The document provides guidance on developing effective communication skills and personality through a series of exercises. It recommends writing about one's strengths, weaknesses, and future plans. It also suggests giving speeches and videos on abstract topics and interview questions. Effective communication involves transmitting messages clearly, listening, adapting to situations, and establishing trust through positive body language and language skills. Developing these skills can strengthen one's personality and ability to express themselves.

1. Personality Development and
Soft Skills

2. Exercises
• Write 20 strengths and 5 weaknesses of yours categorizing as
Physical, Mental, Emotional, Behavioral and Technical.
• Write a note on yourself without (excluding your family
information, academic qualification, and strengths and
weaknesses as we have already discussed).
• GDs on abstract topics like:
– Small is Beautiful
– Size does matter
– Smart work v/s Hard work
– Food is more important than Ethics
– Happy v/s Successful
– If I was the Prime Minister of the Nation

3. Exercise
• Speech on a topic and Video production to be done by the
student.
• Voice over by student on existing video.
• Preparing the answer of the Interview question ‘Tell us about
Yourself’ and present in front of all.
• Identify your 5 year plan and write down in notebook.
• Read a Book (exclude Textbook) and write your observation in
500 words.

4. Same but different
• In some ways we are all the same. We all have the same
human nature.
• We share a common humanity. We all have human bodies
and human minds, we all have human thoughts and human
feelings.
• Yet in other ways we are all completely different and unique.
• No two people are truly alike. No two people can ever have
the same experience of life, the same perspective, the same
mind.
• Somewhere between these two – our common humanity
and our unique individuality – lies our personality.

5. Personality
• Personality is about our different ways of being human.
• How we are all variations on the same themes. How the
human nature we all share manifests in different styles of
thinking, feeling and acting.
• Just as human beings can differ a great deal in terms of their
physical traits (i.e. height, weight, hair, and so on), they also
differ in terms of mental and behavioral traits.
For example, some people are talkative and outgoing,
while others are quiet and reserved.

6. “Your personality style is your organizing principle. It propels you on
your life path. It represents the orderly arrangement of all your
attributes, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviors, and coping
mechanisms. It is the distinctive pattern of your psychological
functioning – the way you think, feel, and behave – that makes
you definitely you.”
- The New Personality Self-Portrait by Oldham and Morris

7. • Personality refers to an individual’s characteristics, style,
behaviour, mindset, attitude, his own unique way of perceiving
things and seeing the world.
• Genetic factors, family backgrounds, varied cultures,
environment, current situations play an imperative role in
shaping one’s personality.
• The way we behave with others reflects our personality. An
individual with a pleasing personality is appreciated and
respected by all.

8. Effective Communication
Communication, whether oral or written, is all about understanding .
The aim should be to communicate a message successfully so that it is
received as it is intended by the sender, without any misunderstanding.
Effective communication can be achieved by having a thorough
knowledge of communication cycle.
To be more effective, communication should possess certain qualities. It
should be intentional as well as unintentional, dynamic as well as
systematic so that the two participants i.e. Sender or transmitter and
receiver or audience exchange ideas and information , and influence
each other in the process.
Most jobs need good communicators, people who can express
themselves clearly and positively, both verbally and in writing. It’s one
of the key ingredients of success. Having good communication skills in
the workplace is all about being able to convey information to people
clearly and simply.

9. Skills required for Effective Communication
• Transmitting and receiving messages clearly
• Being able to understand or read (i.e. psychology and behaviour) the audience
• Being empathic (this helps to understand how others will interpret your words
and behaviour)
• Giving and understanding instructions
• Learning new things
• Make requests, ask questions and convey information with ease
• Adapt yourself to new and different situations
• Have difficult conversations with ease
• Be a good listener
• Avoid and resolve conflict
• Compromise to reach agreement
• Positive body language (Open hand, good eye contact, plenty of smiling, good
posture, etc.)
• Respect for other’s personal space
• Establish trust and rapport with people (this means people not only have more
confidence in you, but will want to listen to and work with you)
• Good oratorical skills and command over language
• Clear diction, strong vocabulary,

10. Effective Communication Skills in Personality
Development
• Communication helps individuals to express themselves in the
most convincing way
• People with great communication skills tend to have a better
and impressive personality
• Effective communication skills strengthen the bond among
individuals
• Speaking convincingly helps the other person to understand
what you intend to communicate
• Take care of the body language, this shapes the individual’s
personality and give confidence to the person
• Be very particular about the pronunciation of words
• Be a good and patient listener for effective communication
skills

11. • A highly confident speaker is viewed as being more accurate,
competent, credible, intelligent, knowledgeable, likable, and
believable than the less confident uncertain speaker.
• If one is truly excited about their subject, that feeling will
shine through any nervousness one may have while they are
giving their presentation. Studies show that people who label
their anxiety as excitement end up feeling more comfortable
speaking.
• ‘Being yourself’ is the most important trait of effective
speakers.

12. Principles of Effective Communication
If communication are to be effective then certain principles should be
followed. These principles of effective communication are as follows:
1. Principle of Simplicity: The message prepared for communication should
be simple and easy to understand. Common words and simple sentences
should be used.
2. Principle of Clarity: The message prepared for communication should be
clear. An ambiguous message will not be able to make effective
communication.
3. Principle of Brevity (Concise): The message should be concise in nature.
The reader may feel disturbed in receiving a long message. So, only
necessary information should be given in the message.
4. Principle of Planning: Before preparing any message, the sender should
plan for the message and after that, he should plan for selecting media
and process of sending the message to the receiver.

13. • Principle of Accuracy: The facts and information provided in the message
should be accurate. Any wrong information in the message may create
confusion. As a result, communication failure may occur.
• Principle of Objectivity: Communication can be effective when it is
purposeful. It is required that both sender and receiver must know about the
objectives or purpose of communication.
• Principle of Attentiveness: Effective listening is important in effective
communication. The receiver should be attentive while receiving any
message.
• Principle of Relevancy: The subject matter of communication should contain
relevant information. Irrelevant and unnecessary things should be eliminated
from the subject matter of communication.
• Principle of Feedback: Sending of message is not sufficient for effective
communication. To be effective, a feedback from the receiver is essential.
• Principle of Time Consideration: The sender should consider the proper time
for effective communication. If communication is not made in time, its
effectiveness is lost.
• Principle of Language Control: Control of language is important for effective
communication. The sender should be careful in selecting words and framing
sentences.

14. Essentials of Effective Communication
• Extend knowledge by reading
• Identify the objective of the communication
• Think and plan before speaking or writing
• Command over language
• Know well the audience
• Adequate knowledge of human psychology
• Know the circumstances in which the communication takes place
• Use appropriate language and words
• Create self-interest to the receiver
• Imagination and perception is required
• Cheerfulness is required
• Mannerism and Etiquettes
• Be open-minded to other’s ideas
• Sincerity and accuracy of facts

15. • Know the recipient’s reaction to the communication
• Select appropriate media
• Listen carefully and intelligently
• Consider the best time for the communication
• Keep the channel of communication always open
• Communication should be controllable
• Obtain feedback to ensure the effectiveness of the communication
• Set and maintain high standards in the method of communication (in
terms of language and presentation)
• Trust and confidence to be developed

16. 7 Cs of Effective Communication
• Clarity
• Completeness
• Conciseness
• Consideration
• Courtesy
• Correctness
• Concreteness (definite and specific)
7 Cs will be followed in all i.e. effective speaking, effective
listening, and effective writing.

17. Effective Speaking
Communication, whether oral or written, is all about
understanding. In the oral communication, the speaker’s aim
should be to communicate a message successfully so that it will
be received as he intended, without any misunderstanding, then
it will be known as ‘Effective Speaking’.
Effective speaking concerns being able to speak in a public
context with confidence and clarity. It is simply a persuasive
conversation developed and adapted to fit the occasion, further a
special purpose, and suit the people who listen.

18. Techniques for Effective Speaking
• Breathing: Everyone breathes. It’s one of the most natural things
we do. There are some special ways to breathe that makes our
voice better. Some of the instructions are given below:
1. Sit forward in a chair and let your stomach muscles relax.
2. Breathe in through your nose and imagine that you are a vessel filling up
with air as you would pour water into a vase. Fill up your abdomen first,
then your lower ribs (you should feel them expand) and then all the way
up to your chin.
3. Hold this breath for a count of ten.
4. Now exhale slowly. As you exhale, keep your ribs expanded and tighten
your abdomen as you would if you were doing a ‘crunch’.
5. Repeat. Once you have mastered the exercise sitting down, practice
incorporating it into your speaking and singing. You may need to do it
slowly at first until you can coordinate all the actions smoothly.

