Module – 3
Employability and Corporate Skills
Time Management
Time management, at its core. is not actually about managing time at all – it’s about managing yourself. We all have the same 24 hours each day, but how well we use them is completely down to us.
The best time management techniques should improve the ways you work, help control distractions and enhance your concentration. While there are lots of them floating about on the internet, here are the five time-management techniques and their associated tools – that make the biggest difference.
1. Be intentional: keep a to-do list
Drawing up a to-do list might not seem like a ground-breaking technique, but it’s one of the most powerful ways to become more productive. The best to-do lists include a variety of tasks: quick and urgent jobs that might be completed in 10 minutes and bigger, operational tasks that are a work in progress.
Having a set list of tasks helps keep you intentional about what you work on. It will create a layout for the tasks you must complete – all tasks that pop up outside of it are secondary – and if your mind does wander, a quick glance at your list reminds you of what you should be doing. And of course, keeping a to-do list allows you to enjoy one of life’s unique pleasures: visualizing what you want to achieve, and then striking your way through it.
2. Be prioritized: rank your tasks
If writing a to-do list is the first step towards better time management, prioritising your tasks is the next. It guides you through the day’s activities in order of importance, ensuring that the tasks that matter most are dealt with first. When ranking your tasks, you should always prioritize what’s most important to you. Ascertain which tasks and activities are high-value, which will have the most positive effect on you, your work, and your team.
The usefulness of prioritization can’t be overstated – without it, we often end up focusing on work that’s pressing but not actually that important, simply because a deadline is looming. Prioritization is your most effective defence against the lure of urgent-yet-inconsequential tasks.
3. Be focused: manage distractions
Despite our best intentions, we all get distracted. From social notifications to talkative colleagues – and the very human problem of procrastination – actually sitting down and getting things done is almost always harder than it should be. Given that it takes about 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption, the productive cost of our daily distractions quickly adds up. So you need to effectively manage your distractions in order to protect your flow and focus.
Most of the time distractions easy to identify, although many people aren’t aware of numerous pressures that fracture their days. One you have identified the source, you can set controls in place so you decide when to let notifications in. Common culprits like email, meetings and Slack can be effectively managed with the help of a clear communication framework.
4. Be structured: time block your work
A structured schedule is crucial for delivery of achievable goals that you have set for yourself. It will provide you enough space for your work and sets a healthy pressure to actually complete it. One of the most productive ways of doing this is time-blocking, as it prevents one task from overtaking your entire day and stops you from multi-tasking.
Many of us juggle multiple jobs at the same time, believing we’ll get more done, but in fact the opposite is true; we are most productive when we focus on one thing at a time. Time blocking is essentially a thoughtful approach to dividing attention across all your work. Set aside small periods of time for admin-style tasks like email, scheduling and returning calls, and larger periods for more detailed, in-depth or analytical work.
5. Be self-aware: track your time
Ultimately, you can’t improve how you use your time, without understanding how you actually use it in the first place. Tracking your time is fundamental here as it provides the insight and self-awareness to make effective changes, surfacing hidden time drains, highlighting inefficient processes and laying out your productive patterns.
Effective Planning
Companies often have goals, both broad and specific, of how they want to achieve success in certain ways. Effective planning helps businesses set objectives and timelines to accomplish those goals. It provides a focus for how a company operates and makes decisions.
Effective planning creates achievable goals through several factors, such as time management and resource allocation. Done well, effective planning improves operations, provides focus, sets priorities and increases collaboration. It can mould the future of an organisation.
If a company is new or experiencing significant change, team members may work together to create or update the plan. Decision-makers may be managers, department leaders or team leaders.
Creating an Effective Plan
Below are the steps you may follow to create an effective plan:
1. Clarify the company’s vision
One of the first steps in effective planning is defining the vision, values and mission for the organization. The vision is the long-term objective of the business, and you should base it on ambitious but realistic goals. Values create the foundation and stepping stones for the company, and affect every part of the business, from marketing strategies to workplace culture. Values should be beliefs that you want every member of the organisation to practice regularly, while the mission defines your purpose as a company.
This could be one of the lengthier processes, since your group will need to agree on the same definitions for all high-level components of the organization.
2. Make an outline
An outline must be formed that would include everything you want to discuss during your planning session. The outline guides you through a series of steps, including the assessment stage, formulating the strategy and communicating the actions necessary to advance the company toward the effective vision.
Department heads should research and gather information about their respective departments to contribute to the outline. While planning, you must understand the current status of the business as well as factors that will affect it in the future. The outline also determines which employees should complete tasks to ensure the team meets objectives.
3. Create detailed goals
Once the main objective and outline are defined, discuss the goals the team wants to set. These small term goals must be specific with established deadlines and metrics. For example, a marketing department team could decide they want to write five articles for the company website and get a total of 15,000 page views in the next 30 days. They can review their analytics to see how close they are to meeting that goal on a weekly basis.
4. Decide how to track your progress
An essential part of the effective planning process is creating a system for tracking your progress. This can be accomplished by regularly creating and reviewing reports. You may already create reports that apply to your planning. These documents can be used to measure your progress and connect your work to your strategy.
5. Involve all employees
Each individual contributes to the success of a company. Your team should communicate the mission and outline with all team members and ask for their input. Employees may have a better understanding of what the company can and can’t do. Communication with all employees also ensures that everyone is working toward the same objectives and gives them an active role in planning the company’s future.
6. Follow up routinely
Once you finish the effective plan, revisit it periodically. Meet with employees and review how the company is progressing toward its objectives. If a goal is lagging behind, discuss why with employees and see how it can be improved. You should also share your progress with your organisation on a regular basis.
Stress is your body’s response to changes in your life. Because life involves constant change—ranging from every day, routine changes like commuting from home to work to adapting to major life changes like marriage, divorce, or death of a loved one—there is no avoiding stress.
Causes of Stress
Stress can come from many sources, which are known as "stressors." Because our experience of what is considered "stressful" is created by our unique perceptions of what we encounter in life (based on our own mix of personality traits, available resources, and habitual thought patterns), a situation may be perceived as "stressful" by one person and merely "challenging" by someone else.
