tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5202148668352928152024-03-07T21:08:14.204-08:00SOFTSKILLS: Collection of ArticlesPremium Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10791920724574647125noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-58013026112642339832008-01-02T08:09:00.000-08:002008-01-02T08:10:29.255-08:00People's ability to handle the soft skills side of business- influencing<br />- communication<br />- team management<br />- delegating<br />- appraising<br />- presenting<br />- motivating<br /><br />is now recognised as key to making businesses more profitable and better places to work.<br /><br />Increasingly, companies aren't just assessing their current staff and future recruits on their business skills.<br /><br />They are now assessing them on a whole host of soft skill competencies around how well they relate and communicate to others.<br /><br />We now find it a bit shocking and somewhat disturbing when someone displays the old autocratic style of bullying management tactics (though we know it is still unfortunately far more prevalent than is desirable).<br /><br />Many companies simply will now no longer put up with it (bravo!).<br /><br />Measuring these soft skills is no easy thing.<br /><br />But in the most progressive companies, managers are looking for people's ability to communicate clearly and openly, and to listen and respond empathetically.<br /><br />They also want them to have equally well-honed written skills so that their correspondence (including emails) doesn't undo all the good work their face-to-face communication creates.<br /><br />Good soft skills also include the ability of people to balance the commercial needs of their company with the individual needs of their staff.<br /><br />Being flexible and able to adapt to the changing needs of an organisation also qualify as soft skills, as do being able to collaborate with others and influence situations through lateral and more creative thinking.<br /><br />The ability to deal with differences, multiculturalism and diversity is needed more than ever.<br /><br />Very few companies are untouched by the ever-widening influence of other cultures and good soft skills facilitate better communication and people's ability to manage differences effectively.<br /><br />Everyone already has some form of soft skills (probably a lot more than they realise)<br /><br />They just need to look at areas in their personal life where they get on with others, feel confident in the way they interact, can problem solve, are good at encouraging, can schmooze with the best of them.<br /><br />All these skills are soft and all of them are transferable to the workplace.<br /><br />Not only that, the best news of all is that soft skills can be developed and honed on an on-going basis through good training, insightful reading, observation and of course, practise, practise, practise.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-25370086661209607322008-01-02T08:02:00.000-08:002008-01-02T08:06:30.628-08:00Top Soft Skills: How many soft skills do you possess?Top 60 soft skills<br /><br />The Workforce Profile defined about 60 "soft skills", which employers seek. They are applicable to any field of work, according to the study, and are the "personal traits and skills that employers state are the most important when selecting employees for jobs of any type."<br /><br />1. Math.<br />2. Safety.<br />3. Courtesy.<br />4. Honesty.<br />5. Grammar.<br />6. Reliability.<br />7. Flexibility.<br />8. Team skills.<br />9. Eye contact.<br />10. Cooperation.<br />11. Adaptability.<br />12. Follow rules.<br />13. Self-directed.<br />14 Good attitude.<br />15. Writing skills.<br />16. Driver's license.<br />17. Dependability.<br />18. Advanced math.<br />19. Self-supervising.<br />20. Good references.<br />21. Being drug free. <br />22. Good attendance.<br />23. Personal energy.<br />24. Work experience.<br />25. Ability to measure.<br />26. Personal integrity.<br />27. Good work history.<br />28. Positive work ethic.<br />29. Interpersonal skills.<br />30. Motivational skills.<br />31. Valuing education. <br />32. Personal chemistry.<br />33. Willingness to learn.<br />34. Common sense. <br />35. Critical thinking skills.<br />36. Knowledge of fractions.<br />37. Reporting to work on time.<br />38. Use of rulers and calculators.<br />39. Good personal appearance.<br />40. Wanting to do a good job.<br />41. Basic spelling and grammar.<br />42. Reading and comprehension.<br />43. Ability to follow regulations.<br />44. Willingness to be accountable.<br />45. Ability to fill out a job application.<br />46. Ability to make production quotas.<br />47. Basic manufacturing skills training.<br />48. Awareness of how business works.<br />49. Staying on the job until it is finished.<br />50. Ability to read and follow instructions.<br />51. Willingness to work second and third shifts.<br />52. Caring about seeing the company succeed.<br />53. Understanding what the world is all about.<br />54. Ability to listen and document what you have heard.<br />55. Commitment to continued training and learning.<br />56. Willingness to take instruction and responsibility.<br />57. Ability to relate to coworkers in a close environment.<br />58. Not expecting to become a supervisor in the first six months.<br />59. Willingness to be a good worker and go beyond the traditional eight-hour day.<br />60. Communication skills with public, fellow employees, supervisors, and customers.<br /><br />How many soft skills do you possess?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-54181948689559215632007-04-29T09:57:00.000-07:002007-04-29T10:00:28.626-07:00'People are recognising that soft skills are important, and that Independent, The (London), Oct 12, 2006Christina Polito believes she has her executive MBA, taken at INSEAD last year, to thank for her subsequent promotion. The need to know more about what makes a good leader was a key factor in her choice of course. "I wanted to move into a senior management position, so it was important for me", she says. <br /><br />Now a national director at LaSalle Investment Management, Polito says that what she learnt surprised her. "It's not so simple; people need to learn what works and what doesn't. We discussed, for example, the 'set up to fail' <br /><br />syndrome, where leaders often make things worse when an employee has done something wrong. They treat them negatively, the person gets bitter and annoyed, and a cycle starts. <br /><br />"That can define people and prevent them from changing. The right reaction, we found out, is to be helpful and supportive, and to work out why a mistake was made". <br /><br />Polito thinks leadership is a particularly good subject for women to study. "Women are rising to positions in specific areas - you often get a woman as head of a department, for instance. But people still don't expect to see a woman in one of the top positions. They may not get much encouragement, so it's important for them to be given an opportunity, to learn that they can lead. <br /> <br /><br />"In the past, it was enough to be good at your job - to be the best. You could then be promoted into managerial positions. But great leaders need more than the skills which brought them to the top, they need emotional intelligence. Now people are recognising that these soft skills are important, and that women have them."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-44354397883372461812007-04-29T09:55:00.000-07:002007-04-29T09:56:15.039-07:00Business Performance Management Demands Uniting Soft Skills with Hard Skills to Achieve Success By Leanne Hoagland-SmithFrom the boardroom to the classroom, individuals are looking to improve their performance. Continuous improvement through processes such as Baldrige to Lean continue to make significant strides in the business world as solutions to improving the bottom line. Self-improvement is one of the fastest growing areas in most book stores. Everyone appears to be looking for that magic pill for how to improve their performance results or what we call success.<br /><br />Recently when doing some research to improve the content of an article, I discovered the term "meritocracy." Even though I am fairly well read in American history, I had never seen this particular term. The original definition of meritocracy is not certain, but has its roots in Chapter Five of John Locke's Second Treatise on Government. Locke believed that the acquisition of wealth provided it was acquired through hard word and "it was to meet one's own immediate needs." (Source: Wikipedia) Meritoracy then became the way to build and therefore improve a society through a government based upon merit (demonstrated performance) and not by birth.<br /><br />The essence to improve resides in the capacities of motivation, energy and talent. Our young country even with all of its faults has demonstrated the results of these 3 capacities by sending a man to the moon and returning him safely back to earth in just under 200 years. No other country or civilization has accomplished so much in such a similar time frame.<br /><br />What does this mean for businesses or individuals seeking success?<br /><br />If businesses or individuals want greater success, then the answer resides within the ability to improve motivation, improve the use of energy and to improve talent. In today's world, the answer can be translated into improving the desire (motivation), the opportunities for practice (energy) and new knowledge or skills (talent). Yet, when we analyze solutions designed to improve the performance of a business, an organization, a school or an individual, the emphasis is on talent or the hard skills with little focus to no focus on motivation or the soft skills.<br /><br />Until the development of soft skills are partnered equally with the training of hard skills, the quest for success will continue to allude those who are trying to improve their performance. So success once again becomes a personal choice or as Wilt Chamberlain said:<br /><br />If you have the ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it?<br />Leanne Hoagland-Smith quickly doubles results for her clients from individuals (small businesses owners, entrepreneurs and young people) to large organizations by creating executable strategic action plans along with the necessary business skills to pull it off. By closing the gap between today's unsatisfactory performance to tomorrow's goals, limited resources are maximized with waste including time being reduced. Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601 or visit http://www.processspecialist.com/ and explore how she can help you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-390546036123793442007-04-29T09:51:00.000-07:002007-04-29T09:53:00.190-07:00Soft Skills for HR Professionals By Sanjeev HimachaliIntroduction<br /><br />To work in any profession, one should not only have “Subject Matter Expertise” but also personality, behavior, decorum, mannerism, attitude, professional approach, and thinking to work efficiently and to sustain in that given profession. Failing which, irrespective of your knowledge, education and background you will never be able to grow in that profession. This is also true for HR Profession. There are some minimum expectations from HR Professionals, in the way they carry themselves, behave and present themselves that can hamper or lift their image and professional graph. Some of those traits and attributes I have mentioned in this article. Though, to a large extent I have covered all the attributes but still I consider this list as INCLUSIVE and not EXCLUSIVE. The need is to benchmark your Personality and Behavior. Respect can only be earned and not “asked for”.<br /><br />Nine Qualities all HR Professionals Should Have<br /><br />1) Clarity of Thoughts – In most of the situations and circumstances, we come across two options; either we want to do or we don’t want to do; either we agree to it or we don’t agree to it; either it is acceptable or it is not acceptable; either you want or you don’t want. It has been seen that many HR Professionals are confused. They are not clear, where they want to take their company. They don’t know what role they like to play in the organization. They don’t have clarity of role. They don’t have clear expectations, neither from themselves, or from their team or from their internal customers (employees). With this confusion, they fail to take decisions. They fail to take stand.<br /><br />2) Efficiency in Time Management - HR professionals is expected to be efficient in time management. They are expected to set time-frame and meet those expectations. Most of the time, I have seen that they don’t give any time limit. You approach them for any work and they respond by saying, “Ok, it will be done”. But when? I agree that “Good HR Professionals” have many things to do. Recruitments, Employee Relations, Talent Management, Career Development, Benchmarking, etc are the things, which takes lots of time. But, all goals, all dreams, all activities, all commitments looks good and are achievable, if there is a closing date for that. For Example, I want my company to be in top-10 companies in the world. It’s a Vision. It’s a good dream. But, if I don’t specify, by which year or in how many years, I want to achieve that goal, it will only remain as a dream and will never become a reality. Uncertainty, Ambiguity, Open-Ended commitment, Confusion, these are things, that are not expected from any HR Professional.<br /><br />3) Compare Performances / Compare Situations & Circumstances but do not compare individuals / People – Knowingly or unknowingly but quite often, instead of Circumstances and Situations, we tend to compare two different people. Instead of analyzing the behavior of a person we tend to analyze them as an individual and take this as our right. The very basic principle of science and management says that no two individuals are same.<br /><br />4) Knowledge about the Business and Industry – Everybody should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They should be aware as what they want in their life and career. It is a well known fact and has been proved in various surveys that HR professionals don’t care to understand the business of the company and the industry that they are working in. According to the survey done by Virgin Management Consultancy 67% HR Professionals in USA and 83% HR professionals in India do not know the nitty-gritty of their company’s business. They don’t know from where the revenue is coming. They don’t know the business model of their company. I think, as it is important to know about the city and country that you are traveling to; it is equally important to know and understand the business of the company that you are working with.<br /><br />5) Vision and Goal for the Department, Team and Organization – What you want to do for the organization? Are you planning to implement a competitive compensation plan? Do you want to take your company in the bracket of 25 “Best Employers in the Country”? Are you planning to acquire best of the talent from market? Do you think that you need to control the growing Attrition Rate of your company? Have you thought about “Organization Development” and “Talent Management”? Usually, that is the confusion. HR professionals and HR heads don’t have that vision. They want to do something in HR but don’t know what they can do or should do. They should have vision for the organization from HR perspective and goals for their department and team. It’s a must have. Until and unless you are sure about your destination, you cannot take the path.<br /><br />6) Love for Number / Data / Figures / Calculations / Analysis / Projections – You talk to any person in any other profession and tell them that you are in HR; two things will automatically flash in their mind – Theory and Politics. One reason why HR professionals in India have not been able to enter into the Board Room and make their presence felt in the organization is because though they have ideas, they have strategies and policies but they are not able to support those strategies with data. (It is just because of the fact that there is no mathematics and calculations involved in this subject that many people [mostly females] love to join this profession).<br /><br />Just to substantiate my point that most females are not good with Mathematical and Statistical calculations and that is one of the key reason for them to join the profession of HR.<br /><br />In a survey done by Virgin Management Consultancy, in 67 cities across the world in which they covered following geographical areas: Asia, North America, UK, Europe and Australia. They interviewed 11, 500 HR Professionals. The finding are as follows:<br /><br />56.7% of total recruitment professionals are females.<br /><br />79.4% of total trainers and “Organization Development” professionals are females.<br /><br />39.1% of total HR strategists are females. They look after HR Policies, Procedures, Processes and forms<br /><br />However, only 2.6% of females are working in Compensation and Benefits department of division.<br /><br />8.9% females are working in Legal Compliance Team.<br /><br />3.2% females are handling the payroll, investment advisory desk and tax advisory desk of their organization.<br /><br />11.5% females are working in HR Operations, thereby handling Performance Management, Time Office, Career Development and Talent Management.<br /><br />18.7% females are working as HR Analysts.<br /><br />It is proved from the above data and figures that most of the females are working in those functions of HR which doesn’t involve complicate mathematical and statistical calculations.<br /><br />For example, if I have a “Retention Strategy” and I want to implement in the organization. I need to show, how much the implementation of that strategy will cost; by what percentage the company will be able to increase the employee retention and decrease the attrition; which are the companies that are using this particular strategy and how effective it has been in their cases. If, I am going with this data, calculation and analysis, I am sure that my strategy will be discussed and implemented.<br /><br />Hence, HR professionals need to be more analytical, data oriented and good in calculations. They should not be subjective and theory oriented.<br /><br />7) Enthusiasm to Share / Develop / Coach and Mentor – We have heard and read in our schools and colleges that “Knowledge is a wealth; the more you distribute/share the more you gain”. In this profession of HRM & D; we are privileged and are in a very unique position where we can develop people. We can develop their career. We can develop their life. We can help them in changing their perception and behavior. We can groom them, so that they can be successful in their life. Don’t you think that we have very important and crucial role to play?? How many of us have actually thought in these lines? Do, think about it, you have one life, give what you can. If 10 people will remember me once I bid adieu to this world for helping them in developing their life, I will consider my life as successful.<br /><br />8) Self Discipline – This again is a common quality that everyone should have, irrespective of the profession they are in, but it is more appreciable in HR Professionals and is like a must have quality. They need to set standards for others to follow; they need to benchmark their own behavior and if they start flowing with water, everything else will go for a toss and things will go out of control. I have heard, people saying that I am doing this or that because others are also doing it but that is not expected from HR Professionals. Discipline in life is a must to grow, prosper and being successful. So, set standards and don’t just flow.<br /><br />9) Trust Worthy – This is very important quality and must have for all HR Professionals. Candidates, at the time of interview share important information with HR; Employees share lots of information, personal, professional, ideas, suggestions, future related, dreams etc. Imagine, if the HR professional keep sharing that information with everyone in the team of HR; will that employee ever comeback to HR to share anything with him. NEVER. HR professionals need to win that trust and then maintain and keep that trust. This is very true for HR Professionals, who are working in “Employee Relations”. Relation of any kind, be it with employees, is based on trust and honesty. If ever, you break that trust, you will never be able to win it again.<br /><br />5 traits that any HR Professionals should not have…traits that can hamper their Growth<br /><br />1) Ego or Attitude: Larger than role attitude – Well, when you are working with people, interacting with people and the number of people that you are interacting with is large, you cannot afford to have ego. You need to come down from your level and talk. It is not easy, just next to impossible to match with the expectations of everybody. In this profession, people will hate you, ignore your contribution, blame you but in spite of that you cannot afford to have ego. I have seen HR professionals who are over-flowing with ego. When they start talking, it appears as if they are doing any favor by interacting with you, communicating with you and updating you with new strategy or policy. This is another reason, as why HR professionals are not able to make that impact in this profession to make them counted.