19. The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and
expansive. If you do the exercise correctly, your stomach will go in
while your chest stays out and expands. Practicing this technique
will provide many benefits, including:
• Awareness of your breathing will enable you to breathe more
effectively.
• Proper posture for breathing creates a confident, strong
appearance.
• Deeper breathing makes you feel more confident and strong as
well. Andrew Weil writes, “You cannot always center yourself
emotionally by an act of will, but you can use your voluntary
nerves to make your breathing slow, deep, quit, and regular, and
the rest will follow.”
• Deep breathing decreases tension and helps to focus intellectual
activity. Proper breathing technique helps an speaker to remain
calm on the floor.

20. Breathing and Vocal Variety
• It is advised to an speaker to ‘use your voice to complement your
message’.
• Ideally, you want your content to align with your delivery method
and both to align with the sound of your voice.
• Vocal variety is all about the sound of the voice and, in this case,
that vocal image is created through several aspects of your
sound, including pace, pitch, pause, and power.
I. Pace:
• Pace is the speed of your delivery of message. In general, for
vocal variety you are encouraged to vary your pace by speeding
up and slowing down appropriately for the message you are
delivering. However, some people have trouble with pacing due
to poor breathing. If you speak too quickly, or if your speaking is
labored or too slow, consider the following:

21. – Speaking too fast is often the result of not stopping to breathe
often enough.
Solution: To slow down your speaking with the breathe, consciously
take a breathe before you begin. Remember to stop and breathe
between ideas. The next time you practice a presentation, take
time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before you start to
speak. Then take one more deep breathe and exhale vigorously into
your first words.
– Speaking too slowly can also be caused by not taking in and using
enough air.
Solution: Not using enough air can cause a person to sound dull
and lifeless. This may also be caused by poor posture. Practice the
breathing technique mentioned above, paying special attention to
posture. Be sure you move that air with the abdominal muscles as
you speak. Overdo the latter when you practice so you really feel
the breathe in the sound. By breathing deeper and then using all
the air in your sound, you create a more energetic sound and you
feel more energized too.

22. II. Pitch:
• Pitch is determined by the notes we use when we speak. Yes, we use
notes when speaking just as we do for singing. Speaking notes,
however, are random, informally ordered, and usually of shorter
duration than notes we sing. To create vocal variety, one uses different
pitches to make their sound more interesting. Sometimes problems
with creating variety in pitch can be result of poor breathing
technique. Here are two such problems, their likely causes, and some
ways to fix them:
– A voice that is too high-pitched and thin can be the result of shallow
breathing, i.e. without abdominal expansion and support.
Solution: The solution to shallow breathing is to relax the abdomen and drop
the air in lower. This also relaxes the larynx so it doesn’t ride so high. A high
larynx can create a higher, thinner sound.
– If your voice sounds squeezed or strained, or too low, you may not be using
all the air you take in.
Solution: You can improve a strained sound by practicing a breathy sound and
then gradually adding more and more vocal sound to it. This can be called as
‘energizing the voice’. It also has the effect of making pitch variety much
easier to achieve because the voice becomes free to move and create more
pitches. If you do this correctly, you will definitely feel the freedom in your
voice.

23. Some tongue twisters:
• The blue bluebird blinks.
• Three free throws.
• Strange strategic statistics.
• Freshly fried flying fish, freshly fried flesh.
• Accents
– Exercise: Try recording your own voice in an informal
setting, like at home. Then listen carefully to how your
sound in order to become accustomed to your own voice.
You might also note any aspects of your speech which
reduce the overall effectiveness of your message.
• Finding your voice
• The effect of breath on voice and speech
• Vocal production

24. Requisites for Effective Speaking
• Think clearly what to communicate
• Make clear about the objective
• Know well the audience
• Command over language
• Clear pronunciation
• Precise form of message
• Appropriate word choice
• Logical sequence
• Avoid hackneyed phrases (like, generally, etc.)
• Natural voice
• Adjusting the speech according to the needs of listeners

25. • Adequate knowledge of human psychology
• Cheerfulness
• Sincerity and accuracy of facts
• Timing of communication
• Ensure whether properly received at the other end
• Proper facial expressions and gestures
• Using visual aids
• Comfortable posture
• Eye contact
• Natural Movements
• Voice Modulation
• Pauses
• Feedback or follow-up

26. Types of Speaking
• Informative: Informative speaking generally centers on talking about
people, events, processes, places or things. This speech imparts
information on a particular topic or issue. Business presentations,
seminars, class presentations are some examples of informative
speeches. A person preparing for an informative speaking has to
research the subject or topic very well.
• Persuasive: Persuasive speaking is the type of speaking in which the
speaker is trying to persuade or convince the audience about an idea or
product. These speeches aim to influence and change the opinions of
the audience.
• Special Occasion: Speaking on Special Occasion aims to pay tribute or
praise a person, an institution, an event, idea or place.
• Entertainment: This form of speaking is usually given at weddings,
parties etc. The entertainment speaking can be humorous, touching or
emotional, as per the occasion and the mood. However, one should
take utmost care of not to hurt feelings by making snide (i.e. false or
sarcastic) remarks about people.

27. Effective Listening
Listening is an important part of the process of communication. It
means making effort to get the full meaning of speaker’s message.
It involves not only understanding the content of the message, but
also understanding the feeling of the speaker. Understanding the
feeling is called ‘Empathy’ or ‘Effective Listening’.
Listening is a positive activity and it needs a good deal of
hardwork. It involves effort and self-discipline to listen attentively.
It is the responsibility of the speaker to make effort to be
understood, similarly the listener has the responsibility to be
attentive and to make effort to understand the message conveyed
by the speaker.
The success of any seminar, meeting or function also depend on
this fact. If there is no listening in a communication, it will be only
a wastage of time and energy of the speaker and organizers.

28. The meaning of ‘listening’ must be understood different from
‘hearing’. Hearing is just a part of listening. Listening means
understanding the message properly. For example, if a person
gives a message to some rural person in English then the
message was just heard not understood. Thus, it cannot be
called ‘listening’, because listening means ‘decoding’. The
process of listening starts with receiving the message and
ends with understanding and reacting to the message.

29. Types of Listening
• Content Listening: Under this type of listening the message is
easily understood and the message is also preserved in the written
form.
• Active Listening: This means listening and having new ideas crop
up in the mind on the same subject.
• Pretending Listening: Under this type of listening the audience’s
facial expressions and gestures reveal whether he has got the
message or not.
• Attentive Listening: In this type of listening the audience pays full
attention to the message.
• Selective Listening: In this type of listening only the selected part
of the message is retained / paid attention to, whereas the
unnecessary details are chopped off.
• Critical Listening: In this type of listening the message is analyzed
and evaluated.

30. Requisites for Effective Listening
• Message retention
• Full attention to the speaker’s message
• Listening without arguments (put the speaker at the ease)
• Evaluation after complete listening
• Verification of reliability and truthfulness
• To be unbiased
• To find out the points of common interests
• Acceptance to change (ready for a flexible approach of learning)
• Proper eye contact
• Show a desire to listen (no disturbance through topping with foot or a pencil,
shuffling of papers, attending to other works, etc.)
• To note the main points and get them checked for correctness
• Keep an open mind (avoid any pre-judgement before listening to the speaker)
• Timely clarification
• Focus and Self Discipline
• Courtesy

31. Elements / Characteristics / fundamentals of Effective
Listening
• Clarity of thought (through getting the meaning of message in
a proper way)
• Positive attitude
• Concentration
• Self-Discipline
• Courtesy (a good listener should admire and respect the good
ideas of a speaker)
• Eye contact (while listening a speech, a listener should make
relationship with speaker through proper eye contact. It
supports listener that he is being listened)

32. Persuasive or Influential Skills
“Influence is not really a skill, although it requires skill. Influence is who you are
and how you are perceived by others. It is vital to be skilled at communicating
in an influential way, to understand how others think, how to connect with
them and how to persuade them.”
- Suzanne Bates
Author of Discover Your CEO Brand
“Persuasion is about creating an environment that lets two or more people find
common ground and beliefs. The fine line between persuasion and
manipulations revolves around intent. Typically persuasion has a very
positive connotation while manipulation does not.”
- D. Lakhani

33. Persuasive or Influential Skills
• Persuasion means one’s ability or power to influence someone’s opinions or
feelings. It means trying to influence the way someone thinks or behaves. This
is a way to influence someone to do or believe something through reasoning
or the use of temptation.
• Persuasion is the art of getting people to do things that are in
their own best interest and that also benefit the persuader.
• Persuasive skills are used to convince or influence others to follow
a course of action. It is an attempt to influence a person’s beliefs,
attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors. This can be an
effective way to change the minds and behaviors of people.
• Persuasion skills are needed both in business as well as in the
private life. In business it is a crucial aspect as you have to be able
to communicate and negotiate with individuals at all levels of an
organisation and also with the external partners.

