Assignment Code: BEGC-145/2021-22

Course Code: BEGC-145

Assignment Name: Soft Skills

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer all questions.

Please Note: All Questions Carry Equal Marks.

You may use about 200 words to answer a 10 marks question.

Answer any Ten Questions

Q1. Elaborate on the Different types of Nonverbal communication with appropriate examples.

Ans) Types of nonverbal communication with examples are:

1. Body Language (Kinesics)

Body language is an effective means of nonverbal communication. You can tell a lot about a person from their facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, and use of space.

Eye Contact

Eyes are an effective communication tool to convey messages without saying a word. Eye contact says a lot about a person. For instance, those who avoid eye contact are often perceived as shy or less confident.

Facial Expressions

From a lip movement to the raising of eyebrows and shifting of the glance, our facial expressions convey a wide range of emotions.  Some facial expressions are very powerful. For instance, a smile makes any situation easier to handle.

2. Gestures

A gesture is nonverbal communication. Gestures can convey diverse meanings in various settings. Deliberate gestures and signals can convey meaning without words. Every hand gesture counts. We all utilise gestures like nodding, thumbs-up, and high-fives throughout everyday interactions.

3. Paralanguage

Paralinguistics is the study of vocal tone, pitch, and volume. Paralanguage is the manner we say things that impacts the outcome of an engagement. Vocal cues help us understand spoken words.

If a friend asks how we are, we might say "fine," but how we utter those words might reveal a lot about how we really feel. We may not be fine, but we don't want to discuss it. We are doing fairly well if we speak in a cheerful tone. This would imply that we are not fine and that our friend should investigate further.

4. Haptics

Haptics is the study of touch communication. Touch communication is another key nonverbal behaviour. Touch can be friendly, intimidating, or seductive. This nonverbal quality brings the sender and recipient together. But this requires a high cultural sensitivity.

5. Chronemics

Chronemics is the communication of time. It concerns how we organise our time and interactions. Some of us obsess over time while others waste it. While some of us are habitually on time, others are not. Some of us live in a hurry, while others enjoy a more relaxed pace. Some of us are morning people, while others are night owls.

Not being on time for meetings or interviews conveys inefficiency and inability to manage time. Order, discipline, sincerity, trustworthiness, seriousness of purpose, and punctuality are all dimensions of chronemics.

6. Sign Language

Sign language uses symbols that are understood by a group. Signs take on significance by replacing the idea or thing they represent. For example, a zebra crossing indicates it should be used. Signs are used to convey simple messages. Signals, maps, road signs, graphs, and alerts all have meaning. Sign language can be audio or visual, and presently audio visual is a prominent communication channel.

7. Silence

In some cases, it can convey more than words or acts. Silence can convey several emotions such as sadness, mental distress, anger, helplessness, fear, respect, disagreement, ignorance, etc. It effectively conveys the above-mentioned sentiments. It can also mean shyness or contempt. However, it is easy to misread it, leading to incorrect conclusions.

Q2. “Soft skills can also be defined as a collection of positive attributes and competencies that can improve work performance and productivity, enhance relationships, and make an individual more marketable in the workplace.” Discuss with suitable examples

Ans) Soft skills, often known as "interpersonal" or "people skills," are necessary for everyday interactions both inside and outside the workplace. Soft skills are how people interact, listen, participate, contribute, work as a team, solve problems, and handle conflicts.

They are a grouping of good traits and skills that can boost job performance, relationships, and marketability.

Employer’s value soft skills that help employees engage with co-workers and have a positive outlook on the job and workplace. Personality, humility, receptivity to feedback, and high levels of emotional intelligence are all part of it. These skills are more significant than academic or professional credentials.

The capacity to clearly explain an idea orally or in writing, listen actively and respond, and articulate a message that is suited to the audience are all examples of communication soft skills. Remedios described soft skills in a clear and concise manner. Remedios also added to Brungardt's description. Work ethic, leadership and entrepreneurship were not on Brungardt's list. These four talents appear to be valid when assessing what firms look for in a new employee. For example, Remedios defined entrepreneurial competence as the ability to pursue business opportunities, manage risk, create and innovate.

Some examples made by Soft Skills

A doctor must be able to identify and treat a wide range of illnesses. Patients are less inclined to respect a doctor who lacks emotional intelligence, trustworthiness, and approachability.