<br /><br />2) Should not be emotional – “Touch everyone’s heart and don’t let them touch yours”. “Be empathetic but don’t cry with your employees”. Every human being is emotional and it’s only irony that to be effective and focused, HR Professionals should not be emotional. By being emotional, there is a chance and high probability that these HR Professionals will not be able to do justice with their work. They should be like that fish, which need to swim in water to survive but should not get wet.<br /><br />3) I know everything (I don’t need to learn from you) – This is another negative trait of HR. They present themselves in a way, as if they know everything. That is not an end, the irony is that neither do they have “Subject matter expertise” nor they are good in “Human Relations” and nor do they want to learn anything. This reminds me one story of goat and lion. Goat, whenever she see or come across lion, she closes her eyes and assume that once I close my eyes, lion will not be able to see me. So, that is a situation of HR Professionals.<br /><br />Read this axiom.<br /><br />If he don’t know and don’t know that he don’t know, he is arrogant, AVOID him.<br /><br />If he don’t know and know that he don’t know, he is a student, TEACH him.<br /><br />If he knows abut do not know that he knows, he is sleeping, WAKE him up.<br /><br />If he know and know that he knows, he is a LEADER, Follow him.<br /><br />I think, in this axiom, I have given the message that I want to convey to my fellow HR Professionals.<br /><br />4) I am GOD; I am THE Kingmaker –<br /><br />If you are hiring someone;<br /><br />If you are paying salary to someone;<br /><br />If you are giving promotion and growth to someone;<br /><br />If you are nice to someone<br /><br />You are not doing any favor to him. He deserves, that is why he is getting. If you are giving, even though he do not deserve, then you are CORRUPT.<br /><br />Many of HR Professionals send across this message to the shop-floor that “Don’t mess with me, I can spoil your career” or “I have done favor for you. Respect me”.<br /><br />5) Should not be biased (No Favoritism; No Grapevine; No Office Politics) – HR Professionals, most of the time keep themselves engaged in “Office Politics”. They initiate “Grapevine”, water this grapevine and believe in this grapevine. Whatever might be the reason but it is a gray area and they need to improve on that. This is another reason that no one take HR professionals seriously. I know, in one of my previous employment, when we started “Employee Relations” and “Employee Communication”, all employees use to consider this HR Representative as “Company ka jasoos” (Detective from management). In office politics, most of the time HR Department is considered as “Hub of All Politics”. HR Professionals need to come up, and increase their level of thinking. They need to be more matured.<br /><br />Conclusion<br /><br />As I have mentioned in the introduction, this is INCLUSIVE list of qualities that all HR professionals should have. In one of my previous article, I have mentioned that for HR professionals to stand-up and get counted, there are miles to go. Some HR professionals have started this journey but many have still to take that “FIRST STEP”. Believe me, we are in a very good profession and if we can try we can changes in many ways. We have an opportunity to give jobs, give careers, professional growth, coach and mentor people. On other hand, we can increase productivity, motivate employees, manage talent, build brand for the company and also make the company “Best Company to work for”.<br /><br />So, kindly stand-up, take that first step and get counted.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-58072943580351022452007-04-29T09:31:00.000-07:002007-04-29T09:32:37.490-07:00Five tips for developing the soft skills IT pros needBy Carla Firey<br /><br />Most IT support professionals know that the development of technical skills is fundamental to their careers. But learning about the subject matter is only one of the necessary talents every IT pro should cultivate. The human component to support techs’ duties requires good communication and relationship skills, otherwise known as soft skills.<br /><br />We interviewed several career experts and techs in the trenches to identify five ways that IT pros can improve their communication skills and their ability to relate to others while on the job. Use this advice to further develop your professional skills and advance your career.<br /><br />Why you need soft skills<br />The shifting economy and ever-evolving industry have expanded job roles, making it essential for the IT pro to wear many different hats. Aside from simply providing technical assistance, support pros may find themselves taking on the job of salesperson, manager, or public speaker.<br /><br />“Most have been trained first and foremost to make sure that their ‘fact ducks’ are all in a row,” said Peggy Klaus, a Fortune 500 communications coach and author of BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It.<br /><br />In other words, their entire training may have been spent on technical development, and other elements of professional development may have been neglected, according to Rick Freedman, principal consultant with Consulting Strategies, Inc. For example, there may be situations in which you are the only person in the company with whom the customer makes contact, and it’s vital to the business that this interaction be a positive experience, he said. Further, you may be required to provide support to coworkers.<br /><br />Clear communication with nontechnical people can help facilitate working relationships and close the gap between dissimilar departments within the business, Freedman said. Developing your soft skills will help you bypass the jargon and increase your productivity.<br /><br />Tips to improve your soft skills<br />Our experts suggested the following tips to help IT pros develop the soft skills necessary to advance their careers:<br />Actively listen<br />Communicate with illustrations<br />Take the lead<br />Nurture your inner writer<br />Step out of the box, physically and mentally<br /><br />Tip 1: Actively listen<br />Most IT pros tend to be analytical by nature, so when a customer or coworker approaches with a problem, you’re likely to hear only the literal statements. “Active listening involves focusing on the moment, participating in the conversation, waiting your turn to speak, and asking for clarification when necessary,” said Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half Technology.<br /><br />It’s easy to treat a frustrated customer like a technical issue, but empathizing with the person with the problem can help build a stronger relationship with your client. Try paraphrasing the other person’s words and repeating them back to ensure you understood their concerns. They’ll feel as if you’re truly listening to their problems, and you’ll find out whether you’ve received all the facts. If you have a few hours in the evening, consider enrolling in an active listening course, many of which are offered by community or technical colleges.<br /><br />Tip 2: Communicate with illustrations<br />Most customers will become confused—or worse yet, defensive—the moment you start talking acronyms like DHCP, SQL, DNS, or OBDC. A nontechnical person’s eyes may glaze over after just 10 seconds of jargon, and it’s a guaranteed method of alienating your client. Choosing common terms or illustrations to demonstrate your point will help facilitate communication.<br /><br />Dan Welty, who provides IT support to small and midsize businesses, recently had a customer with disabled DNS settings. When the client asked about the acronym, Welty used a simple analogy to explain. He compared an IP address to a phone number and explained that the DNS “looks up the phone number” for Web sites.<br /><br />“The client loved this explanation, and it only took a few minutes,” Welty said. “Search your mind for analogies that can be used to explain technical issues in everyday terms.”<br /><br />Tip 3: Take the lead<br />More IT pros are taking on the role of leader, particularly in smaller departments. “The ability to lead others, even if only on small initiatives, is a key strength,” Spencer Lee said. “Chances are you’ll be guiding others—whether newcomers within the department or junior members of your team—at some point in your career.”<br /><br />Take the time to observe some of the successful leaders within your company and note their actions and management style. If possible, choose diverse assignments or enroll in teambuilding classes to increase your knowledge about employee motivation.<br /><br />“Take on leadership roles within your department to continually increase your responsibility,” Spencer Lee said. She noted that the more you immerse yourself in the role of leader, the quicker you’ll develop the necessary interpersonal skills.<br /><br />Tip 4: Nurture your inner writer<br />Many IT pros need to write and respond to RFQs and create system documentation, but their only exposure to drafting text was writing a high school term paper. The secret is to write the technical material in nontechnical terms. You may also need to rely on visuals, charts, and diagrams to illustrate important points.<br /><br />The best way to develop this skill is simple: practice. Each day, choose a problem you’ve encountered and write the solution with a nontechnical person as your audience. Give it to a friend or family member to review.<br /><br />“You may also want to consider taking a business writing course or visiting a local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication,” said Joshua Feinberg, cofounder of ComputerConsulting101.com.<br /><br />Tip 5: Step out of the box, physically and mentally<br />It’s easy to spend an entire day in your cubicle or office, but it’s not the best career move.<br /><br />“Knowing what your employer does and how your efforts translate to the company’s overall goals is key to an IT professional’s success,” Spencer Lee said.<br /><br />Sign up for some office committees or meet colleagues for lunch to expand your working relationships and understanding of the company’s mission. To help cultivate relationships with clients, stay up to date on world business news.<br /><br />“Subscribe to at least one general business magazine like Business Week or Fortune,” advises Freedman. You’ll be prepared to speak with any client about current trends and industries.