7 Essential Soft Skills At Workplace In New Normal

Soft skill is something which is extremely essential at all times not only at the workplace but also in our social life as well. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating and this present pandemic situation has forced us to change a lot of things in our present lifestyle and behaviour, so I am sure now and beyond, an employer would be looking for several soft skills. Our workplaces are changing very rapidly in many unforeseen ways and would continue to change frequently in the coming years. Therefore, regardless of their jobs, all employees need to acclimate rapidly to these massive changes ranging from working remotely to changes in operations and fulfilment.

Gartner Talent Neuron data shows that the total number of skills required for a single job has been increasing by 10% year over year since 2017. Furthermore, one of the three skills in an average for the year  2017 job posting in IT, finance or sales are already obsolete.

 

 

Therefore, the kind of changes happening in our social life and at workplaces shows the importance of the role of essential soft skill that would grow in multi-fold and employers are eagerly looking for the following skillset as an essential tool for employment.

  1. Digital Capabilities

Almost 85 per cent of the respondents in the McKinsey survey revealed that their business has somewhat or greatly accelerated the implementation of technologies that have become digitally enabled employee interaction and collaboration, such as videoconferencing and file sharing etc. Roughly half of those survey reported that there is increasing digitization of customer channels, for example, via e-commerce, mobile apps, or chat boxes whereas 35 per cent have further digitized their supply chains, for example, by connecting their suppliers with digital platforms in the supply chain management. In this technologically advanced age, one needs to have command over digital tools for the necessary collaboration and communication whenever required. Hence, whether you’re looking for a new job or want to start your own business, digital skill is the ultimate key to success.

  1. Communication Skills

The need for effective communication skill is well taken by the industry in the era of complex business but now it has become more important in this virtual world of communication. Managing all stakeholders in the virtual media of communication has become a present challenge for us. Imagining, a young graduate is facing his life’s first-ever job interview in the virtual platform where probably a lot of things are not in his/her control. Therefore, it’s suggested to have a lot of practice and preparation before appearing for the job interview. Communication skills are needed to speak competently with a wide group of people while managing good eye contact, exhibit a varied vocabulary and express your language & views to your audience, listen effectively, present your ideas appropriately, write clearly and concisely, and work well in a group.

  1. Cognitive Skills

Cognitive skills are something that our brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention etc. It enables each one of us to own and direct ourselves on the right path. It helps to solve problems in our workplace and improve the quality of work. It helps us to sustain attention, segregate our attention, gain attention, long-term memory, working memory, processing speed, visual processing, auditory processing, logic & reasoning etc.

  1. Emotional Skills

Along with IQ, nowadays organizations are giving priority and importance to Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Adversity Quotient (AQ). These all are very closely interlinked and interdependent on each other as well. The way we are behaving in different situations and the way we are controlling our emotions is the key to success in our life. These all control our behaviour helps to manage relations, avoid negative influence and helps us to manage even in positive situations.

Following are few key indicators of emotional skills:

    • Express feelings with words
    • Self-controlled behaviour
    • Ask for help when needed
    • Shows affection towards familiar people
    • Aware of other people’s feelings
    • Pride in accomplishment
    • Pay attention and wait for the turn to talk
  1. Adaptability & Resilience

Quick recognition of changes, challenges or roughness defines the alternative and effective plan of action to implement the same is extremely important in any space of life as well as more important in our professional life.  It requires a lot of mental strength and internal & external collaboration whereas it is also necessary to develop a habit of keeping us updated on the regular basis.

  1. Motivation & Influence

The world is changing to find its own way to motivate an individual in the process to influence others in changing their minds, facing the challenges, taking into confidence & self-commitment etc. Negotiation and influencing skills are extremely valued in any kind of organization.

  1. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Critical thinking gives an end-to-end overview of conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication as a guide to believe and take necessary action. Thereby recognizing the problem or foreseeing the problem, finding out the root cause & finding an alternative approach to solve and implement a solution is an essential skill for today’s world.

Henceforth I strongly believe that the above listed soft skills set would help you to answer a lot of important questions during your interviews. In today’s corporate world, while collaboration and teamwork is an important aspect for a bright future, the listed skill sets are an extremely crucial part for career progression and even unavoidable attributes for the freshers as well as the job seekers.

Tips for Job Seekers during the economic slowdown resulting from coronavirus pandemic

While the Covid-19 pandemic is the most discussed topic in every corner of the globe, the next challenge is its massive impact on economy slow down and disruption in business and as a result the overall hiring sentiment in the country is likely to witness an adverse impact with 60-65 per cent interviews getting delayed across industry, especially in the services, retail, manufacturing, infrastructure sector.