Even a salesperson with unparalleled market knowledge would struggle to complete deals and keep clients if they lack interpersonal and negotiating abilities.

Excellent organisational abilities are only useful if combined with excellent customer service skills, empathy, and listening skills.

Q3. Write an extended note on the importance of Personality development and how can SWOC be useful?

Ans) Integral Personality Development includes Personality Development. Being confident and self-esteem boosting is a good thing. It improves your self-esteem and the environment. This leads to balanced and healthy personal relationships and increased productivity at work, ensuring overall success and well-being.

Personality development is crucial for many reasons.

Some of them are listed below:

Individuality: A strong personality distinguishes you from others. You will be remembered for your behaviour, manners, appearance, and attitude, and not just another face in the crowd. Don't try to be like others but focus on improving your own strengths.

Enhances Self-confidence and Esteem: Working on your personality will boost your confidence, sense of self-worth, and self-esteem. Better self-esteem and personality development go hand in hand. Confident and self-assured people may maintain a healthy work-life balance and enjoy both more.

Reduces Stress: People with balanced and healthy personalities appear to be stress-free, but they are not. They endure work-related demands just like everyone else, but they handle them better. Positivity and a grin lessen complexity. Understanding that nothing lasts and that hardships are opportunities to learn and grow helps us progress and solve problems.

Positivity: Positive thinking makes you happy and attractive. Unfailingly encouraging, a positive person never complains. They're born leaders and team players.

A happy, balanced personality is frequently disciplined. They are punctual and hardworking. They are not deterred by deadlines and treat every task as a learning opportunity. They are not rigid and can adapt to changing environments at work and at home.

Communicates Easily: Well-rounded personalities are open-minded and prepared to communicate. They are kind and easy to understand. They are forgiving and easy-going. They are honest and open with their opinions. They are more confident and less frightened when speaking in public.

Benefit of SWOC

Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Challenges It's the initial step to personality growth. It is critical to have a clear and impartial view of oneself. Then you can utilise your strengths and improve your deficiencies. Personality formation begins with self-reflection. It is a method of researching external and internal factors that affect business performance and growth. SWOC analysis is used to assess a firm's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Q4. What are the benefits of Self Reflection? Illustrate Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle.

Ans)

Benefits of Self-Reflection

According to Glaze, introspection can help you better understand your workplace, shift perspectives, expand understanding, and re-appreciate your work.

Help Strategize

Self-evaluation is the essence of self-reflection and can assist plan a path to success. In this case, the consequence could be personal (like weight loss or gain), professional (like beginning a business). It can help you prioritise.

Spot Opportunities

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that helps identify SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). It is used for company management and has limits, although it can be used for other purposes. Self-reflection allows you to see long-term and short-term opportunities, as well as obstacles and threats. It helps you understand your actions, reactions, assumptions, and ideals.

Emotional Intelligence

Self-reflection is a hallmark of emotional intelligence. Self-reflection requires many lenses or views. Emotions often shape our responses. Weaknesses, attitudes, reactions, motivations, and responses can all be better understood by using different lenses. Thus, self-reflection on one's actions and ideas in reaction to events and people in the environment reveals areas for improvement.

Improved Relationships

We can better comprehend how we treat others by reflecting on our own identity, values, approach to caste, religion, class and ideas on gender and gender roles, as well as our own insecurities, uncertainties, ignorance or lack of awareness. Understanding oneself helps us understand how and why we treat others the way we do. It can sway our actions.

Growth and Productivity

Self-reflection aids in focussing the mind and energies. This makes us more focused and productive. This increases productivity by removing confusion about our goals and abilities to achieve them.

Clarity and Decision Making

Self-reflection provides clarity, which leads to better decision-making. Examining the previous points gently develops and supports this benefit. This internal examination makes us aware of our worries, weaknesses, and talents. This can help plan the best strategy to get results.

Overcome Conflict

Using many lenses and views to comprehend the situation and people requires self-reflection.

Imagine if you had just invited the other person to sit down and reflected on their major issue or what made them feel that way. Was it possible to resolve the conflict more easily? Maybe you could've come to a mutually accepted solution.

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

Graham Gibbs created the Gibbs Reflective Cycle in 1988 to structure experiential learning. It provides a framework for assessing experiences, and its cyclic nature allows for repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from both successes and failures.

