Technical skills ...

Continued from yesterday………

Optimistic Attitude

An optimistic attitude prepares you to anticipate success and to bounce back form setbacks. A positive outlook helps you to view obstacles as opportunities and to stay motivated to achieve what you want in work.

With an optimistic attitude you will make self - fulfilling prophecies work for you rather than against you - if you expect things to turn out well, they are more likely to do so.

Self - Confidence

As we have seen, optimists possess many valuable qualities, such as self-awareness, resilience and happiness. However, no attribute is more precious to the optimist than his or her self-confidence.

By trusting in your ability to do what needs to be done, you enter into all your undertakings in the expectation of success. Expecting to succeed is a powerful motivator and helps you to persist even in the face of difficulties. And, of course, positive expectations tend to lead to positive results.

Building Positive relationships

There is a diverse set of skills which we apply to the business of initiating, building, maintaining and enhancing our relationship in life and work. It is in effect the bringing of our personal abilities and applying them in relating to others in the working context.

As pointed out, there is a huge range of types and levels of relationships that operate in life, and particularly in working life. Some are more formal than others. Some are nearer to friendships or even partnerships.

Listening

* Listening solves mutual problems: It is ridiculous to disagree with someone until you understand their point of view.

* Listening leads to cooperation: When people reckon they are important to you, they will be more inclined to respect you in return and cooperate with you.

* Listening helps decision - making: by listening to the experience and ideas of others, you improve your own judgement.

* Listening builds your own confidence: the more your understand others, the more likely you are to do and say things to which they will respond positively.

* Listening prevents conflict: talking before listening leads to the foot - in - mouth experience we never forget. You have two ears and one mouth: take the hint.

Proposing

Think carefully about how you word a proposal and practise it on yourself or a colleague to gauge the effect before you actually say it. Again, the tweaking of the odd word can make the difference between it being accepted and being thrown back in your face.

Here are some basic points to remember:

* Frame the proposal in the positive: in terms of what do you want rather than what you don’t want.

* Package the proposal so that it has a number of component parts which can be adjusted or negotiated if necessary.

* Phrase your proposal in such a way that it sounds as if you are floating on objectively good idea and inviting the other side to join in.

Negotiation skills

In the world of work, we rarely get our way in everything. Business life is about balancing the interest of all the parties who have vested interests. Obviously, these interests can compete or even conflict. Whether we are representing our own interests, those of our department or function, or those of the organisation itself, we need to be able to negotiate.

Negotiation involves discussion and agreement to maximise the benefit to all interested parties. Notice that this is different to just getting your own way at the expense of the other party. In business life, we talk of ‘win-win.’

Teams - the key to success

A ‘team’ is a small group of people working together, pooling their talents and sharing responsibility in the pursuit of an agreed goal. “Teamworking” refers to individuals and groups working together in reasonable co-operation and harmony.

“Success hinges on work ethics, communication skills and self-development. Be positive, industrious, action, oriented, pro-active, disciplined, honest and professional. Be strong in your fundamentals but also look beyond your subject to develop allied skills.

Self-awareness

IT sector, Business process outsourcing and other IT related sectors are fastest growing sectors. Such sector needed more individuals who are ‘self-aware’ and team players. Career dynamics revolved around continuous learning, multi-tasking, the ability to adapt and independent judgement. “What employers look for is a consistently good academic track record, willingness to go the extra mile, teamwork, commitment to excellence, creativity, but most importantly, communication skills.”

“To become a world-class professional, you should develop customer focus, technical skills, behavioural attributes and healthy attitude.”

Master your soft skills. You will have a bright future. Your company will earn more profits! Soft skilled people are wealth creators - profit generators.