34. • Persuasive skills are important in many jobs, especially areas
such as marketing, sales, advertising and buying, and are also
valuable in everyday life.
• Influence and persuasion is not only for the leaders, it’s an
essential skill we all must have to strengthen the path to career
success. Persuasion and influence are one’s stepping stones
toward success, whether at the workplace or in our personal
lives – we are influencing and persuading others in different
ways.
• Think about how an advertisement or a speech persuades us to
buy the product or the idea? The whole process is not as simple
as one might think, it entails a whole gamut of emotional
satisfaction, viable presentation and clear action plan.

35. Types of Persuasion
• Appeal to Reason / Logic (Logos): The appeal-to-reason method uses a
logical argument, with everything about the persuasion centered in
logic and in the scientific method. This method will work best with the
types of people who need proof of something and don’t accept
arguments that are based more on faith rather than on fact.
For example, if you are trying to convince a group a scientists to
follow your belief that the earth revolves around the moon, then you
need to have a lot of proof to back it up, otherwise you will not
persuade them to your argument.
• Appeal to Emotion (Pathos): The appeal-to-emotion is not based on
proof, but on the emotions that a person feels. This can be a more
effective approach for the population as a whole, because people can
often be governed by their emotions more than by their minds.
For example, sales people use this method quite well. They will
appeal to your imagination by giving a presentation of a test drive of a
vehicle so that you can see yourself in the vehicle. Advertising and
propaganda are two other methods of using this form of persuasion.

36. • Appeal to Trust: The appeal-to-trust is based on trustworthiness. If
people believe and trust someone, they are more likely to persuade
them. One should show they are trustworthy in some ways. One can
also show credibility through things like their profession.
For example, we trust doctors based on their experience.
• Appeal to Credibility / Character (Ethos): The appeal-to-credibility
means convincing by the character of the person. We tend to believe
the person whom we respect. Project an impression to people that you
are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as
someone who is likable and worthy of respect.
• Appeal to Authority
• Appeal to Fear or Insecurity
• Appeal to Stupidity
• Appeal to Loyalty and Patriotism
• Appeal to tradition and Customs
• Appeal to Repetition

37. How to influence people (Tricks)
• Show genuine interest in people / Be friendly
• Remember people’s name
• Listen them
• Sincerely make people feel important
• Take care of your Body language
• Speak well / Communication skills
• Smile
• Show gratitude
• Visualize things (to help people to visualize things that how being convinced
the situation be for them)
• Ask questions
• Be aware
• Be yourself
• Show sincerity and your good behavior / character
• Help people
• Praise / Complement others
• Be brave / strong

38. Ways for better Persuasive Skills
• Listen: To be an effective persuader one needs to listen carefully. If you
want to be heard, then listening is vital as it gives the other person
chance to express all the wants and needs. It shows that one is not just
pursuing only their own interests. Everyone strives for benefits.
Therefore the result of the conversation should be beneficial for both
sides. In other words, win-win situation should be achieved.
• Practise: Even though one might not be good at persuading others, it is
not a huge problem. One just need to practice as much as possible. No
matter how much shy one can be, persuasion skills can be improved.
One should communicate with all different people and definitely one
will face a situation when one would like to convince the other person
about something. Try to improvise and behave naturally. The more one
communicates with people, the better one will become in persuasion
and negotiation.

39. • No fear: Try to eliminate all worries and fear of being
unsuccessful in their persuasion. These feelings create a
barrier for improvement. The only solution is not to think
about being unsuccessful and making mistakes, as this may
affect their mood and they will behave stiff and nervous. If
any mistake occurs in the discussion, then analyze it properly
when the conversation is over. Learn from the mistakes and
improve it.

40. Principles of Persuasion
Six principles of Persuasion:
• Reciprocation: (Obligation to give when you receive, be the first
to give and ensure that what you give is personalized and
unexpected) People feel indebted to others who do something for
them or offer them a gift. That’s why free samples are so
effective. Getting something for nothing makes buyers feel
obligated to purchase.
• Commitment and Consistency: People are more likely to follow
through with something if they have committed to it, verbally or
in writing.
• Social Proof / Consensus: Whether they realize it or not, people
look to others for cues on how to behave and what to believe.
• Liking: People prefer to say yes to individuals they know and like.
Research shows that people attribute talent, kindness, honesty,
and intelligence to people they find attractive.

41. • Authority: There is strong pressure in society for people to obey
authority figures and experts. Authority comes in many forms.
Dressing in a business suit makes one appear authoritative at
work. This helps to increase one’s authority and makes it easier to
influence others.
• Scarcity: (People want more of those things they can have less of,
it is also required to tell people the benefits of the matter/object,
what makes it unique and if they will not get it then what they
stand to lose) According to the scarcity principle, people assign
more value to objects and opportunities that come in limited
quantities or are more difficult to obtain.

42. Steps involved in / Process of Persuasion
In the 1930s, John Monroe developed a series of steps that he believed
were the keys to persuading another individual. The steps are:
• Attention: To get someone to listen to their argument, one needs to get
their attention. The speaker can get this in the following ways:
– Use people’s name with a tone that conveys importance.
– Use emotion to demonstrate the speaker’s position – smile, frown, be
exasperated (angry, annoy, frustrate, provoke), whatever emotion conveys the
strength of their position.
– Physical touch, if suitable, to have the level of rapport where this is
appropriate.
– Bring up a topic where the speaker know the listeners are passionate about,
but make sure that there is a valid connection so the speaker don’t seem to
changing the topic too quickly.
– Start with a statement that conveys the benefit of the speaker’s position for
the other person.

43. • Need: Once the speaker get the attention of the audience, they
should work on to keep it. The speaker can loose the attention
as quickly as they have it if the other person doesn’t see the
need to continue listening. To keep the other person’s attention,
the speaker has to be familiar with what is important to the
audience. This includes the following things:
– What do the audience want?
– What do they value?
– Why should they care about their side of the argument?
Once the speaker can answer these questions, they are ready to
‘hook’ the listener by focusing on what they care about.

44. • Satisfaction: In this step, the speaker should describe to the
listener that how their position will meet the need they
addressed in the previous step. They may have following
questions:
– Will the solution solve the audience’s problem?
– Will it prevent them from having to deal with additional problems?
– what benefits will the listener receive if they are persuaded by the
speaker’s argument.
– Or what negative consequences will they avoid?
• Visualization: Visualization means that the speaker can create a
picture for the listener of what the situation will look like once
they have been persuaded to accept their position or agree to
their decision.
• Action: Act as soon as the audience approach to an agreement,
otherwise people may perhaps change their mind. Example,
discount offers by companies to persuade people for limited time
being.

45. Barriers to Successful Persuasion
• Physical / Physiological barriers: this include distance,
background noise, poor or malfunctioning equipment, bad
hearing, poor eyesight, speech impediments (problems /
hindrances).
• Emotional and Cultural barriers: Emotions (anger, fear, sadness)
and attitudes (having to be right all the time, believing oneself to
be superior or inferior to others) affect objectivity, as well as the
stereotypical assumptions that people make about each other
based on cultural background.
• Language barriers: Speaking different languages, having strong
accents, using slang or jargons can affect communication and
negotiation efforts.
• Nothing or little in common with audience: When the audience
cannot relate to any of the talks of the speaker, because they
don’t share a common experience with the speaker.

46. • Lack of eye contact: Not making eye contact is a sure way of
raising doubt in listeners and losing their attention and making
them feel suspicious of the speaker.
• Information overload and lack of focus: Too much information
and lack of focus in the orientation of speaker can confuse the
audience and even make them wonder.
• Not being prepared: If the speaker is not prepared, if he lack the
facts, and if listeners will notice and feel let down, then they
won’t believe the speaker.
• Talking too much: When we talk that time we are not listening,
and it is required that the speaker should listen to the people
they are attempting to persuade.
• Trying too hard to persuade the audience: When we try too hard
to persuade someone, they may seem desperate, and
desperations reflects like manipulation and turns people off.
• Lack of enthusiasm: If the speaker don’t believe in their position,
product, service, or whatever they are trying to sell, they won’t
believe in it either.