In other words, one person's stress trigger may not register as stressful to someone else. Although there are certain situations that tend to cause more stress in most people and can increase the risk of burnout.
For example, when we find ourselves in situations where there are high demands on us but we little control and few choices, we are likely to experience stress. We might also feel stress when we don't feel equipped; where we may be harshly judged by others; and where consequences for failure are steep or unpredictable.
Many people are stressed by their jobs, relationships, financial issues, and health problems, as well as more mundane things like clutter or busy schedules. Learning skills to cope with these stressors can help reduce your experience of stress.
Techniques for Stress Management
Below are some steps that may be used for effective stress management:
To identify the circumstances that are contributing to your stress levels, it’s helpful to keep a journal for a week or two. In it, make note of the situations that you find most stressful, as well as the circumstances surrounding it, such as the:
By recording your stressors for a set period of time, you can identify patterns and your coping mechanisms. This information allows you to evaluate how you can handle these situations better in the future.
2. Establish boundaries
Technology allows us to have constant access to work, but it’s important that you create work-life boundaries for yourself. These boundaries are different for everyone but usually come in the form of limiting work activities during certain days or times. For example, you could make a rule that you only check your work email during normal business hours or refrain from answering your phone during dinner.
3. Practice relaxation techniques
Intentionally relaxing is a great tool for overcoming stress. There are a number of ways that you can do this, including:
Regardless of what strategy you use, practice it regularly so you can become better at it and then apply it to different situations and aspects of your life.
4. Take time off
It’s important that you take advantage of times when you can avoid engaging in and thinking about work-related activities. Use your vacation days and set aside intentional time when you are able to turn off your phone and focus your attention on something other than work. Taking time off allows you to return to work feeling refocused and reinvigorated.
5. Develop healthy habits
It’s essential to develop healthy strategies for handling your work-related stress. Whenever you begin to feel tension, having a strategy in place to combat it allows you to overcome it in a way that is sustainable and beneficial. These stress-relieving habits can come in many forms, such as:
One of the most important things to be kept in mind for stress management is getting a sufficient amount of sleep. Develop healthy sleep habits by reducing your caffeine intake and limiting stimulating activities before bed.
What are the four A’s of stress management?
During a stressful situation, you have four options to deal with the stress caused by it, which are commonly referred to as the four A’s, they are as follows:
Avoid: You have the ability to eliminate a lot of stressors by avoiding them. For example, avoid taking on too much, individuals that cause you to stress, places or activities (such as the news) that make you tense and/or remove items from your to-do list that are unnecessary or unimportant.
Alter: If there’s a stressful situation that is impossible to avoid, try changing the way you interact with it. Practice compromise and express your feelings if someone’s behaviour is adding to your tension.
Adapt: When a stressor can’t be changed, adapt to it by changing your attitude and expectations. Reflect on things that you’re thankful for, set manageable standards for yourself and others and keep the situation in perspective.
Accept: Some stressful situations are unchangeable. For these scenarios, acceptance is often the only way to cope. Remember to express your feelings, forgive yourself and others, search for the opportunities for growth in the situation and stop trying to control the uncontrollable.
People skills are the skills one uses while communication with individuals or groups in their everyday lives. Professionals with good people skills often tend to be more successful than people who lack them. People skills are vital in all areas of one’s life. People with good people skills are able to work well with other people and are also good with social interactions.
Though they are more targeted towards communication, people skills also include understanding body language, active listening, using gestures to express thoughts and feelings, and also dealing with different attitudes. They also include the skills and attributes associated with emotional intelligence, or being able to understand and manage your own as well as others’ emotions.
People skills are extensively useful in work environments, they help maintain good social relationships among colleagues and also help mitigate employer-employee affairs.
Some of the most common people skills are:
1. Active listening
2. Collaboration
3. Problem-solving
4. Conflict resolution
5. Empathy
6. Diplomacy
7. Adaptability
8. Leadership
9. Mediation
10. Patience
Types of People Skills
People skills determine how far one can go not only in their career but also in their social life, therefore it is essential to hone one’s skills to perfection.
People often assume that communication is a simple and natural thing but it is in fact a very complex process that involves a lot of learning. Hence it is said that there is a difference between communication and effective communication.
The development of people skills requires dedication and effort. The following are some of the ways in which one can improve their people skills:
Developing People Skills
There are 5 basic steps to develop people skills:
Self-awareness implies being aware of one’s own thoughts, feelings and emotions. This activity helps in gaining emotional intelligence which in turn helps in effective communication. Every individual is projecting subconscious messages throughout the day that might affect other people around them, therefore it is essential that one is mindful of their thoughts and only share what they want to.
2. Being Respectful and Empathetic Towards Others
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions no matter how different or abstract they may be. To be a good communicator one must always respect another’s opinion with no judgment or condemnation. Empathy is a quality every great thinker and communicator throughout history, if one cannot be empathetic towards others one cannot understand how they feel or what they think in any given situation, therefore it is necessary that one should be compassionate and empathetic towards others.
3. Actively Listening to others
Listening is probably the most underrated and overrated skill among the 4 basic communication skills. But much like the other skills it has to be honed and developed. Only when one listens clearly can one respond to a given message. It is easy to passively keep on hearing the speaker but it is difficult to actively listen as it requires total attention on the receiver’s part.
4. Avoiding Talking Over Others
While listening one tends to convey his thoughts as soon as he thinks of them without considering whether the speaker has finished speaking or not, this leads to being perceived as rude and hasty. To avoid this one must let the speaker finish first and then convey their thoughts as clearly as possible.
5. Saying “Yes” Before Saying “No”
It is essential to not outright reject new ideas and thoughts without listening to them or acting upon them. If one does not hear a topic that appeals to his own ideals or opinions, he tends to reject the new without even listening to it. This process inhabits one’s ability to expand one’s horizons and should not be continued.
A Team has a small number of talented pairs that are dedicated to a common goal, goals of service, and a common commitment to their goals In a team, people are dependent on each other, may or may not work in the same physical space, and come together to accomplish work together.
