Unit - 5

Induction to Soft Skills

5.1 Personal SWOC analysis

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication is the type of communication that includes the utilization of language and words to pass on the intended message. Verbal Communication implies communication though spoken form only. Be that as it may, with regards to forms of communication, verbal communication can be in the spoken or the written structure. Therefore, the verbal form of communication may contain oral as well as written communication as discussed below:

Written Communication: This sort of correspondence includes any sort of trade of data in the composed structure. For instance, messages, emails, letters, reports, SMS, posts via web-based networking media, records, handbooks, banners, flyers, and so on.

Oral Communication: This type of communication is carried out orally through direct or indirect channels. Sound is the only channel through which oral communication can take place. Face to face conversations, chatrooms, voice podcast, telephone conversations are some examples of oral communication.

Verbal communication can be divided into 3 types:

1. Interpersonal communication: This type of communication takes place between two individuals. It can be face-to-face, telephonic or written. The two individuals here will assume the role of sender and receiver in the communication process.
2. Group communication: Here more than two people exchange information and ideas. Press conferences, social gatherings, board meeting, and group discussions are some examples of group communication.
3. Public communication: In this type of communication, one individual addresses, a large group of people. This is usually a one-way conversation except for questionnaires and feedback. Election speeches, presentations, public speeches are some examples of public communication.

Conversations and Their Types

Conversations are a tool and a vehicle for expressing ideas, feelings and experiences are very important. It's a great sight and a blessing and is one of the most important ways of preserving and expanding knowledge. One can better reveal one's mind, intentions, ideas, purpose and personality through word of mouth or speech. The man is known by his words and expressions. Speech expresses the inner man’s personality, thoughts and feelings.

Conversation is also participation, cooperation and communication. These are the best ways to communicate with a talk and the oldest and richest. Our oldest and most important religious and spiritual activities have been through oral communication, discussions and discussions. The promotion of information is vital to success, social interaction, business, learning and education. In a broad and general sense, the discussion is very comprehensive and includes speech, talk and public discourse. In conversation a talk is put on three-to-three people but in an interview or lecture it reaches a lot of people who make up a large audience.

In addition, talking is more or less an option. While conversation is about intimacy, education, equal participation, warmth, respect, etc. Good and pleasant conversation is an art in which the heart and mind are completely involved. It is respectful, fun, smart, endearing and intimate. Conversational art is crucial to influencing people to make friends, increase following and achieve success. It can be cultivated and developed. It is a great way to be caught by training, practice, patience and persistence.

The Four Types of Conversations: Debate, Dialogue, Discourse, and Diatribe:

When you talk to someone, it helps to know what kind of conversation you are having. You can do that depending on the direction of the communication (a one-way street or two) tone / purpose (competition or collaboration).

When you talk to someone, you talk with somebody, rather than to somebody. When in a two-way conversation, participants listen and speak. In a competitive discussion, people are more concerned about their opinion, and in collaborative discussions participants are more inclined to view everyone involved.

Based on understanding and voice, I have organized the discussion into four types: debate, dialogue, speech and diatribe.

• Debate is a competitive, two-way conversation. The goal is to win an argument or to convince someone, such as a participant or a sidekick.
• Dialogue is a collaborative, two-way conversation. The role of the participants is to exchange information and build relationships with others.
• Discourse is a collaborative, harmonious conversation. The purpose is to bring information from the speaker / author to the audience / readers.
• Diatribe is a competitive and one-way conversation. The goal is to express feelings, to attack those who disagree with you, and / or to include those with the same opinion. 

To highlight the differences between these types of conversations, let's use politics as an example:

     Debate: Two family members from opposite sides of the political spectrum argue for politics.

     Dialogue: In a voting the two voters talk to each other about who they will vote for.

     Discourse: A professor who gives lectures on international affairs.

     Diatribe: An unassuming voter who goes public with the election results.
It is important to know what kind of conversation you are in, because that is what determines the purpose of the conversation. If you can see the purpose, you can better speak to the heart of that conversation. However, if you do not see the conversation clearly, you can fall into the traps of change.

SWOC Analysis

A SWOC analysis is a way to evaluate Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges. This analysis can be performed for a product, team, organization, leadership or other entities. SWOC analyses are used in many business environments to gain a better understanding of how to plan for the future.

A SWOC analysis is a tool you can use both personally and at work to evaluate and make decisions about a particular subject. In this analysis, you will be able to investigate both internal and external factors. Internal factors are positive (strengths) or negative (weaknesses) factors that exist within your organization and are ready to be changed or affected in some way. External factors are positive (opportunities) or negative (challenges) factors that exist outside of the subject you are evaluating and cannot necessarily be changed or affected by you or your organization in any way.

1. Strengths

The analysis of strengths should record internal, positive attributes of the organization, individual, product or other entity you're evaluating. Some questions you may ask to know strengths are:

• What are your positive qualities?
• What achievements have you made?
• What helps you accomplish goals?
• What resources do you have?
• What are your specialties?
• What sets you apart from others?