47. Interview Skills
• An interview is a conversation where questions are asked and answers
are given.
• Interview is a social process, which involves interaction between two
persons – the interviewer and the interviewee. It gives a chance to the
interviewer to have a glimpse of the inner traits and qualities of the
interviewee.
• In a very short span of time, interviewee has to exhibit their attitude,
skills and knowledge.
• Interviews usually takes place face to face and in person, although
modern communication technologies such as internet have enabled
conversations to happen in which the two groups or parties are
separated geographically, such as with videoconferencing and
telephone interviews can happen without visual contact.
• Getting an interview is an achievement in itself. Only a small
proportion of applicants are selected for interview, so the person has
already made a positive impression to have got to this stage.

48. Purpose of the Interview
• To see if the interviewee match the requirements of the job. These will
naturally vary with different jobs but are likely to include:
– the personal qualities of the interviewee
– how well they express themselves
– the interviewee’s motivation and energy
• To accurately assess the competency, fit and motivation of the
interviewee.
• To verify the information of the candidate obtained through application
form, resume and tests.
• To identify the extent of the applicant’s education, work experience,
job-related interests, and other information.
• To clarify the real job needs to the candidate.
• To give the candidate necessary facts and information about the job and
the organisation.

49. Traits Tested in Interviews
• Technical Traits
– Subject Knowledge
– Work skills
– Finer skills
– Communication skills
– Ability to listen
– Honesty and forthrightness
• Non-Technical Traits
– Body language
– Gestures
– Dress
– Manners
– Etiquette
– Attitude

50. Interview Panel
• Subject knowledge expert: tests the subject
knowledge
• Management representative: tests the ability to
be a team player
• HR manager: tests the attitude and innate interest

51. Types of Questions asked in Interviews
• Direct Questions: These type of questions predetermine the
focus of the candidate’s answer. For example, ‘What skills do you
have that relate to this position?’. Make sure your information
should be clear and specific. These questions are easy to answer
if the candidate has researched on him/herself.
• Indirect Questions: These questions are general and do not ask
for specific information. For example, ‘Tell us about yourself.’ In
response to this particular question, the interviewee should
briefly summarize approximately four areas: education, skills, and
personal attributes. And if possible, the candidate should make
the response relevant to the job they are seeking.

52. • Hypothetical / Situational Questions: These questions use a problem
solving approach to determine their analytical and critical thinking
abilities. These ‘What if’ questions are presented in the form of case
examples or problem situations. The candidate will be asked to
imagine themselves experiencing a situation and then they will be
evaluated on how they would handle that situation.
The interviewee should provide their answer in a logical
sequence relating to the situation. There are many different problem
solving models. The following is merely one model the candidate
could use to shape their answer:
– Gather information
– Evaluate
– Prioritize
– Seek advice (if necessary)
– Weigh alternatives
– Make and communicate your decision
– Monitor results
– Modify if necessary

53. • Behavioural / Descriptive Questions: Behavioural questions offer the
opportunity to provide examples of past performance that may help
determine the future performance. Interviewers asks to the
interviewee what they did in a particular situation rather than what
they would do. For example, ‘Tell us about a time when you displayed
good leadership skills’. The answer of the interviewee could be
delivered using the STAR (Situation, Task or Problem, Action, Result)
Model.
In short, the type of questions asked under this category are
classified as under-
– Leading questions: These are questions which prompt the candidate to
answer in a particular way. Example, ‘When did you complete your MBA?’
– Open ended questions: It is asked to encourage a full, meaningful answer
using the candidate’s subject, general knowledge and feelings. Example, ‘Tell
us about your higher education.’
– Probing questions: It is asked to find out the candidate’s ability to react to a
critical situation. Example, ‘Why did you choose this company?’
– Close ended questions: It is asked to find out the candidate’s precise answer.
Generally the interviewee has to answer either yes or no. Example, ‘Can you
work in night shifts?’

54. Types of Interviews
• Campus Interview: Campus interviews will determine who will be
invited for on-site interviews in the Institute. The candidates must
impress the campus recruiter with their knowledge, enthusiasm and
potential.
• Screening / Preliminary Interview: Screening interviews are often
conducted on the telephone, skype or virtual form. This type of
interview is often used when an organisation is considering the
candidate to their headquarters for a full round of interview. The
candidate should tell about their technical competence as well as their
personality traits.
• Non-directed / Unstructured Interview: Non-directed interviews rely
primarily on traditional questions such as ‘tell us about yourself. What
are your career goals’. The interviewer asks a series of questions but
often without a real focus or direction. Even the interviewer may seem
unfocused, the interviewee should be very focused, although the
candidate may not control the direction of the interview, but they can
control the content.

55. • Stress Interviews: Stress interviews consist of questions and situations
designated to put the interviewee under stress. The purpose is to reveal that
how the interviewee will actually handle stress when it occurs on the job. The
key to surviving this type of interview is not get panic or get angry or defensive.
• Panel Interviews: In this interview setting, two or more interviewers will
interview the candidate simultaneously. Try to respond to the person who asks
each question, while maintaining eye contact with the group as a whole.
• Behavioral Interviews: In a behavioral interview, the interviewer will ask
questions based on common situations of the job the candidate is applying for.
In a behavioral interview, the interviewer wants to see how the interviewee
deals with the certain problems and what they do to solve them.
• Series Interviews
• Case Interview (Puzzle or a business problem will be given to the interviewee
to solve)
• Group Interview (group of interviewees in the session)
• Pattern / Standardised Interview: In this interview, the pattern of the
interview is decided in advance. What kind of information is to be sought or
given, how the interview is to be conducted, and how much time is to be
allotted to it, all these are worked out in advance.
• Depth Interview: Depth interview tries to portray the interviewee in depth
and detail. It covers the life history of the applicant along with his/her work
experience, academic qualifications, health, attitude, interest and hobbies.

56. • Competency-based / Structured / Situational Interview: Many
large graduate recruiters now used competency-based interviews
in which the questions are designed to help candidates of the
personal qualities which are needed to perform well in the job.
For example, questions may be asked like, describe a situation
where you had to -
– Show leadership
– Make a difficult decision
– Work as a member of a team
– Show initiative, etc.
• Walk-in-Interview
• Promotion Interview
• Appraisal Interview
• Exit Interview
• Reprimand Interview
• Lunch / Meal Interview

57. Preparation for Interview
• Physical preparation
– Properly groomed and formally dressed
• clean and well cut nails
• decent nail paint
• Less makeup
• properly combed hair
• gentle light aroma/perfume/scent
• personal hygiene
• well ironed clothes
• decent and neat footwear
• suitable handbag
• neat and formal documents folder
• less accessories

58. – Correct body language / posture (this develop over the years as this cannot be
changed in a short time)
• Good way of standing, seating and walking (over/under/self confidence can be reflected
through the gestures and postures)
• Check your body movements (like don’t nod head more, point fingers, improper eye contact)
• Take care to stop bad habits (like eating nails, playing with hair, making noise with pen and
chair)
– Good manners and conduct
• Wish the interviewer considering the time of the day.
– Do not offer to shake hands unless it is offered by an interview.
– Reach on time for interview.
– Keep extra copies of resume, all the documents arranged in your file.
– Do not sit until you are asked to sit down, if you are not asked to sit, ask for
permission to sit: ‘May I sit down’.
– Take care while handling the chair; it should not be dragged noisily or
clumsily.
– Sit comfortably with good posture.
– Keep mobile silent not even on vibration.
– Keep your bag on the floor near the chair, or on your lap.
– Do not put your hands or elbows on the table.
– Maintain comfortable posture throughout the interview.
– At the end of the interview thank the interviewers and wish them Good day.

59. • Mental preparation
– For new job seekers, it is necessary to revise subjects studied for the
completed examinations and courses.
– Knowledge in the field of specialisation must be updated.
– Take a look at your resume, and be prepared to give information about all
the items including hobbies and other interests or achievements
mentioned in it.
– Be aware of the current events, important current issues in the country or
the world. (so regular reading of newspapers, watching current affairs
news on TV and discussions on current issues are useful in being well
informed).
– Be prepared for your personal views and opinions on current issues.
– Have Information about the job for which you have applied (like duties,
task, skills, nature of job, challenges, etc).
– Information about the interviewing company (information about its
owners, directors, products, turnover, share capital, etc. may available on
the company’s website and annual report).
– Information about the industry the firm belongs.
– Be prepared with the answers of general nature of questions.