<br /><br />The true test<br />Our experts agreed that communication is the most important nontechnical skill for IT pros to master. Whether it’s speaking with a customer, interacting with coworkers, or drawing a diagram, you must use clear, understandable language. Perhaps the best advice they provided was to try explaining your work to a nontechnical friend from outside the workplace. If you can get them to understand without either of you becoming frustrated, you’re on the right track. If not, they’ll be able to tell you if it’s time to drop the jargon and adopt real-life terms without reservation.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-15117839680680622722007-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:002007-04-29T09:15:38.395-07:00M.B.A. Programs Hone "Soft Skills" by Phred Dvorak CareerJournal.comDuring his first year as a student at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, Nuno Carneiro got a crash course in people skills. <br /><br />First, classmates rated him on qualities such as listening, teamwork and sensitivity to others. Then, he drew up a "leadership development plan" that listed his shortcomings, such as rushing through presentations. Finally, Mr. Carneiro met with the director of the M.B.A. program for a "coaching" session, where the two identified ways he could improve. One suggestion: hone presentation skills by joining a group of Tuck students that offer consulting services to local businesses. <br /><br />"It's a very safe way to apply little changes of behavior," Mr. Carneiro says of the process. <br /><br />Mr. Carneiro's experience reflects the greater attention some business schools are devoting to topics such as teamwork, leadership and communicating--the "softer" side of management. Typically, those soft skills got shorter shrift in M.B.A. programs than "hard" skills such as strategy or financial analysis.<br /><br />Premium on communication skills<br />The schools are responding to employers' growing interest in soft skills. Executive suites are increasingly composed of managers running far-flung operations who must attract and retain knowledgeable workers. That puts a premium on skills such as communicating and brokering compromises, says Warren Bennis, a professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and author of a best-selling book on leadership. <br /><br />"It isn't just nice--these interpersonal skills," Mr. Bennis says. "It's about stuff that's necessary to lead a complex organization." <br /><br />In bolstering their soft-skills training, business schools are copying and adapting popular corporate techniques such as coaching, personality assessments and peer feedback. <br /><br />Recruiters told professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management that graduates needed better leadership skills. In response, the school added classes and workshops on topics including developing relationships and leading meetings. Last fall, it began requiring first-year students to work on leadership style and communication with second-year "coaches."<br /><br />The Stanford Graduate School of Business this fall will revamp its leadership-training curriculum, requiring all first-year students to take personality tests, participate in teamwork and management-simulation exercises and critique their people skills. The school will bring in executive coaches to watch the simulations and offer advice. The training is aimed at getting students to look at how they behave and how effective they are, says Evelyn Williams, an expert in leadership simulations who is overseeing much of the new coursework. <br /><br />Our M.B.A. students "can pontificate like the best of them. But can they do?" says Ms. Williams. <br /><br />Students rate themselves<br />At Tuck, Dean Paul Danos and other professors began sensing a need for more leadership training a few years ago, recalls David Pyke, associate dean for the M.B.A. program. Employers were asking Tuck to develop leadership programs for their managers. Alumni on Tuck's advisory board commented that graduates weren't being assertive in job interviews. <br /><br />Mr. Pyke and other faculty members designed a leadership-development program, modeled in part on techniques companies use for executives. The program, launched in the fall of 2004, puts first-year students in teams of five. They complete coursework together and help each other with assignments. <br /><br />The students rate themselves and each other on how well they've operated in those teams, judging whether each person "solicits feedback and acts on it" or helps "manage conflict." The students get a report comparing their own ratings to those of their peers. They use the reports to design leadership-development plans and attend coaching sessions--all common techniques in corporate leadership-development programs. <br /><br />The coaches are faculty members who have had training in executive-coaching techniques. Elizabeth Winslow, a coach and the leadership program director, suggested one student who tended to interrupt others count to 15 before he offered his own opinion.<br />"This is probably wrong, but …" <br />Christine Quirolo, a second-year M.B.A. student who now mentors first-years in leadership, says her teammates rated her relatively low on confidence and assertiveness. They pointed out that she often prefaced statements with disclaimers like "this is probably wrong, but ..." <br /><br />Ms. Quirolo, a liberal-arts major in college, decided that her lack of confidence stemmed from her uncertain command of "hard" management topics such as financial analysis and modeling. She took more classes in those areas and worked on presenting her opinions more assertively; she also chose an internship that called for analyzing financial data. <br /><br />At the end of the internship, Ms. Quirolo says she confided to her supervisor that she had been working to improve her assertiveness and asked how she had done. The supervisor told her he would never have guessed she had a problem, she says.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-35739378635879658052007-04-29T09:12:00.000-07:002007-04-29T09:14:10.234-07:00The Soft Skills of Business English By Dr Goeran Nieragden, CologneAbstract<br />This article deals with the importance of the recent notion of soft skills for work-related language coaching, especially its role in Business English. It is argued that soft skills form not only a crucial and increasingly important topic in careers and career negotiations, but are also part and parcel of adult language tuition which tries to take seriously learners' (and teacher's) personalities. Both a number of general principles and concrete examples of making Soft Skills 'work' in the class-room are discussed.<br /><br /><br />What are soft skills?<br />Not normally found on a CV, soft, or social skills are those personal values and interpersonal skills that determine a person's ability to fit into a particular structure, such as a project team, a rock group, or a company. The skills include personality traits like emotional maturity, eagerness to learn, and willingness to share and embrace new ideas.<br /><br />As regards the future of work, soft skills are fast becoming the deal breaker in many of today's hiring decisions. Executives, after all, 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, first and foremost, their ability to develop and communicate ideas and visions. A list of the most crucial skills would look something like the following:Interaction<br />attitude awareness<br />conflict handling<br />co-operation<br />diversity tolerance<br />(n)etiquette<br />interlocutor orientation<br />teamwork willingness <br /><br /> <br /><br />Communication<br />delegating skills<br />listening skills<br />presentation skills Self-Management<br />compensation strategies<br />decision making<br />learning willingness<br />self-assessment<br />self-discipline<br />self-marketing<br />stress resistance <br /><br /> <br /><br />Organization<br />problem solving<br />systems thinking<br />troubleshooting <br /><br /><br />Figure 1: Soft skills in four categories (1)<br /><br /> <br /><br />Though the total of 20 skills is grouped under four headings they are, of course, all closely interrelated: 'Learning willingness', e.g., is difficult to manifest if your 'time management' does not work. And it is also true that soft skills are not exactly 'easy'; if they were, it would be easy to teach everybody to be a Managing Director. In what follows, I will try to show that soft skills are gaining in importance in two contexts which are relevant to English in Adult Education, in native, but even more in non-native contexts: DOING BUSINESS and DOING BUSINESS ENGLISH both feature soft or social skills as objects, effects, and prerequisities.<br /><br />The skills are of growing importance in a world where business is marked by 'hot' buzzwords such as globalization; decentralisation; and lean management. Of course it is a truism that in real life soft and hard skills (such as subject competence, resource handling, and market knowledge) go hand in hand. Hence, the selection instrument of an 'Assessment Centre' is gaining in significance especially for high potential recruitment. Through its exercises in strategy development and strategy implementation, many companies and employment agencies argue, this two- to three-day intensive group performance session brings to light candidates' abilities in 'conflict handling', 'co-operation' and 'stress management'. Admittedly, a traditional job interview or an old-fashioned IQ-test hardly warrant these results.<br /><br />Thus, though it is certainly helpful to know what technical terms such as benchmarking, 'B2B' vs. 'B2C', business process re-engineering, customization, downsizing, outsourcing, and empowerment stand for, a mere word-list knowledge ignores the complex interpersonal problems these terms carry. If we want to teach learners of Business English how to deal with these problems interpersonally, soft skills handling is indispensable.<br /><br /><br />The Teachability of Soft Skills<br />Though the skills would be difficult if not impossible to teach 'straightforwardly' in any course, teaching can create contextualized tasks, and thus provide skills-related learning experience. Collateral learning seems to be the key word here, that is, the notion of a learner learning more than merely the subject that he or she is studying at a given time. If 'attitude awareness' and 'problem solving' are what count in the future, then, ideally, teaching should have a share in attitude formation and comparison.