Teamwork is an essential element to achieve success at work, no matter your industry or job title. Working in unison with clients, colleagues, managers and other people in your workplace can help you complete tasks efficiently while creating an enjoyable environment both for yourself and others. An organization is that emphasizes good teamwork skills is typically a healthy, high-functioning workplace.
Teamwork skills are the abilities and qualities that will allow you to work with others during formal conversations, projects, meetings or other collaborations. Teamwork skills are thoroughly dependent on your ability to communicate well, actively listen and be responsible and honest.
Why are teamwork skills important?
In every industry at every level in your career, you will be required to work alongside others. Doing so in an empathetic, efficient and responsible manner can help you accomplish career goals, grow your resume and contribute positively to your organization. It can also help you build rapport with others. Building rapport can lead to deeper working relationships, new connections and possibly new opportunities.
Components of Team work
Teamwork consists of many skills you can work to develop over time. Here are just a few examples of qualities that can help you improve your teamwork skills:
2. Responsibility: Within the dynamic of teamwork, it is essential that the parties involved both have a complete understanding of the work they are responsible for and make the effort to complete said tasks on time and up to the expected standard. With the entire team functioning properly by taking responsibility for their own work, they can work together towards a common goal.
3. Honesty: Practicing honesty and transparency at work might mean working through a disagreement, explaining that you were not able to complete a certain task on time or sharing difficult updates. It can be difficult for a team to develop trust and therefore work together efficiently without transparency.
4. Active listening: Much like communication, active listening skills can help a team to understand and trust each other. Active listening is the act of making an effort to focus intently on one person as they share their ideas, thoughts or feelings. You might also ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into what they are communicating.
5. Empathy: Having empathy for your teammates can allow you to better understand their motives and feelings. Taking the time to listen and understand how others think and work can help you to communicate with them in the right ways.
6. Collaboration: Teamwork means group of individuals with a diverse set of skills and talents can work together towards a common goal. Therefore, It is crucial to work with other teammates to share ideas, improve each other’s work and help one another to form a good team.
7. Awareness: In teamwork, it is important that you hone your ability to be aware of the team dynamic at all times. For example, if one person is dominating the conversation or does not allow others to share ideas, it is important that balance is restored for each teammate to contribute evenly. Alternatively, if one person tends to be coy and more hesitant to share their ideas, it is important to create space so that all teammates feel comfortable to contribute their unique skills and abilities.
How to improve your teamwork skills
Here are a few steps you can take to improve your teamwork skills:
Get honest feedback. It can be difficult to identify your own areas of improvement. Finding a friend, or a trustworthy colleague or respectable mentor that can offer you honest feedback about your teamwork strengths and weaknesses can help you improve them.
Set personal goals. Using both your own observations and feedback from others to form achievable, relevant and time-constrained goals can help you improve one teamwork skill at a time.
Practice. It takes time and practice to see improvements in your skillset. Pay close attention to your teamwork interactions throughout the day both in and out of work. Take mindful steps to practice the specific qualities you are trying to build.
Mimic others with strong teamwork skills. When you see examples of great teamwork, take note and identify why the interaction stood out to you. Apply those qualities in your own interactions when working with others.
Leadership can be defined as the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal. In a professional setting, this can mean directing workers and colleagues with a strategy to meet the company's needs.
Leadership encapsulates the essential elements of being able and prepared to inspire others. Effective leadership is based upon ideas—both original and borrowed—that are effectively communicated to others in a way that engages them enough to act as the leader wants them to act.
A leader inspires others to act while simultaneously directing the way that they act. They must be personable enough for others to follow their orders, and they must have the critical thinking skills to know the best way to use the resources at an organization's disposal.
In a business organisation or a professional setting, leadership refers to performance, and any leadership definition has to take that into account. Therefore, while leadership isn't intrinsically linked to profit, those who are viewed as effective leaders in corporate contexts are the ones who increase their company's bottom line.
While there are individuals who seem to be naturally blessed with more leadership abilities than others, anyone can learn to become a leader by improving particular skills. History is full of people who, while having no previous leadership experience, have stepped to the fore in crises and persuaded others to follow their suggested course of action. They were equipped with traits and qualities that helped them to step into roles of leadership.
Below are some techniques and tips for developing leadership qualities:
The importance of integrity should be obvious. Although it may not necessarily be a measure in employee evaluations, integrity is essential for the individual and the organization. It is particularly significant for top-level executives who are charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant decisions. Integrity often turns out to be a potential blind spot for organizations. Making sure the organization reinforces the importance of integrity is an important responsibility of a leader.
2. Ability to Delegate
Delegating a task can be hefty but it is one of the core responsibilities of a leader. The goal isn’t just to free yourself up — it’s also to enable your direct reports, facilitate teamwork, provide autonomy, lead to better decision-making, and help your direct reports grow. In order to delegate well, you also need to build trust with your team.
3. Communication
Effective leadership and effective communication are intertwined. You need to be able to communicate in a variety of ways, from transmitting information to coaching your people. And you must be able to communicate with a range of people across roles, social identities, and more. Follow these 5 tips to be a more effective communicator, and learn how better conversations can improve your workplace culture.
4. Self-Awareness
While this is a more inwardly focused skill, self-awareness is paramount for leadership. The better you understand yourself, the more effective you can be. Do you know how other people view you, or how you show up at work? Take the time to learn about the 4 aspects of self-awareness, and how you can dig into each component.
5. Gratitude
Giving thanks will actually make you a better leader. Gratitude can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and even better sleep. Few people regularly say “thank you” at work, even though most people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. Follow these tips for giving thanks and practicing more gratitude.
6. Learning Agility
Agility in learning is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster learning agility through practice, experience, and effort. All good leaders are great learners, with strong learning agility.
7. Influence
Being able to influence and convince people through logical, emotional, or cooperative appeals is a core component of being an inspiring, effective leader. Influence is not the same as manipulation, and it should be done authentically and transparently. It requires emotional intelligence and trust-building.
8. Empathy
Empathy is correlated with job performance and a critical part of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. If you show more empathy towards your direct reports, our research shows you’re more likely to be viewed as a better performer by your boss. Empathy can be learned, and in addition to making you more effective, it will also improve work for you and those around you.