It covers 6 stages:

1. Description of the experience

2. Feelings and thoughts about the experience

3. Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad

4. Analysis to make sense of the situation

5. Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently

6. Plan for dealing with similar events in the future or making broad improvements.

Q5. What is adaptability? What are the consequences of lack of Adaptability and why some people find it very hard to adapt?

Ans) Adaptability is the ability to shift for a new function or purpose. To put it another way, adaptability is “the capacity of an individual to modify or fit different work, social, or environmental features” (Ploy hart and Bliese).

Consequences of Adaptability

In the same way that adaptability helps you cope with new situations, inflexibility does too. We'll look at some of the repercussions and reasons why people don't adapt. These two topics are linked. Our world has always changed and evolved, but now it changes faster. Because they are interconnected, adaptability skills are both an attitude and a skill.

Becoming a better leader

Change is unavoidable. Good and efficient leaders recognise this. This allows them to be more adaptable and receptive to new ideas. Faced with new threats or problems, such leaders are likely to inspire others. An adaptable mentality helps influence how you respond to change, says Shirley Tan. They are regarded as ‘flexible, team players' or ‘go with the flow'.'

Being relevant

Those who are adaptive or eager to adjust or learn are more likely to remain relevant professionally. Adaptable people welcome new challenges rather than resisting them. Living a happier life. Adaptability, according to psychologist Guy Winch, leads to happiness. He claims we are continuously tested psychologically. Some people behave like an ostrich, which buries its head while leaving its body exposed. In other words, some people give up, lowering our contentment and happiness. In other words, adaptability implies not giving up but acquiring a new skill, accepting others, or the unknown.

Being able to handle career transitions better

The best example is 2020. Global lockdowns cost millions of jobs in 2020. Many people found new occupations even during lockdowns due to their capacity to adapt and learn new skills.

Q6. Write short notes on any two: (5X2)

Q6. a) Problem solving skills

Ans) This ability is self-explanatory, and it refers to the ability to respond to a problem rather than reacting or panicking. The process of detecting a problem, creating possible solutions, and deciding on the best course of action is known as problem solving.

Problem-solving abilities assist you in swiftly and successfully resolving challenges. It's one of the most important skills that employers look for in job candidates, as employees with these abilities are more self-sufficient. Problem-solving abilities necessitate swiftly identifying the underlying problem and putting a solution in place.

Problem-solving is a soft skill (a personal strength), not a hard skill that can be learnt through school or training. By familiarising yourself with frequent challenges in your business and learning from more experienced personnel, you can improve your problem-solving abilities.

Q6. c) Communication skills

Ans) One of the most important things that we all engage in on a daily basis is communication. We express our wants, greetings, emotions, and appreciation, among other things. Small talk is a type of communication in which we fill in gaps before moving on to the main body of the conversation or when we don't know what to say. Small chat might include topics such as the weather or sports in general. One of the most important abilities is the ability to communicate effectively. When contemplating and working through conflict and problem solving, this is even more important. Only by being consciously aware of your communication limitations and recognising the need to improve it can you establish effective communication.

Q7. Why is Learn-ability important and how can we develop that?

Ans) Learnability is crucial since it is intertwined with usability. It is critical that consumers quickly learn how to utilise an application. This is especially crucial if you're making software for professional usage, as businesses are less willing to spend money on software that requires extensive training for employees.

Develop learnability

The applications that follow the conventions of other similar programmes are the easiest to learn. Create basic user interface designs that are predictable in layout and navigation to improve learnability. Finding out what your consumers' expectations are before they use the app is a wonderful method to increase learnability. This can be accomplished through a focus group or requirements engineering. Usability testing can also be done to see how quickly end users pick up on the application's functionality. You can see how memorable the programme was if the usability test is repeated numerous times with the same user at different intervals. Feedback can then be used to improve an application's learnability, enhancing its prospects of market success.

Q9. What are the key principles of coordination and why is it referred to as the essence of management?

Ans) The following are the key principles of coordination:

1. Planning and Coordination – Coordination begins at an early stage, with the process of

planning itself. If there is coordination and clarity at the very beginning, all else will fall

into place smoothly.