On the other hand organizations would be much careful on cost control on human resource and the expectation would be mostly 3 fold higher on multitasking and highly skilful human resource and for obvious reason the other challenge would be competition. Therefore finding a new job in the economic slowdown time will be a massive challenge and hence should have very careful focus on readiness and proactive battle plan.

  1. Create your mind and make a closer look on short term :

This is the time it’s very important to find out strength on your skill and map industries and job accordingly. This may help you get an opportunity but it may not be the perfect job. Consider it as a short term move, so that mind would be ready and relaxed to accept.

  1. Time to work on 3 skill:

Utilize this time to work on and improve following 3 skill set which are going to be decisive in future job search.

  1. Sociability skill:
    Focus on effective communication, team work, ego & expectation management, presentation skill etc.

  2. Analytic Skill:
    It’s not only data analysis and data representation, but also situation analysis. You learn this skill by following several case studies from several organization available in internet.

  3. Functional Skill:
    Should have very honest and careful focus on functional skill and its strong foundation.

    3. Digital Networking:
    Look for joining professional group like linkedIn or facebook etc. Join in the conversation, post and comment, chat and make yourself visible. Get ready to ace a virtual informational interview or networking chat by practicing with a friend

 

4. Stay Connected:
The situation may be that in the recent time you had a promising interaction with a hiring manager, but due to this situational reason the same is taking time to matured, so it’s recommend to stay connected with hiring manager through different means. For instance, connect with the hiring manager on LinkedIn and, if they post a status, comment on it. But be very careful that the comment should be honest and that illustrates you read it and have valuable insight to contribute. Pretend you’re giving them a preview of what you’d add to the team if you worked there.

 

5. Boost skill:

Nothing better than this time to work on and boost your skill and improve qualification. There are plenty of free online programs like MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course), Microsoft Training, EdX Classes (featuring free courses from MIT and Harvard) , CoursEra , NASSCOM FutureSkill etc. This kind of program would add lot of value and make your resume stand out.

 

  1. Learn to face interview digitally:

At this moment there is no proven treatment and vaccine of COVID-19, hence organizations would prefer to go for digital interview process until it’s extremely essential to have F2F discussion. Therefore first few rounds of interaction on digital platform would decide a lot and this required lot of practice to comfortable with. Like its required to know technology know how of the platforms like zoom , gotomeetings, skype, whatsapp video call etc and on the other side important to know the etiquette , representation , Q & A etc.

The best way to learn this is start such sessions with friends or known peoples of the same pitch whom you know. The other way is to go for online classes for re-skilling and up-skilling yourself.

 

  1. Mental & Physical Fitness:

This is last but not the least that ensure honest effort to make yourself mentally and physically fit, happy. I strongly recommend to make a practice of doing min. 30 min. physical exercise (free hand) and min 30 min Yoga that would boost your physical and mental fitness, improve concentration, make you stress free.  

During an economic slowdown due to pandemic, it’s important to focus on what you can control—improving your skills and reaching out to your network. You should be realistic while optimistic by doing homework now so that when situation improve then you can actually open the door and see the light of brighter future ahead.

Challenges In Higher Education Sector

Higher education allows one to pursue a career that interests and inspires them. Higher job satisfaction also comes from higher income, better employment benefits, and more advancement opportunities to the young generations.

The higher education system in the country is the building block of the community and society. All the policymakers and the money men of the country need to understand the issues breeding in the system and take all the possible measures to improve the standard of the Higher Education Sector.

Challenges In Higher Education Sector

In the education sector, there should be a major focus on the need for quality over quantity in the field of education. Like every other aspect around the globe, the education sector also holds its challenges. However, the challenges in educational institutes differ from each other, some way or another, but, there are some common ones, that everyone has to go through

Some of those challenges are:

  • Availability of quality academic and non-academic staff – It should be emphasized that not only a degree or a certificate in a particular field is important, but what is more important is the real-time trends and situations in the industry.

 

  • Ensuring a live and active connection with the industry – It is extremely important for any higher education institute to have active connections with industry so that they can impart practical knowledge to the students.

 

  • Keeping up with technological advancements – The industry is evolving faster than the higher education sector can grasp everything that is happening. Hence, this becomes a challenge for universities and colleges to keep track of all the technological advancements in the field.

 

  • Quality of student intake – The government policies and the expansion in the higher education sector have drastically improved a lot in the last few years which is a good thing, but their expansion is uncontrollable and since is hard to control this expansion, it has become a major challenge for a university to keep a strict quality check on the intake of the students.
    Lack of effective communication skills in students – Schools are not more focused on communication skill development, which makes it hard for higher education institutes to ensure that the students are ready for the pressure of the industry.