9. Courage
It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key skill for good leaders. Conflicts to fester, courage enables leaders to step up and move things in the right direction rather than avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester.
10. Respect
One of the most important skill a good leader has is his ability to treat people with respect on a daily basis. A respectful environment will ease tensions and conflict, create trust, and improve effectiveness. Respect is more than the absence of disrespect, and it can be shown in many different ways.
Decision Making
Decision-making is the ability or skill that shows your proficiency in choosing between two or more alternatives. You can make decisions once you process all the information available to you and speak with the right points of contact involved in a certain situation. Overall, it's important to identify processes that help you make the right decision on behalf of the organization and make a concerted effort to uncover biases that may affect the outcome of it.
Skills Required for Decision Making
Below are some of the skills required for the decision-making process and how to develop them:
Problem-solving
Leaders can employ their problem-solving skills to make critical decisions for their company. You need to factor in different viewpoints to consider the numerous variables required to make a thoughtful decision. It's a necessity that you separate the emotions from the conversations you have with people that'll influence your decision-making. The essence of having adept problem-solving skills is that you can formulate decisions quickly and effectively, so you need to do your research and pay close attention to detail to match the facts with the situation you're addressing.
Leadership
Leadership is defined as the act of organizing several employees within your organization, and good leadership can establish a consensus about a particular decision. In cases like these, leadership would involve working with people to evaluate the present and motivate them to achieve their goals once a decision is made.
Make sure that you take the time to build a strong relationship with your co-workers, so you can get to know them and have them be comfortable to speak freely around you. The more engaged and personable you are, the higher the likelihood there is to work cohesively with your team and making productive choices that have a long-term impact.
Reasoning
Reasoning is one of the primary skills needed to be informed about the decision you can make in any given situation. Make sure that you review all the advantages and disadvantages of the decisions that you're considering taking action on. This is the best way to reason with the present and plan for the future while staying objective and grounded during this process.
Make sure you consider all available and relevant data to help you guide your decision-making and take a stance about who you're making it with. You want to keep your reasoning aligned with the people you trust and aim to stay committed to the goals you're trying to achieve.
Intuition
Intuition is about deciding and trusting your instincts. Your instincts come from the experiences you've witnessed in the past and the core values that drive you each day. All accumulated experiences and the lessons learned from them factor into your decision-making. You must associate your instincts with the potential actions you can take to see if your decision is logical and actionable.
Teamwork
You must collaborate with your co-workers at some point to make a sound decision. For example, you may have to work with your marketing manager on the best way to work with the client and improve the results of their marketing campaign last quarter.
Here, you use reasoning to break down options to help the client improve their campaign, so a status report can give you applicable data. After, you can weigh the possible key performance indicators (KPIs) that can measure its success going forward. Your ability to work with a team will decide the results you earn and the number of people affected by the decision your team made.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence makes you critically aware of your emotions, and you can express them in a way that encourages action. Your emotions should lay the groundwork for your inspiration regarding a specific cause or mission that motivates you. However, the way you analyse data on the subject matter is going to dictate how well-informed you are when making your final decision.
Creativity
Creativity is the process of harnessing your logical and emotional thinking to generate a unique solution. You need to have trusted employees within your organization to exchange ideas to come up with short and long-term solutions. You can also use your creativity to frame the conversations you have with employees during meetings and the amount of time allocated to ensure that everyone's voice can be heard. Weekly brainstorming sessions to maximize employees' creativity to gain noteworthy input could prove beneficial.
Time management
You have to outline the amount of time you have to make your decision since typically, the decisions to be made are to be made quickly. You always have to work within the confines of your situation, but time management allows you to structure how you can make a decision. If you make have to decide by the end of the week, you can spend the time on each stage of the decision-making process including possible actions and purposed solutions you can take.
Organization
Organizational skill plays a pivotal role in your making a final decision. You should use this skill to find out what results you're looking for and if it's a top priority. If you're giving surveys about your product, your priority is to gain feedback from your target audience and see if you're using the correct user personal for your marketing campaign.
How to improve decision-making skills
Below are some techniques for improving your decision-making skills:
1. Identify the situation
Problems can be recognized by any member of the organization. All problems must be reported to a department manager or human resources depending on the seriousness and nature of it. The executive team may also be informed if it's tied to the long-term goals they set out. Schedule a meeting with all parties involved first before proceeding with informing the rest of the organization.
2. Note potential solutions or actions
Document all possible solutions for the problem in front of you and keep a record of them. List them in front of your team during a meeting, so they can actively participate in this process. They should also be sent an email to keep a record of it for themselves. Once you have made a lost of all potential solutions, list potential action items to all team members to execute the decision agreed upon.
3. List the advantages and disadvantages of each option
Ascertain the pros and cons of the situation extensively to see which options can be proceeded to the decision-making stage. Take your time and calculate the pros and cons wisely to see if it matches your goals and KPIs that measure its success.
4. Choose the appropriate decision to proceed with and measure the results
Think of the decision you make as one with a short and long-term impact. The good news is that you'll always learn from the decisions you make, so track the performance of this decision to align the outcome with the pros and cons you listed.
Negotiation Skills
A Negotiation can be described as a type of discussion which is used to settle disputes and reach agreements between two or more parties. Typically, a negotiation progresses in a compromise where all parties involved make a concession for the benefit of everyone.
Negotiations and settlements take place frequently within the workplace and may occur between co-workers, departments or between an employee and employer. Professionals often find themselves negotiating contract terms, project timelines, compensation and more. Negotiations are both frequent and significant, therefore, it is beneficial to understand the types of negotiations you might encounter as well as how to improve your negotiation skills.
Negotiation skills are qualities that allow two or more parties to reach a compromise and a favourable outcome of a specific situation. Negotiation skills comprise soft skills which include abilities such as communication, persuasion, planning, strategizing and cooperating. A strong understanding of these skills is necessary to becoming a stronger negotiator.