2. Flexible Hierarchy– Hierarchy in an organization should not be an impediment to either

communication or implementation. Coordination and constant communication ensure that

everyone is on the same page be it the managers, supervisors or workers. This will also

lead to a spirit of cooperation and trust.

3. Continuous and Dynamic– Coordination is not a one-time activity, it is continuous,

dynamic, and organic in nature. It takes place at all levels, planning, implementation and

execution and changes as per requirement and need.

4. Cooperation and Collaboration– Coordination is not a one-way process but is

reciprocal in nature. It is based on a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. All team

members are interdependent, and the synergies of individual competencies lead to

implementation of strategies and achievement of goals.

5. Mutual Faith and Trust – A sense of team spirit and camaraderie is essential in

coordination, cooperation, and collaboration. And the foundation of this rests on mutual

faith and trust. A bowler in a cricket team will bowl the ball with complete faith and trust

in the fielders that they will minimize the gain of runs.

6. Unity of Command – While some organisations, such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google, have looser structures and more informal environments than others, they all adhere to the notion of unity of command. Leaders give orders, and the team follows them; however, the former may base their directives and directions on the team's feedback and recommendations. To minimise confusion, however, the commands must all come from the same source.

Coordination – An Essence of Management

Coordination is considered as the essence of management because of the following reasons:

1. Coordination is needed to perform all the functions of management:

2. In planning, coordination is required between the objectives and available resources.

3. Organising is ineffective if there is a lack of coordination between different departments and divisions.

4. In staffing, coordination is required between the required skills and abilities of an individual who is selected to perform a job.

5. Directing is impossible and of no worth if there is a lack of coordination between superiors and subordinates.

6. In controlling, coordination helps in ensuring that actual results are fruitful.

Q10. Explain what assistive technology is. How can it help students with disability?

Ans) Individuals with disabilities utilise assistive technology to complete tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible for them. Mobility aids such as walkers and wheelchairs, as well as hardware, software, and peripherals that assist individuals with impairments in using computers and other information technologies, are examples of assistive technology. People with limited hand function, for example, may operate a computer using a keyboard with large keys or a special mouse; people who are blind may use software that reads text on the screen in a computer-generated voice; people with low vision may use software that enlarges screen content; people who are deaf may use a TTY (text telephone); and people with speech impairments may use a device that speaks out loud as they enter text via a keyboard.

Assistive technology is a type of technology that allows people with disabilities to perform tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. Electronic workbooks, talking calculators, phonetic spelling software, filmed social skills, dot book with Braille display, and 24 more mobile prostheses are examples of assistive technology that can be used in classrooms. Teachers aren't properly trained, and there aren't enough Special Educators. Schools frequently lack the infrastructure necessary to facilitate the movement of children with various types and degrees of disability. Many schools teach a foreign language or a modern Indian language, but they don't consider sign language or braille to be part of the language curriculum.

For instance, a wheelchair, a text-to-speech programme, or a keyboard for typing.

Q11. Do you think creativity is a soft skill? Give reasons for your answer.

Ans) Creativity is a soft skill that is meant to aid in the development of inventive solutions to issues. It necessitates an openness to new ideas as well as mental flexibility. In many fields, creativity approaches are viewed as a means to an end, with the goal of achieving superior outcomes.

Using talents and soft skills to come up with fresh solutions to issues is referred to as creative thinking. Innovative thinking abilities are ways for looking at a problem from many and creative perspectives while using the appropriate tools to analyse it and design a solution.

According to trainers’ creativity is a mindset as well as a talent, and it can be learned and strengthened through specific practises. Experts are aware of around 200 different creativity strategies.

Soft talents, regardless of your industry, can propel you forward in your career. Being able to look at your work and unexpected events from a different perspective can help you improve your problem-solving abilities and overall effectiveness. These are characteristics that hiring managers seek in their employees because they want to build a team of creative and analytical thinkers who strive for innovation.

'Only a small amount of creativity can be developed by training.' Even yet, a small amount of inventiveness can be encouraged. Rainer Holm-Hadulla adds that an affirmative environment, or praise and appreciation from others, is more effective than creative courses.

Personality-based prerequisites for creative activity include hard effort, technical expertise, curiosity, and openness. True creative people have a strong inner motivation and passion, as well as a high level of frustration tolerance, which means they can stay active even when faced with opposition