2. Weaknesses

Your weaknesses analysis will capture all internal areas of improvement or vulnerabilities that exist within the area you're evaluating. Some questions you may ask to know weaknesses are:

• Internally, what makes it difficult to achieve goals?
• What are your areas for improvement?
• What are you lacking (resources, technology, people, etc.)?
• What do you need to tackle long-term goals?

3. Opportunities

The opportunities section should incorporate all external opportunities relevant to the undertaken subject. Some questions you may ask to know opportunities are:

• What products, services or information is trending with your audience?
• Are there external resources you'll be able to use to attain goals?
• Can you benefit from any current economic or market trends?
• What technology will be popular in the near future?
• How do stakeholders view your brand, product or service?

4. Challenges

Your challenges section should include all external threats that could have a negative effect on your subject. Some questions you might ask to understand challenges are:

• Is market health expected to be bad or turbulent?
• Is your brand, product or service not needed?
• Do competitors have a certain edge over you?
• How does your audience, industry or market view your company?
• What could put your business at risk?
• Are there potential new competitors on the horizon?

Use of SWOC Analysis

SWOC analyses are used to gain more information about all aspects of an issue, team, individual or other entity. These evaluations are used in many businesses in nearly every industry as well as personally for individuals to assess their progress towards certain goals. Many people use SWOC analysis before they set team or organization goals to ensure they are working towards appropriate milestones.

These types of evaluations can be employed in a variety of situations. Here are several instances for when a SWOC analysis would be beneficial.

• When deciding on a new hire
• When designing a new product
• When reviewing performance of a team or group
• When reviewing performance of an individual
• When evaluating an audience or market
• When analysing a product for improvement
• When analysing a process for inefficiencies
• When deciding where or how to focus resources
• When determining your personal effectiveness in a role
• When determining your strengths for a new role

Performing a SWOC Analysis

Below are the steps involved in performing a SWOC analysis:

Clearly define the subject you are analysing. Clearly define what subject you want to analyse, whether it is progress towards a specific goal, performance of a team or a particular question about a product or market. This will provide you with clearer insights, which will ultimately lead to a a better overall evaluation. Here are some example subjects for analysis:

• January performance of inside sales team
• Personal readiness to acquire an executive assistant job
• Evaluating social media marketing strategy

Draw the framework. To perform the SWOC analysis, create a large box divided into four squares. In the top-right square, you will record strengths. In the top-left square you will record weaknesses. In the bottom-right square, you will record opportunities. In the bottom-left square, you will record threats.

If you are doing a personal SWOC, feel free to draw it on a notepad or work on an online document or spreadsheet. If you are doing a SWOC with a team, it might be helpful to draw the framework on a whiteboard or project the SWOC so everyone is able to see and contribute. The framework of a SWOC analysis may be skipped if you feel it would be easier to simply write them down in order on a document.

Work through each square. Give ample time while filling each square considering internal strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities and external threats. If the analysis is being performed with a team, it can be helpful to have everyone participate. This will bring various points of view to help provide a more holistic understanding of the SWOC.

Draw conclusions and key takeaways. After completing each section, give yourself time to understand how the recorded information helps inform your analysis. For instance, if you are performing a SWOC on a job candidate, does it reflect that they are a good fit? Do their positive qualities help fill a major skill set gap at the company? Can their weaknesses or threats be overcome?

After completing the SWOC, it can be helpful to revisit after a certain amount of time. For example, if your SWOC revealed certain weaknesses you are working to improve for a promotion, you might revisit your SWOC after working on those areas. This may help you attain a better understanding of how the work has changed after working towards certain goals.

5.2 Goal setting

Setting specific, measurable goals can provide a path to boost your career and achieve certain accomplishments. You can use goal setting when given a definite task or project, or to personally advance in many ways. You can set goals towards promotions, creativity, education and many other various ways to boost your life and career.

Setting goals is vital because it gives you a framework to attain milestones. Wanting to do or complete certain things in life could be a great start. Goal setting provides a path for you to really do them. There are two kinds of goals you must consider setting: short term and long term.

Short-term Goals

Short-term goals are more immediate goals you set for yourself to realize your larger, long-term goals. You can consider short-term goals as milestones or stepping stones. Short-term goals usually exist in an exceedingly short timeframe, anywhere from days or months to one or two years. Examples of short-term goals might include completing small tasks or projects, gaining experience or taking classes. You will use what you accomplished in the short term achieve your long-term goals.

Long-term Goals

Long-term goals are usually large goals you wish to attain over several years. You will use several milestones to realize long-term goals, setting short-term goals to get along the way. Long-term goals might include getting employment in a certain career, being promoted to a particular level or completing a lengthy, complicated project.

Setting Personal goals

Setting goals for your personal life will assist you to reach personal achievements. You might set personal goals to advance several categories in your life for things like hobbies, health or education. Setting personal goals can increase your chances to achieve success in your career as well.