The application of negotiation skills depends upon the environment, intended outcome and the parties involved. Below are the key negotiation skills are applicable to many situations:
Communication: Essential communication skills often consist of identifying nonverbal cues and expressing yourself in a way that is engaging and meaningful. It is imperative to understand and follow the natural flow of conversation and always solicit feedback. Active listening skills are crucial for understanding the parties involved in the negotiation. By establishing clear communication, misunderstandings can be easily avoided that could prevent you from reaching a compromise.
Persuasion: The ability to influence and convince others is one of the most important skill for negotiation. It will help define why your proposed solution to any given situation is beneficial to all parties engaged and encourage others to support your point-of-view.
Planning: In order to reach an agreement or concord that benefits all parties involved, it is imperative to consider how the consequences will impact everyone in the long-term. Planning skills are an essential element not only for the negotiation process but also for deciding how the terms will be carried out.
Strategizing: The best negotiators enter any discussion with at least one or two backup plans, but often more. Considering all possible outcomes, and being prepared for each of these scenarios is an important negotiating skill.
Techniques for Improving Negotiation Skills
Below are a few ways to strengthen your negotiation skills:
1. Identify the final goal
What are the minimum terms you need? How much are you willing to negotiate? It’s important to enter negotiations knowing while knowing exactly what you expect as an outcome of an agreement and how much you’re willing to compromise. For example, your ultimate goal may be to negotiate a salary of 60000, but you would be willing to settle for 50000?
2. Practice building rapport
Successful negotiation means effective communication of not only your own objectives but also the understanding of the other party’s wants and needs as well. Building rapport is essential in order to reach an agreement. This can assist you in easing tension. In order to build rapport, using active listening skills and showing respect for the other parties involved are critical.
3. Be willing to compromise
Without compromise, it can be nearly impossible to reach an agreement. By preparing ahead of time, you will already have an idea of the terms you’re willing to sacrifice as well as the ones that, if they aren’t met, you should be able to walk away.
4. Consider imposing time restrictions
Set a timeline on the negotiations to motivate both parties to reach an agreement. If the terms of the negotiation cannot be met in that time, the two parties can take time to re-evaluate their needs and return at a later date.
5. Take the multiple offer approach
You can save time in the negotiation process by presenting multiple offers at once and increase the likelihood that you’ll agree on at least one of your preferred outcomes. If the other party does not come to an agreement, you can ask for feedback on each one and revise terms until you reach an agreement that meets everyone’s needs.
6. Exercise confidence
It can be challenging to ask for what you want. However, successful negotiation requires self-assurance. If you exercise confidence during the negotiation process and stay firm, the other parties can be more inclined to believe in the benefits of your proposal.
7. Don’t take “no” personally
it is often seen that each party’s goals and needs are different to reach a compromise. When a situation like this occurs, evaluate the process, consider the reason things that did not go as planned and look for ways you may be able to improve your efforts next time.
8. Understand your weaknesses
Identify your areas of weakness and focus on growing those skills by giving time to each individual area. For example, you may need to improve your ability to build rapport or your power of persuasion. Understanding your weaknesses is the first step to overcoming them.
9. Practice
Practice makes perfect - One of the best methods of increasing your comfort in negotiations is to practice often. Consider exercising a mock negotiation with a trusted friend or colleague on a number of situations.
Maintaining a positive attitude in any situation is one of the most important things you can do if you want to lead a happy life and achieve your desired level of professional success. When you have a positive attitude, dealing with personal and professional obstacles will be a lot easier, and you will be able to keep moving forward in the face of adversity.
If you want to keep a positive attitude there are a number of strategies that you may want to implement. A good attitude will allow you to find more success in your career and satisfaction in your personal life.
Importance of Keeping a Positive Attitude
Before learning how to keep a positive attitude, it is important to know the benefits of positivity. Being positive can help you in a number of areas, both in your personal relationships and in your pursuit of professional success. The benefits of keeping a positive attitude include:
Identifying and seizing opportunities. Imagine a new position opens up in your company. An individual with a negative attitude would see everything wrong with the position, such as an unimpressive salary or too heavy a workload. On the contrary, one who has a positive attitude will see an opportunity in the position. Maybe the job would provide you the ability to move up in the company or you would learn new skills that could aid your career.
Viewing failures as motivation. If you don’t have a positive attitude, it can be easy to see personal or professional failures as a reason to avoid trying for success in the future. However, If you have a positive outlook, you can view failures as opportunities for improvement and use them as motivation to keep striving for your goals. Sometimes failing at one thing will open up an opportunity for something better or will at least teach you something new about yourself.
Overcoming obstacles in your path. People who encounter hardship and have a negative attitude can find it difficult to move forward, which may cause them to miss out on something great in the future. If you have a positive mindset, it will be easier for you to see a way past your obstacles, giving you the motivation to carry on in the face of adversity.
Methods of Keeping a Positive Attitude
Now that you understand why it’s important to maintain an optimistic view no matter the circumstances, let’s consider how to do it. Below are methods for how to keep a positive attitude:
Focusing on the negative in your life instead of the positive is one of the biggest obstacles you may have in keeping a positive attitude. Fortunately, you can easily start changing your mindset by writing a gratitude journal.
A gratitude journal is a notebook in which you keep track of all the good things in your life. At the end of every day, write down five things that you’re thankful for that day so that you can focus on the good in your life instead of the bad.
Most people have a lot more to be thankful for than they realize. For example, if you’ve had a bad day at work, you can be grateful that you get to come home and spend time with your family. Focusing on the things you’re grateful for instead of the things you’d like to change can make it easier for you to stay positive, even when you’ve had a bad day.
2. Push yourself to do more each day
One of the main aspects of a positive attitude is believing in yourself and your capabilities. If you want to keep a positive attitude, you should try to test your limits every single day. Do more work today than you did yesterday, and do more work tomorrow than you did today. If you push yourself past your own limits each day, it will demonstrate that you are a capable, skilled person, which will make it easier for you to stay positive. Then when you’re faced with a big task, your past experience of testing yourself will give you the confidence that you’re up to the challenge.
3. Describe yourself and your life with positive words
Changing the language you use when you talk about yourself is one of the simplest solutions for keeping a positive attitude. Your language has a lot of power on your mindset, and if you frequently use negative language, it can cause you to view your life in a negative light.