60. • Psychological preparation
– Balance of mind is needed to deal with the discouraging situations in an
interview
– Psychological preparedness is a part of personality and character development.
– Honesty in answering questions is the best policy, as dishonesty can be
reflected easily and will create a bad impression.
– It is better to admit inability to answer a question than to pretend and guess
answers.
– Clarity of purpose or career objective should be reflected by the interviewee.
– Salary is a topic that can be discussed in the interview, without appearing to be
bargaining.
• Self-Assessment
– Knowledge of your strong and weak points of personality.
– Self assessment should be done carefully.
– Identify your skills, talents which may be helpful in getting the particular job.
And highlight during interview.
– If possible keep proofs of your achievements with you in documents form.

61. Reasons for selecting a candidate
• Appears enthusiastic
• Seems to have managerial skills
• Appears to know a lot
• Has the right attitude
• Has a spark (i.e. a small amount of something such as an idea,
that has the potential to become something grater)
• Way ahead of others
• Flawless expression
• Impressing personality
• Learning kind

62. Reasons for rejecting a candidate
• Doesn’t have spark (i.e. zeal, passion, enthusiasm)
• Too slow
• Doesn’t listen or think
• Looks too casual
• Too confused and unclear
• Couldn’t express himself
• Doesn’t have much credentials
• May not adapt to the situation
• Poor physical appearance
• Lack of courtesy and manners
• Under or Over Confidence
• Aggressive
• Lack of Sincerity
• Lack of tact and prudence (carefulness / caution)
• Poor eye contact

63. • No previous or insufficient job experience
• Lack of required qualification
• Unable to do the job because of disability or religious reasons
• Not interested in job applied for
• Poor references
• Lied on application form
• Would not relocate
• Demand of higher salary than authorized

64. Skill
A skill is the ability to do something well.
Synonyms: Expertise, Skilful, Adroitness, Dexterity,
Ability, Prowess, Mastery, Competence, Capability,
Efficiency, Aptitude, Art, Finesse, Flair, Virtuosity,
Talent, Knack, Know-how, etc.

65. Types of Skills
• Labor Skills eg. Electrician, Carpenter, Baker etc.
• Life Skills deals with personal affairs or problem solving behaviours
• People Skills includes relationships of trust respect and productive
interactions, empathizing
• Social Skills includes interpersonal relations, interaction and
communication with others
• Soft Skills combination of People skills, Social skills, Emotional
Intelligence and Personal career attributes in relation to industries
• Hard Skills relating to specific task or situation and easily
quantifiable
• Mastering Skills means expertise in your specific area

66. Soft Skills
• A skill is the ability to do something well.
• Soft skills is the combination of People skills, Social skills, Professional
skills, Emotional Intelligence and Personal attributes (i.e. character
traits) that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously
with people, whereas Hard Skills is relating to specific task or situation
and easily quantifiable.
• Soft skills are non-technical, intangible, personality-specific skills that
determine one’s strengths as a leader, listener, innovator, negotiator,
and conflict mediator.
• Soft skills have become absolutely essential for the success of the
organizations and the individuals.
• These skills cannot be taught. It can be developed through proper
training and guidance.

67. • Soft skills are combination of - interpersonal skills, social skills,
communication skills, character traits, attitudes, personal
habits, team spirit, emotional intelligence, friendliness,
optimism, critical observation, problem solving, adaptability,
creative thinking, self motivation, time management, personal
accountability, and so on.
On the other hand, Hard skills are more related with the
technical knowledge, education, experience, and level of
expertise.

68. Soft skills vs Hard skills
Soft skills Hard skills
Soft skills are personal attributes that
enhance an individual’s interactions, job
performance and career prospects.
Hard skills are about a person’s skills set and
ability to perform a certain type of task or
activity.
Soft skills are personal-driven and subjective
skills, and are hard to quantify / measure.
Hard skills are teachable abilities which can
be defined and measure.
To be good at Soft skills Emotional
Intelligence or EQ (also known as our right
brain i.e. emotional center) is required.
To be good at Hard skills Intelligence
Quotient or IQ (also known as our left brain
i.e. logical center) is required.
Most Soft skills are not learnt well in school,
they are generally learnt by trial and error,
books and guides.
Hard skills can be learnt in school and from
books. We can also learn on how we can
master our Hard skills.
Soft skills are related to our personal
characteristics and traits and are difficult to
prove.
Hard skills are easy to prove with
certificates, education degree, awards, and
so on.

69. Soft Skills Hard Skills
Experience-based Rule-based
People-related Technological / Scientific
Attitudinal and Behavioral Industrial / Mechanical and Tools /
Techniques
Intangible Tangible
Interpersonal skills Learning a Foreign language
Teamwork Programming language
Communication Business Planning
Understanding Global Culture Financial Analysis
Public Speaking, Critical Observation and
Listening skills
Budgeting and Data Analysis
Business Etiquettes Services Solution
Leadership , Creativity and Motivation Innovation, Product Development and
Construction Engineering
Self Awareness and Empathy, etc. Relationship Building, etc.

70. Categories of Soft Skills
Internal Soft Skills External Soft Skills
Self confidence Collaborative teamwork
Self awareness Effective communication
Self compassion (understanding of others,
empathy)
Interpersonal skills
Accepting criticism Self-promotion
Critical thinking / Problem solving Managing conflict
Resilience (mental ability to recover from
depression, illness, misfortune)
Adaptability
Perseverance Networking
Emotional management Influence
Perceptiveness (insight, understanding,
intuition)
Negotiation
Growth mindset (understanding that abilities
and intelligence can be developed)
Expectation management

71. Categories of Soft Skills
Soft skills can be broken into three types of categories. They are:
• Prepare = Job Readiness Soft Skills
• Search = Job Seeking Soft Skills
• Secure = Job Keeping Soft Skills
• Job Readiness Soft Skills: Job readiness skills are the soft skills
related to the job preparation process. These should be taught
and learn well before a person enters the workforce. Job
readiness soft skills are what most people think of when they
think of soft skills, and include the following:
– Attitude: a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something,
typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.
– Communication: the imparting or exchanging of information or news.

72. – Planning and Organizing: the process of thinking about and organizing the
activities required to achieve a desired goal.
– Critical Thinking: the process of skillfully conceptualizing, applying,
analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or
generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action.
– Interpersonal / Social skills: the social skills we use every day to
communicate and interact with other people, both individually and in
groups, including listening, speaking, reading and writing.
– Teamwork: the combined action of a group of people, especially when
effective and efficient.
– Professionalism: the competence and demonstrated behavior expected of
a professional.
– Media rules: the main means of mass communication (email, television,
video, newspaper, internet including social media) regarded collectively,
and the rules for their appropriate use in the workplace.

73. • Job Seeking Soft Skills: Job seeking soft skills are the skills related
to the job search process. These skills need to be taught and
learned in order to successfully find, apply, interview, and accept
a job.
• Job Secure Soft Skills: Job secure soft skills are the skills needed
to secure and keep a job.
When an individual combine the soft skills included in
job readiness, job seeking and job securing / keeping, the person
acquires the employability skills. Employability skills are the
essential soft skills that involve the development of a knowledge
base or mindset that is mindset that is increasingly necessary to
be hired in today’s workplace.

74. Significance of Soft Skills
• Soft skills helps to excel in the workplace
• Hard skills are of no use without soft skills
• Soft skills are harder to learn
• Now workplaces values interpersonal
• Customers demand soft skills
• Helps to make relations better at the workplace

75. Practicing Soft Skills
• Have a positive attitude
• Be a team player
• Communicate effectively
• Raise confidence
• Develop creative skills
• Accept and learn from criticism
• Motivate yourself and lead others
• Prioritize your to-do list
• Visualize things

76. Know Yourself / Self Discovery
Exercise
Casual / Fun questions for knowing basics of yours:
• Do you know your name
• Do you know what course are you pursuing
• Do you know what papers are you reading
• Do you know your home address
• Do you know your parents
• Do you know your friends
• Do you know what color you like the most
Specific questions to know about you:
• Do you know where your happiness lies
• Do you know what makes you sad
• Do you feel insecure for certain things
• Do you feel worthiness in yourself

77. • For how many times we do the Self-Talk (this raises questions
and doubts in mind)
• Remember there is no worthiness when you feel insecure
inside.
• Human nature looks comfortable in familiarity.
• Spirituality is being comfortable in the unknown.
• And for how many times you Listen to yourself (this gives you
purpose, gives you relief, and gives an answer to all our
problems, and peace of mind comes out of it; that’s why we
said God is within us)
• When we listen to our self we are being more connected with
our soul, spirit, and our own self; and then it is called as
Spirituality.