 

  • Lack of correlation between education systems – The schools are not making themselves ready for different levels of our education sector. This is the biggest challenge in the entire education system and that probably leads to more damage to the next generation. So, a gap between the coordination in the level of education is one of the biggest challenges.

 

  • Need for constant revision of material – Every statutory body is bound with their curriculum and that curriculum is not upgrading at an as fast pace as the industry’s moving. The schools are not getting themselves ready about when they are going to finish their program, they probably are far away from the industry needs. Students are equipped with bookish knowledge, which is probably, only, 20-30% of the requirement of the industry knowledge required.

Need For More Updated Faculty

That percentage of a teacher trying to keep themselves updated is only 5% of all teachers are interested to do that. However, the teachers are not directly to blame because they are so bonded with curriculum and syllabus, examination process, result publication, and all these things. The teachers probably don’t get much time to research happenings in the industry. This is another challenge.

If one looks at that, it is one of the burning areas for the higher education sector for an institute to sustain. If that gap is not going to be fulfilled, the higher education sector is going to be sustainable. This is a huge part but one could see and as a result of what happened now since the industries are not getting the right fit candidate from the institutes so they are not trusting the institute.

Role Of Government And Corporates In Strengthening The Industry

Everybody has to come together to ensure that the higher education sector is thriving. If the government can create some type of jurisdiction where the corporate can receive tax benefits or other perks if they invest their time and resources in the sector to bridge the gap between the higher education institutes and the industry, then the students will become a much-valued asset.

If the industry starts to come forward to accommodate the students for training or to accommodate the professors for training and all these things and automatically it is going to give a good result.

It should be emphasized that higher education institutes and corporations mutually benefit from each other. There are organizations that have a lot of philanthropic, there are industries who’re having a lot of philanthropic thoughts that are definitely coming forward. They are contributing to different projects, they are doing it. However, if we need this process to have a higher pace, the government has to step in.

Plausible Solution For Bringing A Change In The Industry

There isn’t a problem in the world that doesn’t have a plausible solution that can be overcome. There can be several ways that the Higher Education Sector can deal with the challenges present in front of it. Such as:

  • Hiring faculty with industrial experience – The Government of India has passed a bill that requires all the faculty members of any college or higher education institution to have a Ph.D. However, this doesn’t solve the main challenge since practical experience is more important than theoretical knowledge.

 

  • More industry involvement – Students need to learn and understand the requirements of the employer. Therefore, institutes need to introduce both formal and informal session of industry meets for the students

 

  • Hiring people from the industry – People who have worked for 25-30 years in the industry can be more insightful about the trends and the functioning of the workplace. These people can coach students in developing key skills in communication and presentation.

The higher education sector develops the pillars of modern society, it produces a generation of people who have the chance and intellect to bring a change in the community. Therefore, it is important that the teaching methodology and curriculum is more practical oriented, then the industry will thrive.

This blog was first published by  Eduvoice.  Click here to read original article.

Leadership Take away from Hindu Mythology

At the end in Mahabharata’s, it tries to explain the complexity of KARMA, and how difficult is to decide what is good and what is bad. What happens in the war and after the war.

Kauravas lose and Pandavas win and they ruled over Hastinapur for 36 years and after that they moved to vanaprastha. Then they say they’ll head to Swarga. They believed they ruled well with dharma, so they should go to Swarga.

As they climb the mountain, one after another, the Pandava brothers start dying. Yudhishtir doesn’t turn back even once to see at his brothers or at Draupadi when she dies. He believes he has renounced everything.

He keeps walking and finally reaches. Deboraj Indra greeted him and said ‘ You have been the true Dharmaraj by being virtuous at all times, so come to Swarga’. Yudhishtira has a dog with him who has followed him from the palace. Indra refuses to allow the dog in Swarga. Yudhishtira says he will enter only if the dog is allowed, since they have been the companions in the long journey, otherwise both will stay out. Indra is very pleased by his principled stand and allows both to Swarga.

In Swarga , Yudhishtira shocked to see Kauravas. He asked  Indra why Kauravas are here, they were the cause of war, where adharmis. Indra tells him that according to the rules, all those who die at Kurukshetra doing their duty as Kshatriyas, will find a place in heaven. That is to say if you follow your caste dharma in the punya bhoomi, you will achieve Swarga. This is more complicated than simply good or bad karma.