For example, if you frequently describe your life as boring, you will probably be bored at work. On the other hand, if you describe your job as fun, you’ll probably find yourself looking forward to starting work each day instead of dreading leaving your home.
Use positive language whenever you can. Eventually, the language that you use will become part of your mindset, and you’ll find it much easier to stay positive.
4. Surround yourself with positive people
You tend to imitate the people you spend the most time with, even if you’re doing it unconsciously. When you spend most of your time around people with a negative attitude who complain about everything, you’re more likely to start acting the same way.
You should surround yourself with positive people, if you want to maintain a positive attitude both at work and at home. Spend as much time as you can with co-workers who enjoy working and take obstacles in stride, and try to make friends who are encouraging and rarely complain. When your professional and social network is filled with positive people, your attitude and behaviours will be a lot more positive than they would be otherwise.
5. Start meditating every day
Your breathing can have a big impact on your emotions. If you’re breathing rapidly, it can make you feel anxious or even angry, depending on the circumstance. On the other hand, when your breaths are slow and deep, you’ll be able to remain calm and focus on the positive when things seem at their worst.
Meditation is all about controlling your breath so that you can control your emotions. If you meditate every day, you’ll eventually be able to use deep-breathing techniques to keep yourself calm in stressful situations so that you can remain positive. Eventually, deep breathing will become second nature to you, and you’ll find that your outlook is more positive than ever.
6. Try not to expect results
Unmet expectations can be a big reason for a negative attitude. For instance, imagine that you have improved your output at work and expect that your increased performance will result in a raise. If you don’t receive that raise, it can be easy to give in to negativity, which will impact your performance.
If you want to stay positive, you should avoid expecting results when you take action. Setting goals and acting toward them without expecting results will help you to stay positive even if you never reach those goals. If you do achieve a goal but didn’t assume that the result was inevitable, your sense of accomplishment will be even greater.
7. Try to make other people feel happy
Setting daily goals can be a good way to find success and to develop a great attitude, particularly if one of your goals is to make someone else smile on a regular basis. It can be easy to forget just how much of an impact our actions and attitudes have on other people.
If you want to stay positive, try to do something good for someone else every day. Offer a sympathetic ear to a friend in crisis or call a family member you haven’t talked to in a while. At work, lend a hand on a project without being asked or buy your co-workers a surprise lunch. Making someone else good about themselves will show you just how important your attitude and actions are to other people, which will remind you to stay positive.
8. Understand everyone has limitations
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. If you focus on people’s limitations, it can make it hard for you to stay positive while interacting with others.
For instance, if you’re working with someone on a project and they’re not meeting expectations, it can easily impact your attitude in a negative way. Instead of dwelling on your co-worker’s shortcomings, try to find the good things that they’re doing and focus on those instead.
9. Focus on what you want to do instead of what you have to do
Feeling obligated can have a tremendous effect on your personal attitude. If you feel like you have to do something, it can cause negative feelings because you don’t feel like you have any choice in the matter. Therefore, changing the way you think about your obligations is one of the best ways how to have a positive attitude.
Instead of saying that you have to fulfil an obligation, say that you get to. You get to go to work. You get to run your errands. You get to wake up early and workout. By talking about your obligations as something that you get to do instead of something you have to do, you’ll be able to approach these tasks with a positive mindset.
10. Practice dealing with rejection
Rejection can be very hard to deal with. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t handle rejection well, it’s possible that you’ve been avoiding opportunities out of a fear of being told no. Handling rejection correctly is a skill that you can develop, and once you do, you’ll have an easier time staying positive even when you’ve been rebuffed in one of your goals.
The best way to learn how to deal with rejection is to simply try for things where failure is more likely than success. Ask for that promotion that you’ve been waiting for even if you think your boss will say no, or apply for your dream job even if you don’t quite yet have the right qualifications.
Once you’ve dealt with several rejections, being told no will be a lot less scary than it used to be. Then when you’re rejected, you’ll be able to keep a positive mindset and see the good in a bad situation. People who are able to deal with rejection will find it much easier to keep working toward their goals and stay positive while doing so.
If you want to have a happier and more fulfilling life, keeping a positive attitude is one of the most important things that you can do. With a positive mindset, dealing with the obstacles that life throws your way will be a lot easier, and you’ll find that your personal relationships are stronger and that you’re better able to find success in your professional life. Implement these tips, and you’ll be able to change your mind set for the better.
Developing self-motivation can help give you the push you may need to accomplish a difficult task. Self-motivation can help you get a sense of achievement and determination to complete more tasks. In this article, we will explain what self-motivation is, why it's an important quality to have and how you can apply self-motivation in the workplace.
What is self-motivation?
Self-motivation is what drives you to complete various tasks and duties efficiently. It helps build your awareness of why you are aiming to complete a certain task and encourages you to keep going until you successfully complete it. Once you finish a task or accomplish a goal, you may feel a sense of satisfaction and pride in yourself. Self-motivation is what will push you to complete tasks like this again.
That rush feeling you get when you accomplish a task is called dopamine. It moves within your neurons and helps motivate you to work toward certain goals and achievements. To function properly, dopamine needs to operate in an efficient and purposeful way. This is where your self-motivation comes in. Pushing and motivating yourself to achieve goals helps activate this dopamine and can cause you to achieve more.
Importance of Self-Motivation
Various tasks and goals throughout the workday and long-term goals can be achieved with the help of self-motivation. If you display high levels of self-motivation within the workplace, it will become noticeable that you're achieving more goals and are working harder to succeed. Strong self-motivation at work helps increase your productivity and makes you feel proud of the goals you've accomplished.
Self-motivation and the drive to achieve can lead to promotions at work, strong and trusting relationships with team members and the opportunity to work on more projects you enjoy and are passionate about.
Methods and Techniques for Developing Self-Motivation
Self-motivation can begin as a decision with the ability to quickly develop into a habit. Below are ways you can start practicing self-motivation until it eventually becomes a routine:
1. Set achievable goals for yourself
To start motivating yourself, you can list what you hope to achieve. This helps you develop self-management skills as you work toward different achievements and opportunities, then feel accomplished once you reach and finish them. You can do this by sitting down and listing the various goals you wish to accomplish.