<br /><br />A soft skills framework should permit Business English to emphasize the interpersonal forces of language-use in a work-oriented context, and teachers should keep a sharp eye on the function of any language item which they want to highlight. In other words, they must teach the pragmatic force along with the words, evidenced, by textual (= structure-giving), propositional (= intention-determining) and interpersonal (= status-fixing) functions. Any mismatch of linguistic form and speaker's intention leads to confusion, annoyance and misunderstanding, that is, causes havoc: 'I'm not prepared to show my homework', e.g., can signal unwillingness, inability, criticism of unclear homework assignment, simple forgetting, and other things.<br /><br />Social Theorist Erving Goffman (1955) made that very clear with his theory of 'FACE' and its twofold workings: In human interaction, Goffman argues, people strive for a positive social value, i.e. the approval of others (= a positive face, PF), while at the same time they also want to avoid other people's impediment (= a negative face, NF). Criticism, negative comments and disapproval of an interlocutor's personality or performance usually endanger his/her PF; requests, offers and compliments may threaten his/her NF: An invitation to golf causes offence (for the inviting party) if refused, debt (for the invited party) if accepted. Thus, what we normally tend to think of as plain and straightforward communicative exchange, in fact is a very thin layer of ice on which successful skating can be dangerous. If we take some very ordinary English sentences like the ones in Figure 2, it is apparent that they are not harmless and ordinary at all if we consider what might be implied for the involved people's 'FACES': (2)<br />SITUATION <br />UTTERANCE<br />1.Pointing at a colleague's desk: That mouse-pad does look funny!<br />2.On the way to the company car park: Do you have your mobile phone with you?<br />3.On returning to your desk: I thought I put a cup of tea here.<br />4.During a business meeting: Is anybody else here cold?<br />5.Knocking on a colleague's office door: Are you busy right now?<br />6.Asking a colleague in the canteen: Isn't that Mr Lawson over there?<br />7.Sitting in a lecture theatre: Sorry, there's a lot of noise at this end.<br /><br /><br />Figure 2: Sentences as threats to interlocutors' 'face'<br /><br />These sentences turn into downright traps if understood as a demand for action, an allegation of stealing tea, a request for assistance and so on and so forth. Rather than teaching students only how to construct and employ phrases like these, we should try to heighten their awareness of the inherent power relationship, trust and intimacy levels of the interlocutors; in short, the sentences' challenges to the category of 'FACE'. Language coaching, in turn, should adapt to the constantly changing 'face' of English, and keep in mind the cognition-based concept of 'KAL' (Knowledge About Language) which Ronald Carter has been promoting since the early 90s. The flexible character of this concept is meant to go beyond older ones, such as grammaticality, formal correctness and linguistic awareness. Carter wants language learning and teaching to (re-) start from scratch, i.e. to acknowledge insight into the 'new view':<br /><br />"A view which recognises Englishes as well as English and which stresses variable rules accords with a multilingual, culturally diverse view of society. [...] A critical language pedagogy does not so much aim simply to produce competence in use of a standard language, vitally important though that is, as to enable learners to reflect on the kind of English they use and how far it allows them to express their own personal voice as language users." (Carter. 1997: 9, 226)<br /><br />This notion is closely related to the new standard of "ISSE (International Standard Spoken English)" which David Crystal (2000: 57) forecasts to emerge as the result of the increasing global use of and diversified influence on the language. He cannot be far from the truth, as it so happens that English is an immensely (and increasingly?) flexible language, crammed with idiom and slang, unusually hospitable to new words. It is not only the language of business and international politics, but also that of travel, sports and science, computer software and the music industry. Moreover, in times of boundless globalization, the idea of 'FACE' is gaining particular importance in business contexts that involve cross-cultural aspects: In a business world where a German marketing officer is sent to Japan by her employer, a Finnish telecommunication corporate, in order to negotiate joint ventures for the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, it is certainly good to know about the main differences between British and American English, but what this person is very likely to encounter (and to use) herself, corresponds to neither variety.3 Given these conditions, English tuition should ideally proceed from linguistic competence => linguistic awareness => cultural awareness => cultural competence.<br /><br /><br />Implications for Learning<br />Phraseology, lexis and collocation are of primary importance in this approach of which grammatical accuracy is no longer the be-all and end-all. Our syllabus will have to pursue complex aims besides those of planting words and structures in students' heads. This will of course remain the precondition of all attempts at soft and social skills. But whichever way the 'basics' of structural grammar are brought to a learner, the techniques of drill patterning, total immersion or suggestopedia even, will not do when 'handling English aptly' rather than 'using English correctly' is at stake.<br /><br />Ideally, learners in the new position do not experience themselves as voiceless, and subject to external authority, not only as passive receivers, but rather as active discoverers, communicators and - most significant - creators of knowledge. The objectives of this idea of teaching become visible as improving learners' active and passive knowledge of styles, registers and functions of language items (4); furthering their knowledge of the working mechanisms of business; involving them as far as possible in tasks of teacher-guided learning; and encouraging them to set up, implement and realize their individual learning strategies. These objectives, in turn, ask for a learning process that is fundamentally social, interactive, and self-directed - if we want to encourage our learners to take home 'more than Business English' from 'a lesson in Business English', manifest in topics like Negotiating with Foreign Business Partners, Defying the Angry Customer or Serving International Markets, we must select, prepare and set tasks that involve reflective assessment and active training of one or more of the soft skills. Some general guidelines to make the upper-intermediate to advanced English class more learner-centred will be suggested now.<br /><br />When venturing on a new topic, teachers might start with a brainstorming session and elicit what students already know. Thus they will give the students a chance to start from their true personal vantage points; any accompanying material will then be taken not as a spoon- and force-fed medicine, not as the final word, but as one of many possible options. Space and room-allocation permitting, one could also ask students to write upon notice boards, flipcharts or whiteboards those aspects of a topic which they would most like to learn about. Tasks that are suitable for pairs or groups should tend to be open rather than closed, i.e. they should permit a variety of possible answers or solutions, or in any case, they should provide room for choice. In this way, they transport respect for any student's individual attitude, and ask them to balance rather than venture their arguments. Two short examples might help to outline possible ways of realizing insights from soft skills training in the class-room.<br /><br />The first example is from the realm of 'Financial English' and could run like this: For the topic of 'Takeovers and Buy-Outs' we might begin with a list of relevant technical terms, strategies, model cases, pros and cons, etc. But students will only experience the position-dependent forms of emotional involvement (e.g., enthusiasm, greed, pride, low vs. high self-esteem, sense of failure, satisfaction of 'winning'), if we can get them to approximate the atmosphere in which talks about the takeover process are likely to be conducted. So any group of four advanced students could be assigned the roles of the CEO of a failed start-up-company under threat (also its founder and main shareholder); the potential buyer (i.e. the representative of the 'bigger fish' trying to 'swallow' the 'smaller' one); the 'white knight' (senior business expert or other company backing the threatened company's case); and, especially in the case of 'leveraged buy-outs', i.e. buy-outs financed by third parties, the bank expert or financial organizer who backs the buyer's interest. We could then ask students to prepare and simulate preliminary or final negotiations, arguing their individual cases, taking into account the other, 'hostile' viewpoints all the time.<br /><br />The second example stems from the very crucial, and frequently requested topic of 'The Job Market'/'The Application Process'. Very often, teachers confront students with real job ads and ask them to sketch an application, a cover letter, or a CV. Though this is certainly good training, it seems a rather lonely task in class, apart from the exchange of technical terms. These, I think, should be pre-taught for a lesson which uses job ads as a trigger for more group-oriented exercises. Referring to the well-known study The Human Side of Enterprise (1960) of American sociologist Douglas McGregor, we might outline his theory of two distinct types of work motivation and work performance: In what McGregor calls THEORY X, people are considered 'lazy' by nature, disliking work, and in permanent need of supervision and control through a threats-and-rewards system. THEORY Y, by contrast, treats people as inherently self-motivated, committed to their workplace, willing to take responsibility and to make personal achievements, in short it assumes a psychological disposition to work within a framework of structures. Obviously, THEORY X provides a high degree of certainty and plannability, and is therefore easier to put into practice on the workshop floor, or in mass and largely automated production than THEORY Y. This, however, is good for managing staff promotions, salary negotiations, and for effective management. In class, we could then make further subclassifications by conceiving e.g. two representatives of each of McGregor's theories (Y1: 'The entrepreneur'; Y2: 'The leader'; X1: 'The team worker'; X2: 'The backroom worker'). Then, an authentic job ad could be scrutinized as to which of these types - the profiles of which should be established in class or in teams - best fit the job description. (5)<br /><br />Similarly, we could use the model which social psychologist Frederick Hertzberg puts forward in his study Work and the Nature of Man, i.e. the crucial difference between SATISFIERS and MOTIVATORS as determining factors of people's job performance: SATISFIERS, as guards of AVERAGE POTENTIAL, concern the working conditions and environement, the wages, the benefits, and the degree of job security; whereas MOTIVATORS, as stimulators of HIGH POTENTIAL, comprise challenging and creative tasks, recognition by peers and seniors, personal responsibility, possibilities for promotion, and the subjective feeling of forming part of corporate culture. It is easy to see that some basic questions such as 'Which type do you think you are?', 'Which type is your boss/your spouse/your best friend?', 'Which type would you (not) hire?' etc., can lead to intense discussions or team listings and, especially, will put all of the soft skills to the test in unforeseen ways.