78. Self
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your
own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside,
awakes.”
- Carl G. Jung
• The journey of knowing the Self starts with the word ‘Self’, which
means to identify and understand one’s behavior, thoughts,
emotions, feelings, perception and so on. Self means the basic
nature, personality and beliefs of yours. Not as what you have
been told by others, but what you have discovered for yourself.
The process of knowing the self is a life-long journey.
• SELF can be understood as Spiritual Enlightenment through
Learning and Focus within a person.

79. Dimensions of the Self
• The Body
• The Personality
• The Dream
• The Emotion
• The Conscious mind
• The Subconscious mind
• The Inner Ego
• The Outer Ego

81. Significance of Know Your Soul / Self
• To know your true potential: The process of knowing your life’s
purpose involves identifying and unlocking your soul’s gifts which
will lead you to living your highest and true potential. Our natural
talents are what we are born with. Our natural strengths or soul
gifts create a strong foundation for strengths to be developed
upon. It is far easier to turn your natural talents into strengths by
developing them further with practice and further learning than to
develop strengths that are not aligned with your natural talents or
soul gifts.

82. • To open yourself to possibilities and opportunities: If you know
and follow your life’s purpose you will open yourself up to
possibilities and opportunities you never would think possible
through synchronicities and coincidences. As your soul steers you
on the path of your life’s purpose you start to receive inner
guidance that influences your choices so that you may end up in
the right place for the right opportunity to present itself to you at
the right time. The more aligned your work is to your life purpose,
the more success you will achieve with little effort on your part as
synchronicities will work to get you what you need at the right
time and place. Being on purpose and using your soul gifts will
get you connected to life source so that you are ‘in the flow’ and
what you needs shows up in your physical reality with little or no
effort on your part.

83. • To know your passion for life: for those of you who have run
away from their life’s purpose may feel that they have lost their
mojo, their passion for life, for their work and they just don’t
know why. You may feel tired and fatigued for no reason. You
may feel joyless. The biggest lesson one can learn during their
life journey is that choosing a path or career just because you
think it is safe and that it will make you money to keep you
secure will eventually be deadly to your soul. When you find
your life’s purpose and aligned your work to it you feel alive,
your passion for life will be ignited and it will radiate within you.
You will start living on your own terms and feel excited to do
what you love for living. This will transform your life inside and
out.

84. • To create your own value: doing the work you love that is
aligned to your soul’s purpose will lead you to success and
enable you to attract abundance with ease. You will be
creating value using your soul gifts and talents and you will
have a deeper sense of meaning in life.
• To make a real contribution in the world
• To bring an overall improvement in all your relationships
particularly your closed ones
• To positively influence your health and wellness: You feel
energized and passionate when you find and start to fulfill
your life’s purpose. Living your life’s purpose gives you more
control over your life and happiness, hence, reducing the
stresses on your body systems.

85. Know Yourself / Thyself
Self Discovery
• Know Thyself is a term coined by the great Greek philosopher Socrates
meaning ‘Know yourself’.
• Know yourself is the process of ‘understanding the Self’,
on deeper levels.
• Knowing yourself means identifying and respecting one’s
values in life, beliefs, personality, priorities, moods,
habits, body, and relationships.
• Knowing yourself is a journey. It is a life long process. One
needs to remove all of the multiple personalities that
they put on for different people and at different times.
• One needs to get down to the core of their essence and
then they need to get rid of their own false self-images
and delusions.

86. • One must live their life in search of identifying their true self, i.e.
understanding their strengths and weaknesses, their passions and
fears, likes and dislikes, tolerances and limitations, desires and
dreams.
• To understand others first you need to understand yourself.
• Therefore, one needs to discover and become their own true
person, not what others perceive them to be; and also not what
they believe they must be, but the person that they truly are.
• Knowing yourself means being true to oneself and knowing one’s
own purpose in life.

87. Know Yourself / Self-Discovery
Knowing yourself is not about the skimming the surface
like finding a favorite color or music one may like. Knowing
yourself is about delving much deeper.
Knowing yourself is a journey. It is about discovering who
one is as a human being – the real you. The journey is
unpredictable and engages one deeply as it brings us face-to-
face with our deepest fears, self-doubts, vulnerabilities
(susceptible or weak) and insecurities.
In this journey, one may question themselves that how
they are living their life and whether or not it is in alignment
with their highest purpose. And if one don’t know their
highest purpose, allow themselves to live in that space of not
knowing. The journey around knowing yourself can be
challenging, however it also changes over time, considering
the saying “This too shall pass”.

88. Knowing yourself means giving yourself permission and not
knowing whilst unraveling the deeper truth of who you are. It is
about listening to a deeper calling and wisdom within, whilst
following your heart. Knowing yourself is about being aware of
your core values, priorities and dreams.
Knowing yourself means respecting (but not attaching to) our
strengths and weaknesses, your passions and fears, your desires
and dreams, your thoughts and feelings, your likes and dislikes,
your tolerances and limitations.

89. Importance of Knowing Yourself
“We know what we are, but know not what we may become.”
- William Shakespeare
• Helps to control emotions (knowing yourself helps you to take
control of your emotions and helps in decisions and choices when
you are in an emotional state)
• Helps to reach one’s goal
• Helps to reach better decisions
• Helps to improve relationships
• Helps to realize and improve one’s full potential
• Helps to experience happiness and joy
• Helps to gain a sense of self awareness

90. What to Know about Oneself?
• Get to know the personality
– Who are u behind your name?
– What are your traits?
– Who are you among friends?
– What persona do you portray to the outside world?
• Get to know the core values
– What values you can never compromise?
– Is it honesty, integrity, security, flexibility?
– Is it wisdom and learning, financial comfort, fun?
– Is it excellence, responsibility, ambition, innovation,
improvement?

91. • Get to know the physical traits
– How well do you know your body?
– How well do you know your abilities and
limitations?
• Get to know the dreams
– Believe it your dreams are important.
(Daydreamer)
– Make your dreams part of your daily pursuits.
– Work on your dreams.
– Glorify them instead of hiding them.

92. • Get to know the likes and dislikes
– What do you like, and just as important, what do you
dislike?
– Lot of people go through life liking what’s popular and
disliking what’s not popular or ‘cool’. Don’t do that.
– Take time to define your likes and dislikes. But decide.
– This takes guts to define your likes and especially your
dislikes. For eg, it may be impolite to dislike spending 3 hrs.
with extended relatives, but if you keep doing, will
frustrate you.

93. Process to Know Yourself
I. Be conscious of yourself
• Write down your major goals you achieved and you want to
achieve.
• Write down the events that happened in your life and that have
affected you mostly.
• Analyze your negative past experiences, and focus on what you
have learned from them.
• Create your opinion for the world around you.
• Think what you believe to be good and bad.
(Remember writing will give you clarity in thoughts and you will be able to
identify your issues. Your thoughts should not be influenced by anyone
else’s thoughts. Your opinion should be your identification only. And
somehow this will help to shape your personality. This is also a tool for
awakening your consciousness)

94. II. Develop your trust on yourself
• Be patient with yourself
• Develop your trust on your feelings
• Develop confidence on your abilities
• Show trust on your decision making and judgement
• Learn through your mistakes
• Take responsibility of the tasks assigned to you (whether that is
household or official)
III. Develop your moral conduct
• Overcome your bad habits (like overeating, gossiping lot, playing
with hair all time, biting nails, smoking, etc.)
• Create a forward approach in life
• Organize your world i.e. keep your things in order (like organize
your room, do your assignments, resolve fights with your friends
or siblings)

95. IV. Spare (i.e. reserve) time with yourself
• Go for a long walk and think about yourself
• Solitude brings confidence and makes you independent and self-
sufficient
• Bring creativity in your approach
• Seek your passion (that is worthy of your best efforts, sacrifice
and emotions)
• Look for a right mentor (your soul can also be your mentor) (to
help you to hit the unavoidable troubles that comes to your way)
V. Sort out your Career Path
• Find yourself by taking an interest in what you love to do.
• Think about what you like and dislike to do
• Identify the careers that excite and energize you, and also helps
you to move on that path

96. VI. Change your perspective
• Accept the fact that some people will think poorly of you no
matter how best you are (don’t try to please people, don’t be a
needy to be loved by all)
• Stick to your own abilities and your own self
VII. Abandon the negative
• Make a conscious effort to minimize your negative thoughts and
views
• Develop positivity and bring the sense of happiness
• Be open to new experiences and new people
• Ask yourself difficult and far-reaching questions, and answer
them (if I would be the CEO what will I do and why?) Record your
answers also.