These goals can be large or small. If they are larger goals, you can split them up into smaller goals or tasks to make them seem less intimidating and easily achievable. Some goals you set can be challenging, while others can be easier to accomplish. This way, achieving smaller goals can help build your sense of accomplishment and can motivate you to accomplish larger goals as well. Achieving one goal can often make you want to achieve more.
2. Build a plan to achieve each goal
After setting goals, you can develop a plan to complete each one. You can do this by creating a schedule or to-do list for yourself. You can also purchase a calendar and begin inputting each goal you want to achieve into different date slots. Either way, writing down when you plan to achieve each goal can make you more likely to complete them as it's a way to hold yourself accountable for completing tasks.
If every goal isn't achieved as planned, continue encouraging yourself to complete the next goals. You can simply move your goal or task to be completed a different day.
3. Create a reward system for yourself
Another way to effectively activate your dopamine levels is by rewarding and encouraging yourself to achieve more goals. You can motivate yourself to continue achieving goals by building a reward system. For example, if you have three work tasks you have been pushing aside, you can reward yourself once you've finally completed them. So for instance you can tell yourself, "If I complete these three tasks by the end of the day, I will go see a movie I've been looking forward to. If I don't, I'll stay home and continue working."
If you reward yourself in small ways such as this, you'll push yourself to continue completing goals to receive more rewards.
4. Challenge yourself to learn new things
Your brain may become motivated more easily if you're constantly challenging it. A way to do this is by challenging yourself to read and learn new things as much as possible. Reading books, current events and online articles can cause you to strengthen your skill set and achieve more goals.
This will be especially beneficial if you work in an industry constantly evolving. You can analyse professional data on a daily basis to develop knowledge put toward different work projects.
5. Surround yourself with other motivated people
Sometimes it can be easier to develop motivation and become a self-starter if you see it exhibited in others. This is why it's best to spend time with people who are highly motivated and constantly working to accomplish new goals. Their attitudes and drive can be contagious and may help encourage you to accomplish your goals as well.
Not only can other people help motivate you, but also you can do the same for others. There could be days where people feel they're lacking a drive or motivation to finish a project at work. They may need a push from a co-worker or supervisor to help them feel encouraged or motivated to accomplish any tasks.
You can spread this motivation by reminding them why they are working to achieve the goal in the first place and how it will help everyone else on the team. For example, if a teammate is lacking motivation to create a presentation for a meeting, you could smile at them and say, "I'm looking forward to your presentation. I think everyone in the office will benefit from the solutions you'll be providing us."
6. Encourage yourself to think positively
It's important to remember to stay positive and keep things from setting you back. Mistakes can be corrected and can help you learn how to improve. To increase self-motivation, it's best to look at various opportunities with a positive attitude and learn from them. If someone critiques your work, take it as constructive feedback and let it strengthen your approach. Thinking positively helps you remain motivated to enhance your performance and provide impressive results.
7. Maintain a healthy lifestyle
Motivation is driven by your brain. It's usually the main source encouraging you to accomplish tasks and goals. This means you should keep both your brain and body healthy so they can continue helping you motivate yourself. You can do this by maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle. Here are some ways you can keep yourself feeling healthy:
8. Push yourself outside your comfort zone
One of the best ways to increase self-motivation is to push yourself to achieve new goals and opportunities. You can do this by making plans to accomplish goals that are more difficult than what you're used to. You can tackle a highly challenging project at work or try to learn a new skill to enhance your work performance.
By going outside your comfort zone and encouraging yourself to accomplish new achievements, you can witness unique experiences. These experiences can help you learn more and reach for higher goals that may feel more rewarding in the end.
Ethics is defined as a branch of philosophy concerned with the meaning of all aspects of human behaviour. Professional ethics therefore, can be described as principles that govern the behaviour of a person or group in a business environment.
Similar to values, professional ethics provide rules on how an individual should act towards other individuals and institutions in such a professional environment. And unlike values, professional ethics are, more often than not, a defined set of rules, which a particular group of people use. Meaning all those in a particular group will use the same professional ethics, even though their values may be unique to each person.
Professional Ethics and Code of Conduct
The norm system governing and regulating professional behaviour is professional ethics. Certain common principles underlie professional codes and bodies, e.g. Medical and Dental Council, Police Service Code of Conduct, Estate Agents Code of Conduct. Codes may not be exhaustive and may not include all the rules and regulations that apply to every situation. The contents therefore have to be viewed within the framework of company policies, procedures and the requirements of the law.
In our society ethical concerns have escalated in the past few years and have been raised at government level. Organisations have hot lines for employees to anonymously report unethical behaviour. In our field of engineering issues of fairness have been legislated and we have a Code of Conduct in place. The question of ethical practice, however, covers broad ground and encompasses everything we do as professionals and the way we behave towards each other and our clients.
Practising engineers must become aware of their ethical responsibility towards the client as well as being on the lookout for possible areas where ethical concerns could arise.
Professionals need to understand what values are and examine their own value system which determines their interactions. What pitfalls regarding business and professional ethics face Professionals and what standards of integrity do they need to be aware of and adhere to, i.e. what ideals should they strive towards?
Most codes have common fundamental principles which boil down to four universal fundamental principles:
1. Respect for People’s Dignity and Rights
2. Responsible Practice
3. Integrity in Relationships
4. Responsibility
Purpose of Professional Ethics
The purpose of professional ethics and the Code of Conduct is threefold:
- to increase professional and ethical consciousness among engineers and their sense of ethical responsibility;
- to guide engineers in making more informed ethical choices; and
- to help the Engineering profession itself function at the fullness of its potential.
As professionals, engineers commit themselves to supporting and acting in accordance with ethical guidelines covering the following six main areas:
1. Competency
2. Integrity
3. Public Interest
4. Environment
5. Dignity of the Profession
6. Administrative
Etiquettes are a set of general rules of human behaviour in a respectful society, usually in the form of a code of conduct that specifies the expected and accepted code of conduct that conforms to the meetings and norms of the community, social class, or community group.