Here are a few personal goals examples:

• Advancing hobbies like playing a musical instrument or playing a sport
• Improving on skills like graphic design or oral presentation
• Increasing your knowledge regarding a certain topic or area of study
• Focusing on building or improving relationships
• Financial goals like saving for a certain purchase
• Physical goals like training for a marathon or completing a definite fitness challenge

Setting Professional goals

Setting professional goals can assist you both complete certain tasks or projects and achieve any personal career goals you may have. If your company or manager doesn’t have a selected framework for you to line goals in your job, you would possibly consider setting your own career goals. You can also set your own goals if you're self-employed. Your career goals should address both your current situation and your larger long-term career ambitions.

Here are a few professional goals examples:

• Being promoted to a certain position
• Completing a large project
• Solving a complex problem
• Improving certain soft or technical skills
• Successfully switching careers or industries
• Getting a certain award or recognition

Techniques for Setting Goals

While there are several alternative ways to set goals, there are a couple of steps you may take to make sure the best possibility of success. A well-set goal plan consists of five main elements. These five elements structure what's referred to as the “SMART goal” framework. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. Below are the methods of setting and achieving SMART goals:

1. Make your goal as clear and detailed as possible: For example, rather than “I want to be better at public speaking,” you may say, “I want to successfully provide a 10–15-minute presentation to an audience of fifty or more people.”

2. Define how you will measure success: For example, if you wish to change from a job in sales to a job in marketing, you may set milestones along the way that address the way to develop the skills and experience marketing employers are looking for. To do this, you would possibly set your measurement as learning and specializing in one skill per month.

3. Check whether your goals are achievable: Setting goals, you can accomplish within a definite timeframe will help keep you motivated and focused. You should work to grasp the complete scope of your goal before time to make sure it's possible to accomplish. If you discover that a goal isn't achievable because you don’t have enough experience, one of your new goals should be to gain more experience.

4. Make sure your goal is relevant: You should set goals that align with your values and contribute toward your long-term goals. Each goal you set should be relevant and meaningful to you, moving you closer toward where you would like to be. To make sure you're setting relevant goals, you may ask yourself, "how will achieving this goal help me?" "Does accomplishing this goal contribute toward my larger, long-term goals? Why does this goal matter to me?"

5. Set a beginning and end date: Setting a timetable to realize your goal can both help keep you motivated and on-schedule. Before setting a goal end-date, make certain to research all the milestones and possible roadblocks you may run into along the way. For example, if your goal is to get promoted to a succeeding level at your company, you might give yourself six months. If you haven’t achieved your goal, you may give yourself extended time or reconsider whether your goal is achievable and realistic.

5.3 Motivation

Developing motivation can help give you the push you may need to accomplish a difficult task. Motivation can help you get a sense of achievement and determination to complete more tasks. In this article, we will explain what motivation is, why it's an important quality to have and how you can apply motivation in the workplace.

What is motivation?

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. 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 motivation comes in. Pushing and motivating yourself to achieve goals helps activate this dopamine and can cause you to achieve more.

Importance of Motivation

Various tasks and goals throughout the workday and long-term goals can be achieved with the help of motivation. If you display high levels of motivation within the workplace, it will become noticeable that you're achieving more goals and are working harder to succeed. Strong motivation at work helps increase your productivity and makes you feel proud of the goals you've accomplished.

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 Motivation

Motivation can begin as a decision with the ability to quickly develop into a habit. Below are ways you can start practicing 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 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:

• Exercise two to three times a week
• Eat healthy foods that activate dopamine, like fruits and vegetables
• Get at least eight hours of sleep every night to keep your brain active and functioning properly
• Take plenty of breaks during work to let your brain rest
• Maintain a healthy work-life balance

8. Push yourself outside your comfort zone

One of the best ways to increase 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.

Key Takeaways

1. 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.
2. Various tasks and goals throughout the workday and long-term goals can be achieved with the help of motivation.
3. To start motivating yourself, you can list what you hope to achieve. 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.
4. 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.
5. You can motivate yourself to continue achieving goals by building a reward system. If you reward yourself in small ways such as this, you'll push yourself to continue completing goals to receive more rewards.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. It is vital to remember keep both your brain and body healthy so they can continue helping you motivate yourself.
9. One of the best ways to increase 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.
10. Short-term goals are more immediate goals you set for yourself to realize your larger, long-term goals. Long-term goals are usually large goals you wish to attain over several years.

A well-set goal plan consists of five main elements. These five elements structure what's referred to as the “SMART goal” framework. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based.

5.4 Leadership and team working

Leadership is an art whereby an individual influences a group of individuals for achieving a common set of goals. To expand it further, leadership is a process of inter-personal relationships through which a person attempts to influence the behaviour of others for attainment of pre-determined objectives. Of the various people, who have defined leadership, influence and attainment of objectives are the common denominators.