97. VIII. Act upon your discovered self
• Whatever you have decided you want to be or do, then start
being and doing it now
• Be ready for dear-ends (you should not be affected by the hit
and trials, after all life is a journey and you should forward)
• Ultimately Serve people and community (this is the only thing
which gives fulfillment to your life)

98. Methods for Knowing Yourself
• Maintain personal diary
• Practice Meditation
• Do Exercise regularly
• Go for walk regularly (in solitude you feel
independent)
• Do some riding or driving
• Do some outings for sight seeing
• Develop some hobbies
• Develop new interests

99. Personal / Self SWOT Analysis
• SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats.
• The SWOT analysis was first devised as a business tool in the
1960s by business icons Edmund P. Learned, C. Roland
Christensen, Kenneth Andrews and William D. Guth.
• In 1982, Heinz Weihrich took it one step further, constructing a
2-by-2 matrix to plot out the four quadrants for easy
comparison. Strengths and Weaknesses were across the top,
and Opportunities and Threats in the bottom row. This remains
the most common and effective way to conduct the analysis.
Honesty is crucial, or the analysis will not generate meaningful
results.
• A personal SWOT analysis is a tool to evaluate the past, present,
and future position of a company.

100. • SWOT can help people to become best versions of
themselves. When conducting a SWOT analysis, think about
what you want out of it.
• To conduct the analysis, ask yourself questions about each of
the four areas being examined. Honesty is crucial, or else the
analysis will not generate meaningful results.
• SWOT analysis is short and simple process to the participants.
It is a creative method of self-assessment to help an individual
to assess where their career or life is and where it could go.

101. Elements of SWOT analysis
• SWOT analysis is a way of looking at your situation by
identifying:
– Strengths (Internal), are those areas where you have an
advantage over others, or you possess some unique traits
than others.
– Weaknesses (Internal), are those areas where you may be
weaker than others, and may find that others can do
better than you.
– Opportunities (External), are the possibilities that you can
take advantage of to help you achieve your goals and
ambitions.
– Threats (External), are the things that may prevent you
from achieving your goals.

102. Determine the outcomes of SWOT analysis
• One can evaluate the results of SWOT analysis using two popular
methods.
– Matching: Matching means connecting two of the categories to determine
a course of action. For example, matching strengths to opportunities shows
you where to be aggressive and take action. On the other hand, matching
weaknesses to threats exposes those areas you should work on or
situations to avoid, and let you know where to be more defensive of your
position.
– Convert: Convert means to turn negatives into positives – in other words,
converting your weaknesses into strengths, or threats into opportunities.
This can mean growing a skill set through education or finding a creative
way to feature a weakness as a strength. For example, if you are very
outgoing, working in an introspective and isolated environment may not
suit you very well. But if you can work toward a position, such as sales, in
which you interact with many people, that weakness turns into a strength
and could allow you to excel.

103. Categories for Self Strengths and
Weaknesses
• Physical
• Mental
• Emotional
• Behavioral
• Technical

104. Categories for Self Opportunities and
Threats
• Required Education
• Family Support and Commitments
• Technical know-how
• Awards and Achievements
• Financial Freedom
• Surroundings and Social Environment

105. Personal / Self SWOT Analysis
• Strengths
– How do your education, skills, talents certifications, and social
connections set you apart from your peers?
– What would your boss or coworkers / others say are your
strengths?
– What values or ethics do you have that your peers often lack?
– What achievements are you most proud of?
• Weaknesses
– Where are your education, training, or skills lacking?
– What would your boss or coworkers / others say are your
weaknesses?
– What are your negative work habits and personality traits?
– What do you avoid because you lack confidence?

106. • Opportunities
– What trends are affecting your industry?
– In what areas is your industry growing?
– How could new technology help you to advance?
– How could your social connections help you?
• Threats
– What obstacles do you currently face in your career?
– Who is your competition?
– Will new technology or certifications demands slow your
progress?
– How is your job or industry changing in ways that could affect
your advancement?

107. Significance of Self SWOT Analysis

108. Categories for Self Strengths and Weaknesses
Physical Mental Emotional Behavioral Technical
Strengt
hs
Weakn
esses
Strengt
hs
Weakn
esses
Strengt
hs
Weakn
esses
Strengt
hs
Weakn
esses
Strengt
hs
Weakn
esses

109. Categories for Self Opportunities and Threats
Opportunities Threats

110. Exercise
Set aside at least 30 minutes, with no distractions, before
you start. If you feel that you are too busy to spare even 30
minutes, consider that 30 minutes is a minuscule investment
for an output that will turn your whole life around.
Exercise #1: Consult your inner self
• The exercise to discover your purpose is summarized in
4 easy steps:
• Equip yourself with a pen/paper or word processor. Do this
when you’re be yourself.
• Answer the question: ‘What is my life purpose?’
• Write all thoughts pop in. All of them, including
miscellaneous ones. For every thought that pops in,
continue asking that same question.
• Keep doing it until you reach the final thought of your mind.

111. Tips to help you to get your answer
• Write whatever comes to your mind
• Do not over think. Don’t filter
• Having no thoughts is just a mid-point
• You may feel lazy, drowsy or uninterested but don’t stop your inner search
• Write the imposed purposes which accumulates your mind
• Write your doubts/fears
• Write down the things/activities you like
• Don’t be frustrated if you are not getting anywhere
• Take a break, and do it later if you need
• Use different sittings to get your answer
• Do not stop writing
• Get to the core, uncover the answer it is there inside you waiting to be uncovered
• Get to the answer that evokes your strongest emotions and resonates with the depth of your soul
• You will feel overwhelmed when you reach your core inside
• Just refine it
• You will have a mixed emotion of satisfaction, happiness and sorrow
• Do this again to check your right emotion
• If that is truly the answer, it will come up again
• You will feel happy and relaxed , then set the mission of your life
• The answer truly connects with your heart and soul

112. Emotional Intelligence
Developing strong ‘People skills’
We probably all know people, either at work or
in our personal lives, who are really good
listeners. No matter what kind of situation we’re
in, they always seem to know just what to say –
and how to say it – so that we’re not offended or
upset. They’re caring and considerate, and even
if we don’t find a solution to our problem, we
usually leave feeling more hopeful and
optimistic.

113. We probably also know people who are masters at
managing their emotions. They don’t get angry in
stressful situations. Instead, they have the ability to
look at a problem and calmly find a solution. They’re
excellent decision makers, and they know when to
trust their intuition. Regardless of their strengths,
however, they’re usually willing to look at themselves
honestly. They take criticism well, and they know when
to use it to improve their performance.
People like this have a high degree of emotional
intelligence, or EI. They know themselves very well,
and they’re also able to sense the emotional needs of
others.

114. Emotional Intelligence
We all have different personalities, different wants and
needs, and different ways of showing our emotions.
Navigating through this all takes tact and cleverness –
especially if we hope to succeed in life. This is where EI
becomes important.
EI is the ability of individuals to recognize
their own emotions and those of others. This is
the ability to realize how our emotions affect
people around us. It also involves our perception
of others, i.e., when we understand how they
feel, this allows us to manage relationships more
effectively.

115. Emotional intelligence ‘EI’, also known as Sthitaprajna, is a
self-perceived ability to identify, assess and control the emotions
of oneself, and of others. The concept of EI, was being
popularised, for the last few decades or so has been the part of the
Hindu psyche, imbibed from Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta, in which
Lord Krishna guides Arjuna whose emotions had hijacked his
intelligence when he saw his relatives standing in the opposing
armies of the Kauravas in Kurukshetra. He had no desire left for
victory, kingdom or pleasure. Then the Lord Krishna elucidates
the concept of Sthitaprajna to him.
It means a person of steady wisdom, a person whose
intelligence (vivek) is always in complete command of his senses,
a person who has the capacity to stand apart and be independent
of feelings or emotions.

116. Origin of the term ‘Emotional Intelligence’
Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have
been the leading researchers on Emotional Intelligence. The term
‘emotional intelligence’ seems first to have appeared in 1964 in a paper
by Michael Beldoch. The first use of the term ‘EI’ was usually attributed
to Wayne Payne’s doctoral thesis, ‘A Study of Emotion: Developing
Emotional Intelligence’ from 1985.
However, the concept of ‘EI’ is popularized after the publication of
psychologist and writer Dr. Daniel Goleman’s book ‘Emotional
Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ’ in 1995. Thus, Daniel
Goleman is known as the ‘Father of EI’. Dr. Goleman described
emotional intelligence as a person’s ability to manage his feelings so that
those feelings are expressed appropriately and effectively. According to
Goleman, emotional intelligence is the largest single predictor of success
in the workplace.