<br /><br />A lesson model with the benefit of reducing TTT (Teacher Talking Time) and increasing STT (Student Talking Time) is shown in Figure 3. As we see, a lot has happened in teaching methodology since the days when PPP (Present, Practice, Produce) was the answer to all questions (6):<br /><br />Traditional:<br />TEACHER'S ACTIONS <br />EFFECTS ON LEARNERS<br />1. Presentation of a pattern Look, listen, memorise<br />2. Elicitation of a pattern Repeat with whole class<br />3. Controlled practice (slight pattern variations) Repeat and vary in pairs<br />4. Free practice (more expanded variations) Repeat with more variation in groups<br />5. Written reinforcement Repeat in writing<br /><br /><br />Revised:<br />LEARNERS' ACTIONS <br />EFFECTS ON TEACHER<br />1. Look, discuss and guess the point Display pattern, stimulate discussion<br />2. Receive confirmation or correction Give solution on board or to groups<br />3. Repeat, vary, discuss Guide practice, encourage discussion<br />4. Invent questions/exercises for other groups Monitor groupwork<br />5. Exchange questions; discuss and write answers Encourage exchange, monitor writing<br />6. Discuss as a class with teacher Guide discussion, summarize findings <br /><br /><br />Figure 3: Teacher-centred vs. student-centred lesson plan<br /><br /><br />New Media and Soft Skills<br />As regards the 'overkill' of media and new media development directed at the teaching professions, any teaching material's qualities in featuring any number of the soft skills is what should guide our selection, preparation and employment. It is certainly true that a well-produced CD-ROM can work miracles for the beginner's faltering steps towards listening comprehension, and can make word learning less tedious. Also, e-mail-controlled homework - or even teamwork-tasks - solve a number of logistic and organisational problems. But most of the training forms that focus on 'attitude awareness' and 'conflict handling' are probably not really 'cyberworthy', not least because their teachers would not embody these skills themselves if they were only 'cybereducators'.<br /><br />And though NEWSWEEK recently painted a glorious picture of the future of online-learning, "[b]y the end of 2000, 75% of all U.S. universities will offer online course work to a logged-on student body of about 5.8 million, in most cases as supportive to personal teaching" (McGinn 2000: 60), I do not fear for the future of print-based and classroom-located teaching, if understood as a common enterprise of both the teaching and learning personalities involved.<br /><br />Moreover, if communication theorists are only halfway right in claiming that up to 70% of any information is communicated not via language, but by other systems, such as personal appearance and body language, we are still a long way from the moment when personal teaching can be fully discarded. Machines can do the drilling and controlling of drilled patterns, but they do not reach beyond that stage. Many of the greatest benefits of training, after all, are unintentional. When you come out of a training program, you often perform better. But is it the training that's critical or the interaction during the training?<br /><br />Now it might be replied that with the growing significance of 'e-commerce', the use of internet and e-mail will become standard features of business that we cannot afford to ignore when teaching people who will go on to do, or are already using 'e-commerce' in their jobs. Even learners in internet-related fields, however, I would like to hold, are in need of communicative, self-managing and problem-solving skills: If, say, 20 years ago students learned the conventions of business writing through letters and telexes, this may now have changed to faxes and e-mails, yet the obstacles to 'winning' your addressee for your ideas, or the dangers of 'striking a false note' have remained very much the same. So, instead of saying: 'Here's a new piece of technology - let's see if we can think of some way of using it', in soft skills teaching we should steer a more relaxed course and begin with: 'Here is an educational need - let's see which technology we can best apply to it'. <br /><br /><br />Implications for Teaching<br />A soft skills-centred agenda in Business English has to emphasize the personal, the subjective and the constructivist; it must challenge the expected, the usual, the traditional and the positivist. An authoritarian and teacher-dominated style of teaching will certainly not come to terms with the objective of conveying this armada of extra-linguistic skills through language teaching. Only a co-operative and learner-centred style, it appears, will do justice to the newly-defined roles of both teacher (who becomes more of a facilitator, and less of an instructor) and student (who is upgraded to a discussion partner and ideas generator, and by no means an empty vessel to be filled from outside): "Language is an immensely democratizing institution. To have learned a language is to have rights in it" (Crystal 2000: 56).<br /><br />This should not be taken to mean that teachers let go of their right and duty to monitor and organize the goings-on in the classroom. Rather, their 'interventions' especially in tasks of an open, multidimensional nature should be a careful, situation-adopted combination of facilitative and authoritative contributions. They must hold the balance between releasing tension, encouraging self-exploration, and providing both challenges and strategies. You need competence and experience to do this job, but you need commitment, enthusiasm, patience and role-consciousness to do it well. In short, you need the soft skills; not only, but quite urgently if you would like to teach them to others. To re-iterate the old saying that 'Teachers are the ones who understand, know, and can', is certainly not enough here. You need a healthy ego to teach, but you also need to be strong enough to check it at the door. Teaching 'interpersonal skills' is not about making yourself more powerful. It is about making your students more powerful. And you will only earn their trust and respect when you know who you are, convey a strong sense of mission - and when you 'walk your talk' (7).<br /><br />What counts in soft-skills-framing, obviously, are the qualities of intellectual and interaction stimulation: Teachers should get students to use reasoning and evidence; they should encourage them to think about old problems in new ways, and to re-think ideas that they had not questioned before. Ideally, teachers trigger off conversations even among groups of students who do not normally interact with each other, e.g. in a class on Business Correspondence where future engineers and architects sit next to economists and IT specialists. Thus, teachers should see those patterns which allow innovations and improvements for both the teaching and the learning process.<br /><br /><br />Conclusion<br />For the teacher the framework of soft skills confirms the ideas that 'good English teachers will always remain diligent English learners' and also that 'students learn best from what their teachers enjoy teaching'. The two qualities inherent to all of the abovementioned requirements of teachers, i.e. their essential soft skills, are the notion of holistic, situational problem solving, and the willingness to continuously revise one's own sense of meaning.<br /><br />It is not a closed shop we want to provide access to; it is not a finalised book we have to work through and press home on the learners. Rather, we should try to do our best in achieving two results simultaneously that are vital in view of the ever-changing 'face' of English: to enhance our students' linguistic competence; and to pave ways towards (inter)cultural competence, i.e. prepare them for the extra-linguistic demands that 'handling language aptly' via soft skills will undoubtedly put on them in their careers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-62334273641044270432007-04-29T09:01:00.000-07:002007-04-29T09:04:39.933-07:00The Soft Skills of Global ManagersWhile top performance usually is what gets global managers their international assignments, soft skills may be more important. An excerpt from Harvard Management Update.<br /><br />by Glenn <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Rifkin</span><br /><br />Despite nearly two decades of corporate globalization efforts, many organizations still struggle to find managers who are comfortable and effective in the increasingly global economy. Most suffer both from a lack of cultural awareness when dealing with employees and partners overseas and from a lack of experience managing increasingly complex processes over long distances.<br /><br />Though a few insightful corporate giants such as General Electric, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Cisco</span> Systems, and Intel have made strides in developing successful global managers, many human resources leaders and senior executives continue to be frustrated with the available skills and resources.<br /><br />But why is it so difficult to develop effective global managers? The answers are as complex as the world's geographies. Each company has its own specific needs and challenges, and every country presents a unique and rapidly changing landscape in which work must be accomplished.