Characteristics of Leadership:

On the basis of an analysis of different definitions, following characteristics of leadership emerge:

1. Leadership is a process of Influence

2. Leadership is not one-dimensional:

The essence of leadership is Followership. Leadership is a system thinking in multiple dimensions. In terms of systems thinking, the organizational performers (followers) are must in the leadership process. Without followers there can be no leadership.

3. Leadership is Multi-faceted:

Leadership is a combination of personality and tangible skills (drive, integrity, self-confidence, attractive personality, decisiveness, etc), styles (Authoritarian to laissez-faire), and situational factors (organisation’s internal and external environment, objectives, tasks, resources, and cultural values of leaders and the followers).

4. Leadership is Goal oriented:

Leadership is “organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal.” Thus, the influence concerns the goals only. Outside the goals, the concerns are not related to leadership.

5. Leadership is not primarily a Particular Personality Trait:

A trait closely linked to leadership is charisma, but many people who have charisma (for example, movie actors and sports heroes) are not leaders.

6. Leadership is not primarily a Formal Position:

There have been many great leaders who did not hold high positions—for example, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. And—and Anna Hazare . On the other hand there are people who hold high positions but are not leaders.

7. Leadership is not primarily a Set of Important Objectives:

It involves getting things done.

8. Leadership is not primarily a Set of Behaviours:

Many leadership manuals suggest that leadership involves doing things such as delegating and providing inspiration and vision; but people who are not leaders can do these things, and some effective leaders don’t do them at all.

Theories of Leadership:

During the 20th Century, there has been a great interest in research on leadership. Early leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and followers (i.e., traits), while subsequent theories looked at other variables such as behavioural and situational factors and skill levels.

While many different leadership theories have emerged, most can be classified as one of eight major types:

1. “Great Man” Theories:

Great man theories assume that the Leaders are born and not made. Great leaders will arise when there is a great need, like Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Eisenhower, and Winston Churchill.

These theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to rise to leadership when needed. The term “Great Man” was used because, at the time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military leadership.

Early research on leadership was based on the study of people who were already great leaders. These people were often from the aristocracy, as few from lower classes had the opportunity to lead. Gender issues were not on the table when the ‘Great Man’ theory was proposed because most leaders were male.

2. Trait Theories:

Similar in some ways to “Great Man” theories, trait theories assume that People are born with inherited qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. Some traits are particularly suited to leadership. Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. People who make good leaders have the right (or sufficient) combination of traits.

Early research on leadership was based on finding the traits which differentiated leaders from non-leaders. If we look at Ratan Tata of Tata Sons, Kumar Mangalam Birla of Aditya Birla Group, Azim Premji of Wipro, Kamath of Infosys, Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra, all these leaders possess some common traits.

The traits are vision, self confidence, simplicity, integrity, and adherence to values. Traits are matched by skills. There have been many different studies of leadership traits and they agree only in the general saintly qualities needed to be a leader.

Perhaps a day may come when the researchers will find a ‘leadership gene’. But traits alone do not explain leadership clearly as situational factors are ignored.

3. Behavioural Theories:

Behavioural theories of leadership are based upon the beliefs that great leaders are made, not born (a big leap from Trait Theory) and exhibit something unique in their behaviour. Behavioural theories of leadership do not seek inborn traits or capabilities. Rather, they look at what leaders actually do, like democratically or autocratically. People can learn to become leaders through learning and observation. This is the crux behind leadership development programmes.

Three important researches on behavioural theories need mention – University of Iowa studies by Kurt Lewin (democratic leadership style can contribute good and high quality of work), Ohio State University Studies by Edwin A. Fleishman in 1945(a leader high on initiating structure – defines his own and subordinates’ roles to achieve goals; and consideration- mutual trust and respect for employees’ ideas and feelings); and University of Michigan Studies by Renesis Likert (identified two types of leadership behaviour – job- centred behaviour and employee-centred behaviour and later on Black and Mouton developed management grid).

4. Contingency and Situational Theories:

During researches it has been realised that leadership phenomenon is more than isolating a few traits or behaviours. According to contingency theory, no leadership style is best in all situations. Success depends upon a number of variables, including the leadership style, capabilities and behaviour of the followers and other situational factors.

It means a leadership style that is effective in some situations may not be successful in others. This is the reason that some leaders who seem to have the ‘Midas touch’ in one situation suddenly appear to be very unsuccessful in another situation.

Situational theory proposes that the best action of the leader depends on a range of situational factors. An effective leader does not just fall into a single preferred style, different are the situations different are the styles of decision-making. Factors that affect situational decisions include motivation and capability of followers.

Contingency theory is similar to situational theory. Both believe in that there is no one right way. But they differ as the situational theory tends to focus more on the behaviours adopted by the leader, given situational factors (often about follower behaviour), whereas the contingency theory takes a broader view that includes contingent factors about leader capability and other variables within the situation.