Now the most important question asked by Yudhishtira- ‘Where is my brothers and wife?’ Then Indra took him under the earth, full of misery place. There, his brothers and wife are suffering for their individual paaps, sins –

  • Bhima : for overeating
  • Arjuna : for being insecure
  • Nakula : for being a narcissist
  • Sahadeva: for being arrogant about his knowledge
  • Draupadi: for preferring Arjuna over her other husbands

Yudhishtira feels compared to all misdeeds and adharmas did by Kauravas , these are very small faults. But Indra explains that since they died on Dharma Kehstra- Kurukshetra during their duty, so their all bad karma was wiped off and they are here in Swarga.

Yudhishtira is very angry about the apparent injustice and he refuse to go heaven. At that moment Krishna says –

Hadn’t you given up everything? You said you have renounced everything but obviously you didn’t let go of your anger. You defeated and killed the Kauravas, punishing them for their misdeeds. You ruled over their kingdom for 36 years – wasn’t that punishment enough? You don’t seem to have forgiven them and angry even now. You are carrying your past baggage and still attached with negative emotions, so how can you be in heaven?’

With this twist , in the end , it’s not about physical Swarga or Narak rather it’s state of mind. Swarga is where you find pleasure and enjoy and Naraka is where you suffer. But unless you leave all your anger, envy, greed, resentment etc, you can’t achieve Swarga , success. So Swarga or Naraka is not outside but inside us.

 

Leadership Take out:

  • Never leave a person who believe you and accompany you in your journey.
  • Consider your work place is a Dharma Keshetra (Poonya Bhumi) and job assigned to you is your caste duty.
  • Avoid overeating
  • Never be insecure – God has given you something extraordinary to success in life , find it out by talking to yourself and inner call.
  • Never be narcissist and arrogant about your knowledge, skill, wealth, lifestyle etc.
  • Being a leader never ever prefer or favour to any individual of team members
  • Forgive misdeeds – Give chance
  • Leave aside and forget all past baggage

 

Remember road in front of you is endless – It’s created by almighty. Trust him and keep walking- Swarga / Success is there for you !!!

Management Education is the need of the hour

“In the business people with expertise, experience and evidence will make more profitable decisions than people with instinct, intuition and imagination.”
― by Amit Kalantri.

Well, considering the fact of global business situation and socio-economical aspect, it’s believed that a formal Management Education is, not only the need of hour, but also it’s a professional essentiality of current era.

What is the concept of ‘Management’ all about?
Fundamentally it can be defined as, managing effectively within limited resource, within stipulated time period, with all due professionalism; centring which all organizations look for budding professionals with following essential & requisite skill sets.

a) An Expert with functional and domain understanding.
b) A Professional with matching Management skills for the role.
c) An individual with right attitude to un-learn, further re-learn.
d) An individual with right attitude and adaptability.
e) An individual with dynamic behavioural traits of patience, understanding & analysation.

“Management is the dynamic life-giving element in every business. Without it the resources of production remain resources and never become production” – by Peter Duker.

Referring to current era of dynamic, high competitive, knowledgeable as well as demanding consumer fraternity; in age of super-fast & rapidly advancing technology evolving in unabridged scale, there have evolved high needs of skilled management professionals all through irrespective industry.

It is indeed a good & relevant management degree helps to be ready with –

  • Research & analytic blend,
  • Communicative and interpersonal skill,
  • Leadership & Can-do attitude.

It is, irrespective of the field of study, as like Basic Science, Technology, Social Science, Life Science, commerce so on and so forth, management education helps to develop other skills which are effective in towards overall organizational growth.

“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live.” by– Mortimer Adler

Recent report says that, each year, about 3,60,000 students passes out from approx 4000 B-Schools in India, in accordance to on-going business & corporate format, every organisation in India, in today’s context, immediately needs a 3-fold management graduate to surge-up the business processes ahead.

In the flip side, it is not just a simple management degree, rather a management degree from a recognised and valued University/ Institution, endowed with eminent academicians & scholars, guides the students with best of practical skills, which makes them positively employable.

Hence choosing the University/ Institution is essentially very crucial & momentous. Before choosing the right B-School, it’s important to see following factors –

• Academic Infrastructure
• Academic team (ideally should be combination of pure academicians & industry leaders)
• Pedagogy
• Latest syllabus
• Industry connect and industrial project
• Seriousness in right internship
• Soft skill & grooming eco-system

According to Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), in 2018 – 19, more than 70% of employers are planning to hire MBA graduates all across the world. The opportunities and scopes are on an increasing trend for MBA graduates ahead; but the question in mind remains stagnant that prior to taking up MBA study, which of the specialization shall result on to successful career scope in near future. Following two recent survey report probably going to help on it.
The table below shows the statistics on the growing percentage of all the top sectors to work Post-MBA in India

 

 

Source: Nielsen, IBEF & www.gofyi.in

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