Example: Rule of writing a Thank you note.
Different types of Etiquettes:
Business Etiquettes
Business etiquette is an unwritten code of conduct regarding communication between members in a business arrangement. It works in many areas of one's work life including emails, phone calls and business meetings.
Good business ethics are important because they create a positive, respectful climate and improve communication, which helps the office function as a productive environment. People feel better about their jobs when they feel respected, and that translates into better relationships with customers.
Professional Etiquette is required for the career build up like leadership, quality maintaining, business and it refines the skills which are needed for services.
Without Etiquette, a person may limit their potential at work and have risk on their image, and may even damage relationships.
Developing Business Etiquettes
Below are some common techniques to develop business etiquettes useful in professional settings:
Make a Good First impression:
People tend to create impressions about others within seconds they've met, so it's important to make sure you present yourself as an expert. Be aware of your body language and how others can understand it. A good rule of thumb is to stand upright, maintain eye contact, and smile! Make sure you recognize your work code and your policies before time. Arrive on time and get ready for important meetings.
Avoid Gossip:
The way you treat people means a lot to you. Do not make decisions about the importance of people at work or talk negatively about your colleagues, even if you find yourself frustrated with a particular situation. Think about how you interact together with your managers (managers), your peers, and your subordinates.
Communication is important:
Communication is an important part of the etiquette of the profession. Sometimes it's not something you say, but the way you say how important it is be careful how you interact with colleagues at meetings and in one conversation. As for email, make sure your correspondence inside and outside of your workplace is clearly spelled and has no spelling errors. Remember, email may be a permanent record of any conversation so never post anything written that you simply can say on someone's face.
Understand your work environment:
Pricing, policies, and work processes can be difficult to find in the first place. If you are in a large organization with a formal staffing unit, you may reach out to your HR Manager or in-house training to provide you with the information your organization expects.
In a small work setting, some of that information can come from watching others and asking questions when needed. Finally, looking at the atmosphere and the actions of others can help you understand what is right and what is wrong, and how to get better at work while maintaining your expertise.
As the global market grows, the need to understand the international standards of business self-esteem is also growing. If you are taking a job or internship in a foreign country, research the ethics, culture and customs of both that country and the organization you plan to work for.
Be Humane:
Sharing information about your private life is your decision, but be careful when it comes to what you share; some colleagues may be more open than others and may choose to keep their private life private too.
Similarly, you may want to restrict your calls, emails, and other non-work-related work hours after hours. Within your work environment, it's okay to feature a private touch but remember that your colleagues will see the space and consider it as a self-evaluation of your technical ability.
Finally, getting to know you colleagues is a good thing but always respect the respect of others. If you need to discuss something with them, don't just jump in; knock or make your presence known, and you should always schedule a meeting later in the day if they are busy right now.
Significance and Benefits of Etiquettes
Below are some important advantages of having business etiquettes:
As Corporate Customers:
As Individuals:
As professionals:
Boardroom meetings are an important time, where not only business matters are discussed, but sometimes company turning points are addressed. If you’re there, you’ll want to take heed at these meetings.
If you’re not a participant in the boardroom meeting, don’t take this as an opportunity to mentally drift away. Instead, keep long-term career growth in mind.
This moment with your co-workers can actually be a time to leverage your career and your work relationships. If you thought you could participate without an invitation, think again. With some brainstorming and expert advice, this could be a time where you could make a lasting contribution to your organization while working on a promotion.
Building a Balanced Board
Before a nominating committee gets started on building a well-balanced board, they need to assess the competencies of the current board. This is the first step toward building a board matrix that will identify the gaps in skills and abilities on the current board.
A matrix is a valuable tool for nominating committees that want to consider such issues as diversity, gender and independence as part of the requirements for the board, along with other board qualities and characteristics such as experience and expertise.
Nominating committees can streamline the process for assessing the current board, identifying potential candidates and reaching out to them with NACD and Diligent Corporation’s Nom Gov tool, which provides thousands of profiles of directors and executives. The tool streamlines the process and helps identify the best candidates to round out the board.
It’s common in this time for nominating committees to begin planning for board director vacancies at least 12 months in advance of a board director vacancy. Boards that have several upcoming board director retirements or vacancies may need to take a few years to plan accordingly for a well-balanced board.
Make an impression – dress the part
A boardroom meeting is an opportunity to become visible to the decision makers and your peers. How you want to be viewed in front of your peers is strongly influenced based on how you present yourself.
Keynote speaker, Kathleen D. Pagana and professor emeritus at Lycoming College notes:
“Positive first impressions, proper introductions, and professional dress are vital to both your daily success and long-term achievement. Everything you say (or don’t say) and everything you do (or don’t do) can influence your professional image. So when it comes to your appearance, do sweat the small stuff. You’ll gain a competitive edge.”
Awareness – study the agenda
Know what you’re stepping into. Oftentimes, agendas will be submitted before a meeting. This gives you an opportunity to become familiarized with the material. If you’re confused about anything in particular, you can study the material and do your research.
If you do have pertinent, valuable information to contribute, practice a few key points before the meeting. If you’re printing statistics or any sort of documentation, make sure you bring enough copies for everyone. Becoming an active participant will give you the chance to be seen, heard and possibly make a lasting impression.
A positive approach
Surviving boardroom meetings begins by adjusting your mindset and taking a positive approach. Having an optimistic and a results oriented attitude can mark the difference between surviving and thriving.
Typically during board meetings, there’s time allocated for asking questions, which is your opportunity to be heard. Career Expert, Joel Garfinkle with Executive Coaching, who suggests the following:
“Share more of yourself at meetings. One of the best ways to build relationships is to let others know who you are. This can come by sharing your expertise, knowledge and personality at meetings. Other people will either get to know you, like you or want to hear more from you.”
With the right approach and attitude, boardroom meetings can take on a different meaning. If we adjust our attitude to these gatherings, we can think of this time as more than merely hanging by the side-lines, but as a platform to offer your expert knowledge that may not have been otherwise heard.