Types of Leadership:

1. Bureaucratic Leadership:

Bureaucratic leadership follows a close set of standards. Everything is done in an exact, specific way to ensure safety and/or accuracy. One will often find this leadership role in a situation where the work environment is dangerous and specific sets of procedures are necessary to ensure safety.

A natural bureaucratic leader will tend to create detailed instructions for other members of a group. The bureaucratic leadership style is based on following normative rules and adhering to lines of authority

2. Charismatic leadership:

“Charismatic leadership emphasises primarily the magnetic personality and behaviour of leaders and their effects on followers, organizations, and society. Sociologists, political historians, and political scientists have widely accepted the theory of charismatic leadership originally advanced by Weber (1947). Charisma is regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader.

Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Lai Bahadur Shashtri, and Mother Teresa were charismatic leaders. Charismatic leaders inspire via persona, reputation, and communications and also show courage, competence, and idealistic vision.

Late President John F Kennedy and his look-alike Fmr. President Bill Clinton have often been called “The most charismatic leaders of 20th century” Another good example would be Adolf Hitler, who rose from a “Bohemian corporal” to “Herr Fuhrer” due to his ability to captivate people into following him.

3. Visionary Leadership:

A visionary leader perceives challenges and growth opportunities before they happen, positioning people to produce extraordinary results that make real contributions to life. Some of the visionary leaders include – Dalai Lama (for his ability to incorporate new ideas into his traditional framework while being a messenger for peace and enlightenment for the world), Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela (for his courage and conviction and perseverance against all odds to free and unite people for justice), and President Obama (for his ability to galvanize and inspire people with the vision that we can transform our consciousness & world). The list is endless.

4. Strategic Leadership:

Strategic leadership refers to a manger’s potential to express a strategic vision for the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision.

Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management of employees. It is the potential to influence organizational members and to execute organizational change. Strategic leaders create organizational structure, allocate resources and express strategic vision.

Thus, this type of leadership relates to the role of top management. Strategic leaders work in an ambiguous environment on very difficult issues that influence and are influenced by occasions and organizations external to their own.

The main objective of strategic leadership is strategic productivity. Another aim of strategic leadership is to develop an environment in which employees forecast the organization’s needs in context of their own job. Strategic leaders encourage the employees in an organization to follow their own ideas.

Strategic leaders make greater use of reward and incentive system for encouraging productive and quality employees to show much better performance for their organization. Functional strategic leadership is about inventiveness, perception, and planning to assist an individual in realizing his objectives and goals.

5. Servant leadership:

The term “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. Leaders have a responsibility towards society and those who are disadvantaged. People who want to help others best do this by leading them. The servant-leader is servant first and leader next.

The servant leader serves others, rather than others serving the leader. Serving others thus comes by helping them to achieve and improve. Famous examples of servant leaders include George Washington (America), Gandhi (India), and Cesar Chavez (Venezuela).

6. Substitutes for Leadership:

The term has been brought to light by Kerr and Jermier in 1978. According to them there are aspects of the work setting and the people involved that can reduce the need for a leader’s personal involvement, because leadership is already provided from within. The term substitutes mean the situation where leader behaviours are replaced by characteristics of subordinates, the task at hand, and the organisation.

7. Transactional and Transformational Leadership:

Transactional leadership is based upon the assumptions that people are motivated by reward and punishment (Rational Man), social systems work best with a clear chain of command, when people have agreed to do a job, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their manager, and the basic purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells them to do.

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:

1. Communication:  One of the most critical teamwork elements is the ability to communicate in a clear, efficient way. When working with others, it is important that you share relevant thoughts, ideas and key information. There are many different types of communication skills including both verbal and nonverbal.
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.

Team building

      Team:

• "The 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.

      Team types:

A) Visual team:

Members' commissions join technology tools such as the Internet.

B) Project team:

A group used only by an enemy for a defined period of time and for a different, more visible purpose.

Other types of Teams:

a)     Formal and informal

b)    Organic Comparison Equipment

c)     Inter-team and Intra-team

d)    Intra-agency and Inter- agency

e)     Same direction and different direction

f)       User engagement and user guidance

      Task activities of a Team:

• Getting started
• Sharing information
• To summarize
• Emphasis
• The idea of ​​giving
• Distributed leadership

      Team building:

“Group formation refers to the process of establishing and nurturing a sense of solidarity and trust between team members. Practical exercises, group experiments, and group discussions enable teams to develop this great sense of teamwork.”

Group formation - a) focuses on contributing, b) enhances the role of participation, c) enhances group accountability, d) develops a shared purpose.