<br /><br />But even so, there are steps companies and managers can take to better prepare for the challenges of managing globally. Our focus here is threefold: (1) to develop a clearer understanding of the challenges of managing people across borders; (2) to instill in new global managers an awareness of and an appreciation for the vast differences among the cultures in which they do business; and (3) to give global managers the tools and support they need to succeed.<br /><br />The yawning cultural chasm<br />With the emergence of China and India as the newest and most daunting playing fields, experienced executives and thought leaders agree that softer cultural issues have become the source of notable management problems.<br /><br />"Managing in a global environment means you manage people who are separated not only by time and distance but also by cultural, social, and language differences," says S. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Devarajan</span>, managing director of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Cisco</span> Systems Global Development Center in Bangalore, India. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Cisco</span> India has more than 1,500 employees and close to 3,500 partner employees.<br /><br />"The main challenge here is to integrate and coordinate these individuals in ways that will ensure success. You need to build a relationship and have frequent interaction and communication among your team members," he says. "And you also need to be sensitive to and respect the cultural differences. People from different cultures tend to misunderstand each other's behaviors or stereotype people from other countries. It is essential to recognize the discrepancies between cultures in order to work together effectively."<br /><br />This, of course, is no simple task.<br /><br />Letting go of the headquarters mindset<br />Embracing differences among cultures and taking advantage of them to build value begins by addressing what Mary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Teagarden</span>, a professor of global strategy at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Thunderbird</span>, the Garvin School of International Management, in Phoenix, calls "a headquarters mindset," which she says pervades many global organizations.<br /><br />Simply put: Too many companies assume that they can do things abroad in the same manner as they do them domestically, says <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Teagarden</span>. "When I see companies that are <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">underperforming</span> in the global environment, I hear them saying, 'We have people who are just like me at home, and we expect everybody else to be just like me.' And people don't work that way."Among the rarest of traits is the ability to balance the need for consistent corporate practices with the need for regional uniqueness.<br /><br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Teagarden</span>, who has spent much of her twenty-six-year career analyzing the challenges for managers in a global economy, says she believes that these constraints can be overcome if leaders focus more closely on the empathic qualities of prospective global managers.<br /><br />"What is essential in a global environment is the ability to work with individuals, groups, organizations, and systems that are unlike our own," she says. "We must also understand what differentiates people and what unites them. Understanding that tension—how are we alike and how are we different—is a critically important starting point."<br /><br />At the very least, organizations need to ensure that managers have had the opportunity to build a basic understanding of the new cultures in which they will be immersed—with a particular focus on appreciating how behaviors differentiate.<br /><br />Beyond this, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Teagarden</span> has identified a number of key characteristics that successful global managers possess. Among them are three that resonate loudly: (1) a belief that differences matter; (2) openness to new and different ideas; and (3) cognitive complexity, or the ability to focus on both the "hard" and "soft" metrics in an organization—the hard quantitative side along with the softer, people side.<br /><br />These three success factors provide a useful framework for prospective global managers to use as they assess their skills and their preparedness for their new assignment.<br /><br />Differences matter<br />When footwear industry veteran Pat <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Devaney</span>, a senior vice president of production, sourcing, and development for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Deckers</span> Outdoor, Inc., arrived at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Deckers</span>' China offices in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Guongdong</span> Province for a recent meeting, he stopped in the lunchroom to converse with a group of female workers.<br /><br />"These women come from all over China, and each one orders a specific type of food depending on what region they are from," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Devaney</span> says. "As part of the dialogue, they were talking about the different flavors of mountain rat. 'Is grain fed better than fruit fed? Does it taste like cat? Are duck feet as chewy as chicken feet if cooked correctly?'"<br /><br />Though the conversation was not work related, it illuminated a simple but profound truth about managing in a global environment for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Devaney</span>, who has worked closely with operations in Asia for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Deckers</span> Outdoor and other companies for nearly thirty years. There are great cultural differences between the people who make up global companies. Understanding how people think, work, eat, and interact in a foreign workplace is crucial to building a successful operation. Most managers, new to these exotic environments, are ill prepared for these nuances.<br /><br />As the Chinese market economy has developed, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Devaney</span> has taken countless American managers on their first visit to China, and he has seen the importance of teaching them the subtle but crucial cultural characteristics of a new geography.<br /><br />"You have to realize the complexity that is involved in managing people in different countries," he says. "What is important to them? How do they take information you give them and interpret it back to those who work for them?"<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Teagarden</span> suggests that executives with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Devaney's</span> mentoring skills are in short supply, particularly in small and midsized organizations.<br /><br />Openness to new ideas<br />As emerging markets such as China continue to expand, executives must also tap into the management expertise in these geographies and be willing to move international managers experienced in one country to other countries. Too many companies view globalization as a one-way street, which is a shortsighted view, according to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Teagarden</span>. The integration of international managers plays a big factor in developing global expertise.<br /><br />"Moving U.S.-based personnel overseas is one thing, but what about bringing some of the Chinese or Indian managers back here or to Europe or South America and plugging them into the mix?" <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Teagarden</span> asks. While some large companies have had success with this cross-fertilization, she says, very few small and midsized companies do it at all.<br /><br />But consider what this can achieve. Mary Kay Cosmetics, for example, set up operations in China and discovered that it was not allowed to sell door to door as it did in the rest of the world. The Chinese government decided it had had enough Amway salespeople invading the country and called a halt to such selling. So Mary Kay's Chinese managers came up with a new distribution system in China, and a savvy marketing manager there led the development and introduction of a new <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">midrange</span> product that sold well in Chinese department stores.<br /><br />Mary Kay brought this Chinese marketing manager to its Dallas headquarters to replicate what she did in China and help managers see how it could be replicated elsewhere in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">firm's</span> global operations. "That is how you use the human supply chain very effectively," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Teagarden</span> says.<br /><br />This kind of cross-fertilization helps domestic managers think about how to be more flexible in their thinking and to appreciate how incorporating different perspectives is good management and good business.<br /><br />Cognitive complexity: Getting the hard and soft in concert<br />Among the rarest of traits is the ability to balance the need for consistent corporate practices with the need for regional uniqueness—both in terms of respecting cultural differences across geographies and seizing the unique advantages of each market.<br /><br />Charles <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Giancarlo</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Cisco</span> Systems' senior vice president of development, feels his firm has learned some important lessons in this regard. In the early stages of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Cisco's</span> global expansion, he says, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Cisco's</span> senior management allowed managers from different departments to establish their own connections in other countries, including India. The idea was to save money up front by avoiding <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Cisco's</span> corporate bureaucracy and taking best advantage of the local opportunities.<br /><br />But it also served to create a distinct shortage of consistency, or a lack of a single corporate culture for employees in other countries to embrace, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Giancarlo</span> says. "It's important for local employees to get the benefits of clear reporting structures and of uniformity in processes and procedures that a company like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Cisco</span> offers. You also want them to feel a sense of pride and a commitment to the larger organization. Otherwise, the cost savings you thought you had could be short lived. It's also very hard to consolidate later."