. Personality usually refers to that, which is unique about a person, the characteristics that distinguish him or her from other people. Thought, emotion, and behaviour as such do not constitute a personality, which is, rather, the dispositions that underlie these elements. Personality implies predictability about how a person will act or react under different circumstances. Now, a personality can be broadly classified into 5 types:a. Extrovert b. Introvert c. Ambivert d. Positive e. Negative

A.EXTROVERT- Extroversion, also called extraversion, is a personality type that places an essential value and interest upon the outer, or objective, world. Extroversion was named by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. Extroverts prefer participating in social and practical affairs instead of solitary activities, according to Jung. He contrasted them with introverts, who prefer imagination and introspection to the company of others.

B.INTROVERT- Introversion, personality trait characterized by a preference for the world of imagination. Introversion was named by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung in 1910. According to Jung, the introvert is sensitive, continually subjecting thoughts and actions to self-analysis and criticism. The introvert delays emotional expression and tends to prefer his or her own thoughts to the company of others. Jung considered introversion and extraversion opposing traits of personality. Because certain traits of introversion have been correlated with mental illnesses, the term often carries a derogatory connotation. However, Jungs original formulation was non-judgmental.

C.AMBIVERT- Although unsure of its origins, the word Ambivert, in general, has come to mean a personality trait that is not wholly introvert or extrovert but has characteristics of both in them. Vast majority of the population of the whole world would feel that they come under this category. The word ambi Is used as this trait has components of two opposing types- Extraversion and Introversion. Hence the ambiguity.

D.POSITIVE- A person who is overly optimistic while practical at the same time is called to have a positive disposition. People coming under this category dont see the glass as half empty but as half full. They tend to find the good in most situations and are generally the happy-go-lucky kind.

E.NEGATIVE- A person showing traits of negativity has a negative personality. Having a lackadaisical approach towards the job at hand owing to its high level of difficulty conveys a negative personality. Such people are always downbeat and dont find joy in the simple mundane routines of daily life. They are overly pessimistic and thus it can be said that these are the people who need to develop their personality the most.

Language of the SubConscious

Body language refers to the conveying of messages through body movements other than those movements that form a part of sign or spoken languages. Some gestures can have quite specific meanings, such as those for saying goodbye or for asking someone to approach. Other gestures more generally accompany speech, such as those used to emphasize a particular point. Although there are cross-cultural similarities in body language, substantial differences also exist both in the extent to which body language is used and in the interpretations given to particular instances of body language. For
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example, the head gestures for yes and no used in the Balkans seem inverted to other Europeans. Also, the physical distance kept between participants in a conversation varies from culture to culture: A distance considered normal in one culture can strike someone from another culture as aggressively close. Thus from a corporate point of view, it is even more essential to have the right Body language in todays world.

Being Soft Is As Powerful As Being Hard.

A successful career has always been associated with excellent academic qualification or years of experience. However, its been often forgotten how important other factors that come into play are. Soft skills alone cannot help you land that dream job, but when presented together as a complete wholesome package with what u have as your hard skills, it can prove to be the most wonderful tool ever. This is because Soft skills enable you to stand out in a crowd of other equal and highly qualified professionals and are applicable to almost any field of work. Soft skills are usually behavioral traits that are inherent on ones nature or are inculcated throughout life. Such traits cannot be effectively taught or picked up by simply reading a book. However, they may be developed through constant practice and training Job seekers with the necessary academic qualification and work experience are aplenty. But finding the ideal job seeker with the hard skills required and complementary soft skills is like finding a needle in the haystack. Though most companies do not state such skills as necessary pre requisites, they are
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definitely searched for in a potential job applicant. Many companies are willing to hire candidates showing a high level of proficiency in their soft skills over their academic area of specialization. Thus, if we do possess such skills, we should take time out to practice and hone them so that we are better equipped to compete in the fast track ahead of us.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. WIKIPEDIA (Internet) 2. Importance of soft skills (Adecco ltd.) 3. People Skills (Performance Support Systems)

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