      Importance of Team building:

   It leads to the human mind building

   A combined effort to find one target

   Encourages the person to take the initiative

   Allow space for individual growth

   Spread the same idea

   Rewards and recognition go side by side

      Requirements of Team building:

   Clear Goals and Terms

   Support and Trust

   Openness and Recognition

   Cooperation and Conflict

   Good leadership

   Relationships within the middle group

   Individual development

   Regular reviews

   Making sound decisions

      Key actions in Team building:

   Setting and maintaining group goals and standards

   Involve the team as a whole in achieving the goals

   Maintaining team unity

   Good communication with the team

   Consult with team members before making decisions

      Impact of Team building activity:

   Human nature

   Expand the outlook

   The feeling of "WE" flourishes

   Developing trust in partners

   A sense of responsibility develops instead of suspicion

      Reasons for Team building:

   Improving communication

   Make the workplace more enjoyable

   Mobilizing the team or improving the production team

   Group self-management training group

   Identify and exercise the strength of team members

   Exercises through active partnerships with team members

      Ingredients of Team building:

   Participants' choice

   Developing ideas, goals, peace, goals

   Distribution of work

   Time travel

   Estimated skill set

   Miles

   Integrating personality types

   Co-operative training

      Advantages of Team Building:

   Identifying strengths and weaknesses

   Focus on vision and emotion

   Improves Communication and Collaboration

   Roles and responsibilities are established

   Begins Old Thinking and Problem Solving

   Builds trust and morals

   Introducing and Manage Modify

   Preparing for deployment

   Better Production

      Disadvantages of Team Building:

   Improves Conflict

   Manufacturers or Non-riding Team Members

   may result in miscommunication

   Difficult to Evaluate Individual Performance

   Includes Cost

   Reporting and Confirmation issues

5.5 Ethical values

In ethics, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different actions. ... As such, values reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what "ought" to be.

Basic human values refer to those values which are at the core of being human. The values which are considered basic inherent values in humans include truth, honesty, loyalty, love, peace, etc. because they bring out the fundamental goodness of human beings and society at large.

Importance of Human Values

 Provides understanding of the attitudes, motivation and behaviours

 Influences our perception of the world around us

 Represents interpretation of “right and wrong”

 Provides a way to understand humans and organisation. The five human values which are expected in all human beings, irrespective of whether they are employees or not in whichever profession or service, are:

 Right Conduct – Contains values like self-help skills (modesty, self-reliance, hygiene etc.), social skills (good behavior, good manners, environment awareness etc.), ethical skills (courage, efficiency, initiative, punctuality etc.) and Ownership.

 Peace – Contains values like equality, focus, humility, optimism, patience, self-confidence, selfcontrol, self-esteem etc.

 Truth – Contains values like accuracy, fairness, honesty, justice, quest for knowledge, determination etc.  Peaceful co-existence – Contains values like psychological (benevolence, compassion, consideration, morality, forgiveness etc.) and social (brotherhood, equality, perseverance, respect for others, environmental awareness etc.)

 Discipline – Contains values like regulation, direction, order etc.

Ethical values were identified by a nonpartisan, secular group of youth development experts in 1992 as core ethical values that transcend cultural, religious, and socioeconomic differences. The Six Pillars of Character are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.

How do you create ethical values?

1. Be open about what your values, vision and mission are.
2. Create a shared sense of values, vision and mission for your organization.
3. Create a sense of accountability for ethics violations.
4. Model the behavior you would like to see.
5. Reward good behavior.
6. Hire for character as well.

5.6 Stress management

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:

1. Track your stressors

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:

   Environment or physical setting

   People involved

   Thoughts and feelings, you had

   Response you had to the situation in the moment

   Actions you took immediately following the event

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:

• Mindfulness: Using this strategy, you enter a state where you are able to observe your thoughts and experiences without judging or reacting to them.
• Deep breathing: Dedicate time to focus on your breath without distraction.
• Meditation: This practice combines both mindfulness and deep breathing to help you relieve stress and restore balance.

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:

   Reading

   Exercising

   Doing a hobby

   Listening to music

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.

5.7 Emotional intelligence

The ability to express and control emotions is essential, but so is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. This ability is referred to as emotional intelligence. Some experts even suggest that it can be more important than IQ in your overall success in life.

Components of Emotional intelligence

Researchers suggest that there are four different levels of emotional intelligence including emotional perception, the ability to reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotions, and the ability to manage emotions.

Perceiving emotions: The accurate perception of an emotion is the first step towards understanding it. Most of the time it involves understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.

Reasoning with emotions: The second most important component of emotional intelligence is using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions often prioritize what we pay attention and react to; in other words, we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.

Understanding emotions: A wide range of meanings can be carried by the emotions that we perceive. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of the person's anger and what it could mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that they are dissatisfied with your work, or it could be because they got a speeding ticket on their way to work that morning or that they've been fighting with their partner.

Managing emotions: Manage emotions effectively is a crucial part of emotional intelligence and the highest level. Regulating emotions and responding appropriately as well as responding to the emotions of others are all important aspects of emotional management.

The four branches of this model are arranged by complexity with the more basic processes at the lower levels and the more advanced processes at the higher levels. For example, the lowest levels involve perceiving and expressing emotion, while higher levels require greater conscious involvement and involve regulating emotions.