<br /><br />But teaching new global managers how to balance corporate philosophy with the unique circumstances of the local market is not easy; it requires an awareness of cultures in the midst of dynamic change. It also demands a healthy dose of independent thinking among some very unfamiliar surroundings. Inexperienced managers may end up clinging to the practices they know and, thus, fall prey to the "headquarters mentality" <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Teagarden</span> warns of. Or they may succumb to a form of cultural intimidation in which they allow for whatever the local team is used to. In doing so, they open their organization to the problems <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Cisco</span> once faced.<br /><br />One way companies can help is to allow new global managers to immerse themselves in their assignments slowly. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Teagarden</span> suggests that companies commence a new manager's global assignment by having him work on a virtual team—that is, managing an overseas process or project while still being stationed in one's home country. By allowing people to learn to work together digitally, companies provide an opportunity for managers to hone the skills they will need to draw on when they are on the ground in a foreign country—but to do so while still in familiar territory. Diving in headfirst has not shown itself to be a particularly effective approach.<br /><br />In a similar vein, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">Cisco</span> India's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Devarajan</span> says that his company is addressing the marriage of cultural diversity with consistent management practices by employing "cultural ambassadors" who help coach the engineers and software developers about both company and country cultural issues before they are sent on assignment.<br /><br />"It is a cultural mind shift," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Devaney</span> says. "Even the very small things when you arrive, like where the leader sits at a lunch meeting or where to sit in the car. We would assume riding shotgun next to the driver in front is where the big boss sits, but, in fact, the seat of power is in the back behind the passenger seat. As the economy grows, the relations will worsen because so many people arrive here completely unprepared for what they are up against. Teaching people to understand what is going on around them makes an impact as you build relationships."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520214866835292815.post-24709182824769191462007-04-29T08:55:00.000-07:002007-04-29T08:58:09.299-07:009 Soft Skills For Success By Sean Hewitt Career Advisor - Every 2nd ThursdaySo you've got an impressive set of letters that come after your name, a wealth of valuable experience and even a few connections in high places. But believe it or not, that may not be enough to land you your dream job or that promotion you've had your eye on.<br /><br />These days, the strength of your "soft" skills can make or break how successful you are in the workplace.<br /><br />what are soft skills?<br /><br />Soft skills are essentially people skills -- the non-technical, intangible, personality-specific skills that determine your strengths as a leader, listener, negotiator, and conflict mediator. "Hard" skills, on the other hand, are more along the lines of what might appear on your resume -- your education, experience and level of expertise.<br /><br />Are you an agreeable person? Conscientious? Do you communicate effectively? Solve problems efficiently? These are the types of questions aimed at uncovering the strength of your soft skills. <br /><br />why employers care about them<br /><br />Employers value soft skills, because research suggests that they are just as good an indicator of job performance as traditional job qualifications or hard skills. One recent study, for example, found that personality measures like conscientiousness and agreeability were equally important predictors of work success as cognitive ability and work accuracy. <br /><br />the skills<br /><br />So how do you uncover your soft skills and get the most out of them? Here's a list of some of the most important soft skills and how to perfect them.<br /><br />1- Have a "winner" attitude<br />We've all heard that it's better to see the glass half full instead of half empty. And in the workplace, that type of positive thinking can go a long way. An overall positive outlook leads to an overall positive attitude, and that can be a valuable asset in work environments that typically breed cynicism and negativity.<br /><br />The key to having a winning attitude is in how you tackle obstacles and challenges that come your way. For example, instead of complaining about a stressful workload, think about it as an opportunity to show off your abilities by getting through it productively and efficiently. <br /><br />2- Be a team player<br />Employers love an employee who displays the ability to work well in groups and teams. Being a team player means not only being cooperative, but also displaying strong leadership ability when it's appropriate. <br /><br />The next time a conflict arises within your team, take the initiative to mediate. When you find your team getting stuck in a project, take the lead to move things forward. And what if you don't normally work with a team? Try to be more collaborative in the work you do and build professional relationships with your coworkers.<br /><br />Learn how to say what you mean, and watch your body language.<br /><br />3- Communicate effectively<br />Good communication skills are essential to someone's job performance. Communication is what allows you to build bridges with coworkers, persuade others to adopt your ideas and express your needs. <br /><br />Many small things you already do -- things you probably don't even think about -- have a big impact on your communication skills. Here are some things you should be wary of when communicating with others:<br /><br />Make good eye contact <br />Don't fidget <br />Avoid body movements that cut you off from others, like folding your arms <br />Don't talk for the sake of talking; always have a point <br />Enunciate your words properly <br />Hone your grammar skills with a good reference or style manual<br /><br />In general, you should become more aware of both the verbal and nonverbal cues you give off to others. Also remember that one of the keys to being a good communicator is being a good listener.<br /><br />4- Exude confidence<br />In almost every situation where you're trying to impress another person, confidence is key. While it's important to accept your limitations and act humble when you receive praise, it's also important to acknowledge your strengths and embrace them.<br /><br />Make sure you have the knowledge and skills to back up your confidence. If you act confident in some of your job responsibilities -- like your written communication, project management skills or leadership abilities -- make sure that it's based on genuine, positive reinforcement.<br /><br />5- Hone your creative skills<br />Creativity and imaginative thinking are valued in any job. Even the most technical positions require the ability to think outside the box. So never underestimate the power of innovative problem solving.<br /><br />The next time you're handed a tedious task, try to tackle it in a way that allows you to complete it more efficiently. When a problem comes along that others are reluctant to take on, jump at the opportunity to find a creative solution. If it doesn't work, then at least you'll have tried.<br /><br />6- Accept & learn from criticism <br />This is one of the most challenging soft skills, which is why it's typically one of the most impressive to employers. Your ability to handle criticism says a lot about your willingness to improve. And being able to criticize the work of others constructively is just as important. <br /><br />Be aware of how defensive you get in reaction to negative feedback. Never reject a piece of constructive criticism completely without acknowledging that at least part of it is helpful. And when you dish out criticism, make sure it's done diplomatically. Try to anticipate how the person you're criticizing will react based on his personality, and shape the way you criticize him accordingly.<br /><br />Learn how to be a motivator and prioritize your projects.<br /><br />7- Motivate yourself & lead others<br />It's important for an employer to know that you're a self-starter who takes initiative. This means constantly seeking out new ways to keep your job interesting and motivational, even if it at the surface it seems repetitive and mundane.<br /><br />Creativity plays a big role in this, but there's more to motivation than just that. Have the courage to pursue those ideas you've had stuck in the back of your mind, and have the dedication to follow through with them and be successful. Pilot others in the same direction to work towards a common goal. Remember that a good leader leads by example.<br /><br />8- Multitask & prioritize your to-do list<br />In today's workplace, a good employee is expected to be able to shuffle several different assignments and projects at once. Are you good at tracking the progress of different projects you've been handed to work on? Do you know how to prioritize what's most important? These are the keys to being a good multitasker. <br /><br />Don't be afraid to take on new tasks. Show off your multitasking skills by taking on projects that fall all over the spectrum. Branch out beyond your direct responsibilities, and be sure to report on the progress of projects regularly.<br /><br />9- See the big picture <br />Looking at the larger picture in your work means being able to see the determining factors of success. It also means recognizing a risk that's worth taking, and knowing when to take it.<br /><br />Say, for example, that you're in advertising and you're handed the task of creating a campaign for a brand of soap. To see the big picture, you should recognize that the goal is not just to sell soap, but also to satisfy the client and provide him with a quality service. Additionally, you make yourself more valuable to your company by showing the unique creativity only you can bring to such a project. <br /><br />capitalize on all of your skills<br /><br />While it's important to recognize and build on your soft skills, that doesn't mean that you should neglect your hard skills. The real key to success in any job is making your soft skills and hard skills complement each other.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0