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

While we do use emotional intelligence in all areas of our lives, there are specific ways we can use this skill at work with our colleagues, clients and managers. Here are a few examples of scenarios when emotional intelligence can be helpful:

During a phone call with a client regarding the performance of a campaign, your contact expresses anger about their unhappiness with your partnership. You also know that their organization is going through layoffs and your client is responsible for selecting members of her team to let go. Because of this knowledge, you understand that simply listening to her complaints with a calm, empathetic demeanour is the best response. You schedule another call for a better time.

During a meeting, you notice your employee is being quieter than usual and is not contributing to the discussion. While it may seem that they are not paying attention, you decide to have a casual conversation with them to ensure everything is okay. During the talk, you learn that he did not get good rest the night before because his mother-in-law who is staying with them was very sick.

During a review of a recent project you put together, you receive professional criticism about certain ways it can be improved. After the meeting, you are feeling deflated and anxious. After processing your emotions, you identify that you are focusing on the negative instead of viewing it as a way to improve your work because of all the time and effort you put into it. Instead of feeling disappointed, you decide to feel motivated about the ways you can make your work better.

How to Improve Emotional Intelligence

While it can take time and practice, soft skills like emotional intelligence can be improved. Here are several ways you can work to improve these skills:

Practice social awareness. Take time during the span of a business week to pay special attention to the interactions around you, both yours and others. Observing the way people use and react to emotion can help you fine-tune your own ability in empathy.

Look inward (Self Awareness). While observing others and their interactions can be helpful, monitoring your own emotions and your response to them can also increase your emotional awareness. For example, you might notice that when you feel stress you tend to be short with others. Or when you are feeling sad or disappointed, you might notice your shoulders slouch or head points downward.

React and respond to others. Practice addressing and working with others based on the way you observe they are feeling. A helpful method when deciding how you should react is to consider how you would like to be treated under the same circumstances. Sometimes, however, others may not want the same treatment that may come naturally to you. For example, while you might enjoy talking about your emotions with others when you feel anxious or stressed, others might prefer to process their emotions alone. If you are unsure, you may be able to ask them about their preference in that moment.

Emotional intelligence is certainly built by trial-and-error as well. If you find that you misinterpreted a certain emotion or the way you handled someone’s feelings did not work well, learn from your mistakes and treat the situation differently the next time.

Building relationships through empathy, communication and active listening can help you be a highly valued team member at an organization. Describing instances where you have connected with others using emotional intelligence in your cover letter and during interviews can also help you be a competitive candidate.

5.8 Positive thinking and attitude

Positive Thinking

Positive thinking, or an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. It can have a big impact on your physical and mental health.

Positive thinking is a way of processing information with an optimistic outlook. Great positive thinkers understand that life can be challenging, but they approach challenges with determination rather than defeat. They move forward decisively and seek help when they need it to get the job done. Since they believe in themselves and their abilities, as well as the abilities of others they work with, positive thinkers feel confident that they can conquer whatever obstacles they encounter.

Positive thinking has several great benefits for your career. It impacts the way to think about the work and the way the colleagues and customers are perceived.

Controlling Mind

The human brain is a complex network that supports mental function.

Mind control, or brainwashing, is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques.

Positive thinking just means that you approach unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst. Positive thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head.

The Benefits of Positive Thinking

Many studies have looked at the role of optimism and positive thinking in mental and physical health. It’s not always clear which comes first: the mindset or these benefits. But there is no downside to staying upbeat.

Some physical benefits may include:

• Longer life span
• Lower chance of having a heart attack
• Better physical health
• Greater resistance to illness such as the common cold
• Lower blood pressure
• Better stress management
• Better pain tolerance

The mental benefits may include:

• More creativity
• Greater problem-solving skill
• Clearer thinking
• Better mood
• Better coping skills
• Less depression

When people in one study were exposed to the flu and common cold, those with a positive outlook were less likely to get sick and reported fewer symptoms.

During another study, women who were more optimistic were less likely to die from cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, and infection.

And in a study of people over the age of 50, those who had more positive thoughts about aging lived longer. They also had less stress-related inflammation, which shows one possible link between their thoughts and health.

People with a positive outlook may be more likely to live a healthy lifestyle since they have a more hopeful view of the future. But researchers took that into account, and the results still held.

How to Practice Positive Thinking

Once you have a handle on negative thinking, it’s time to play up the positive. Try these ways to do that:

• Smile more. In a study, people who smiled (or even fake-smiled) while doing a stressful task felt more positive afterward than those who wore a neutral expression. You’ll benefit more if the smile is genuine, though. So, look for humour and spend time with people or things that make you laugh.
• Reframe your situation. When something bad happens that’s out of your control, instead of getting upset, try to appreciate the good parts of the situation. For example, instead of stressing about a traffic jam, recall how convenient it is to have a car. Use the time that you’re stuck behind the wheel to listen to music or a program you enjoy.
• Keep a gratitude journal. This may sound cheesy, but when you sit down each day or week to write down the thing you’re thankful for, you’re forced to pay attention to the good in your life. A study found that people who kept gratitude journals felt more thankful, positive, and optimistic about the future. They also slept better.
• Picture your best possible future. Think in detail about a bright vision for your future -- career, relationships, health, hobbies -- and write it down. When you imagine your life going well, research suggests, you’ll be happier in the present.
• Focus on your strengths. Each day for a week, think about one of your personal strengths, like kindness, organization, discipline, or creativity. Write down how you plan to use that strength in new ways that day. Then, act on it. People in a study who did that boosted their happiness and lowered their symptoms of depression at the end of the week. Six months later, those benefits were still going strong.

With practice, you can add more positive thoughts to your life and enjoy the benefits that come with optimism.

Positive Attitude

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:

1. Be aware of the good things in your life

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.

5.9 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:

• Identify the situation
• Note potential solutions or actions
• List the advantages and disadvantages of each option
• Choose the appropriate decision to proceed with and measure the results

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.

5.10 Creativity

Creativity thinking is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new association with the existing ones. The products of creative thinking usually have both originality and appropriateness (correctness).

Scientists, musicians, artists, writers, teachers, etc. make use of creative thinking. Major inventions, great works of music, art, literature, etc. are possible due to creativity of individuals.

Qualities of a Creative Person

(1) Problem sensitivity: Creative people quickly detect their problems. They detect them even if there are slight changes. Problem solving is an individual's ability to ask naive (lacking experience or judgement) but fruitful questions.

For e.g. Why does the sky look blue?

Why there are 24 hours in a day?

(2) Restructuring problem: Creative people have the ability to restructure problem in interesting ways.

(3) Curious and imaginative: Creative people are always curious to learn new things. They are also imaginative by nature.

For e.g. If someone asks them about the use of a particular medicine. Most would think it gives relief from pains. But some might look at its round shape and wonder whether it could be used as a button, or whether it could be used in making some artistic product or whether one could make a joke about it.

(4) Flexibility: It is the key ability of creative thinkers. Flexibility is an individual 's ability to adapt to different circumstances. Creative thinkers are always flexible.

(5) The ability to guess the causes of problem or situations: Creative thinkers have the ability to guess the cause of problems or situations. They are good at guessing as they possess a wide range of knowledge and interests.

For e.g. This is the ability that distinguishes a first-rate scientist from an average one.

(6) Elaborative ability: It is the ability to take an idea or a thing i and bend and stretch it in interesting ways. Management is full of tools and techniques, each of these need elaborative ability.

(7) Originality: Originality means not a copy. Originality is a crown of creative intelligence. All the features of creative people, fluency, flexibility, problem sensitivity, problem restricting ability, guessing ability, elaboration ability etc. contribute to originality, either individually or in combination.

(8) Independent and Assertive: Creative thinkers have independent thinking. They may not be influenced by the opinions of other people. They make decisions and judgements on the basis of their own thinking and are ready to be assertive (speaking and doing things in a confident and forceful way) even if it needs going against the conventional way (a way in which something is usually done).

The creative person is curious, sensitive, independent, complex, imaginative, visionary, moody, and yet realistic. He has a desire to grow, innovate, pioneer, change the present status, and does not stop when he faces various kinds of fears that come in the way of making bold ideas.

Certain motives play an important role in the case of creative persons. Most people, mainly professionals, have a strong desire to succeed, to achieve, it go ahead, to be respected and admired and so on, while creative persons have a strong desire to use their capability, do something new, unique, pioneering or innovative.

(9) Intelligence: Most creative people possess high level of intelligence. While some creative people also possess average or above average intelligence. This shows that creative people always need not have high level of intelligence. In fact, studies have shown that IQ and creativity are not related to each other.

(10) Knowledge and interest: Creative people like to gather more and more knowledge. They also have wide range of interests. It is this ability of the creative thinkers that makes them more and more i creative. Creative thinkers always have a desire to increase their knowledge and interests.

Key Takeaways

1. Decision-making is the ability or skill required for choosing between two or more alternatives.
2. 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.
3. Leadership is defined as the act of organizing several employees within your organization, and good leadership can establish a consensus about a particular decision.
4. 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.
5. All accumulated experiences and the lessons learned from them factor into your decision-making.
6. 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.
7. Creativity is the process of harnessing your logical and emotional thinking to generate a unique solution.

References:

1. Oxford Guide to writing and speaking, John Seely, O.U.P
2. A Communicative Grammar of English, Leech, G.N. And Jan Svartvik
3. Better English Pronunciation, J.O O’ Corner, Cambridge.
4. Effective Technical Communication, M.Asraf Rizvi, Tata McGraw Hill
5. Technical Communication Today, Bovea et al. Pearson.