117. EI links strongly with concept of love and spirituality – bringing compassion and
humanity to work, and also to ‘Multiple Intelligence’ theory – which illustrates and
measures the range of capabilities people possess, and the fact that everybody has a
value. Emotional Intelligence is the area of cognitive ability that facilitates
interpersonal behaviour.
EI is increasingly relevant to organizational development and developing
people, because the EI/EQ principles provide a new way to understand and assess
people’s behaviours, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and
potential. EI is an important consideration in human resource planning, job
profiling, recruitment, interviewing and selection, management development,
customer relations and customer service, and more.
The EQ concept argues that IQ, or conventional intelligence, is too narrow, that
there are wider areas of EI. Success requires more than IQ (Intelligence Quotient),
which has intended to be the traditional measure of intelligence, ignoring essential
behaviour and character elements. We’ve all met people who are academically brilliant
and yet are socially and inter-personally unskilled (i.e. inept, or unskillful). And we
know that despite possessing a high IQ rating, success does not automatically follow.

118. EQ Versus IQ
• EQ is emotional intelligence
• IQ, on the other hand, is cognitive intelligence

119. Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence
• According to Salovey and Mayer, there are four distinct
dimensions or branches of emotional intelligence that form a
hierarchy of emotional skills and abilities:

120. EI Framework / Elements
In his book, Daniel Goleman presents five categories of
emotional intelligence.
• Self-awareness: A person has a healthy sense of emotional
intelligence self awareness if they understand / observe their self
and recognize their emotions as they happen and have a strong
sense of one’s self worth and capabilities (i.e. strengths and
weaknesses), as well as aware of how their actions affect others.
A person with emotional self awareness is usually receptive to,
and able to learn from, constructive criticism more than one who
doesn’t have emotional self awareness.
‒ Emotional Awareness: recognizing one’s emotions and their effects
‒ Accurate self-assessment: knowing one’s strengths and limits.
‒ Self confidence: sureness about one’s self worth and capabilities

121. • Self-regulation: A person is being flexible in dealing with
changing situations and if required inhibiting (hinder, restrain)
one’s emotions in service of groups with a proactive bias
towards action. A person with a high emotional intelligence
has the ability to exercise restraint and control when
expressing their emotions.
– Self-control: managing disruptive emotions and impulses
– Trustworthiness: maintaining standards of honesty and integrity
– Conscientiousness: taking responsibility of personal performance
– Adaptability: flexibility in handling change
– Innovativeness: being comfortable with and open to novel ideas and
new information

122. • Self Motivation: A person is having a strong sense of
optimism and channelizing energies towards achievement of
life goals with consistency in values, emotions and behaviour.
People with high emotional intelligence are self-motivated,
resilient and driven by an inner ambition rather than being
influenced by outside forces, such as money or prestige.
– Achievement drive: striving to improve or meet a standard of
excellence
– Commitment: aligning with the goals of the group or organisation
– Initiative: readiness to act on opportunities
– Optimism: persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and
setbacks

123. • Empathy / Social Awareness: An empathetic person
understand others and take active interest in their concern
with an appreciation for the differences among people. A
person has compassion and is able to connect with other
people on an emotional level, helping them respond
genuinely to other people’s concerns.
– Empathy: sensing others’ feelings and perspective, and taking an
active interest in their concerns
– Service orientation: anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers’
needs
– Developing others: sensing what others need in order to develop, and
bolstering their abilities
– Leveraging diversity: cultivating opportunities through diverse people
– Political awareness: reading a group’s emotional currents and power
relationships

124. • Interpersonal / Social skills: A person inspires and guide
groups, help others to improve performance, resolve conflicts
and build relationships with a shared vision. An emotional
intelligent person are able to build trust with other people,
and are able to quickly gain respect from the people they
meet.
– Influence: wielding effective tactics for persuasion
– Communication: sending clear and convincing messages
– Leadership: inspiring and guiding groups and people
– Change catalyst: initiating or managing change
– Conflict management: negotiating and resolving disagreements
– Building bonds: nurturing instrumental relationships
– Collaboration and cooperation: working with others toward shared
goals
– Team capabilities: creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals

125. Aspects of Emotional Intelligence
This is the essential premise of EQ, to be successful
requires the effective awareness, control and management of
one’s own emotions, and those of other people. EQ embraces
two aspects of intelligence:
(a) Understanding ourself, our goals, intentions, response,
behaviour and all.
(b) Understanding others, and their feelings.

126. Characteristics of Emotionally Intelligent Person
• Emotionally intelligent people use both intrapersonal
and interpersonal skills.
• A good understanding of the world inwards helps one
in being aware of the self and motivates the person.
• Emotionally intelligent communicators pay attention
to and understand other’s emotions, likes and dislikes,
values and ethics, things that matter to them most,
and motivate them.
• They think positively, and are self-confident and know
what they want.

127. • These are the people who can see an opportunity in
any challenging situation.
• They know how to channelize their energies well and
give their best to everyone’s benefit.
• They analyze their failures well and learn by
recollecting the same incident and trying to search
for the errors committed by them rather than
complaining about the situation or the people
involved.

128. Domains of Emotional Intelligence
Goleman identified the five ‘domains’ of EQ as:
(a) Knowing our emotions
(b) Managing our emotions
(c) Motivating ourself
(d) Recognizing and understanding other people’s
emotions
(e) Managing relationships, i.e., managing the emotions
of others

129. EI embraces and draws from numerous other branches of
behavioural, emotional and communication theories, such as NLP
(Neuro-linguistic Programming), Transactional Analysis, and
Empathy. By developing our EI in these areas and the five EQ
domains we can become more productive and successful too. The
process and outcomes of EI development also contain many
elements known to reduce stress for individuals and
organizations, by decreasing conflict, improving relationships and
understanding, and increasing stability, continuity and harmony.
‘The Emotional Competence Framework’ – a generic EQ
competence framework produced by Daniel Goleman covering in
summary:
(a) Personal Competence – Self awareness, Self regulation, and Self
motivation
(b) Social Competence – Social awareness, and Social skills

130. One can become Emotionally Intelligent by:
• Take responsibility for your emotions and your happiness.
• Examine your own feelings rather than the actions or motives
of other people.
• Learn to relax when your emotions are running high and to get
up and move when your are feeling down.
• Learn to look for healthy humor in a negative situation.
• Be honest with yourself. Acknowledge your negative feelings,
look for their source, and come up with a way to solve the
underlying problem.
• Show respect by respecting other people’s feelings.
• Avoid people who invalidate you or don’t respect your
feelings.
• Listen others with empathy
• Have the courage to forgive oneself as well as others

131. Guidelines for promoting EI at the workplace
(a) Paving the way
i. Assess the organization’s needs
ii. Assessing the individual
iii. Delivering assessments with care
iv. Maximizing learning choice
v. Encouraging participation
vi. Linking goals and personal values
vii. Adjusting individual expectations
viii. Assessing readiness and motivation for EQ
development

132. (b) Doing the work of change
i. Foster relationships between EQ trainers and
learners.
ii. Self-directed change and learning
iii. Setting goals
iv. Breaking goals down into achievable steps
v. Providing opportunities for practice
vi. Give feedback
vii. Using experiential methods
viii. Build in support
ix. Use models and examples
x. Encourage insight and Self awareness

133. (c) Encourage transfer and maintenance of change
(Sustainable change)
i. Encourage application of new learning in jobs
ii. Develop organizational culture that supports
learning
(d) Evaluating the change
i. Evaluate individual and organizational effect

134. Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel the emotions of
other people. It is a key element of Emotional Intelligence, the
link between self and others, because it is how we understand
what others are experiencing as if we were feeling it ourselves.
Empathy goes far beyond ‘sympathy’, i.e. ‘feeling with’ that
person, through the use of imagination.
Daniel Goleman, author of the book Emotional Intelligence,
says that empathy is basically the ability to understand others’
emotions. It is about defining, understanding, and reacting to
the concerns and needs that underlie others’ emotional
responses and reactions.
According to Tim Minchin, Empathy is a skill that can be
developed and, as with the most interpersonal skills,
empathising (at some level) comes naturally to most people.

135. Elements of Empathy
Daniel Goleman identified five key elements of empathy.
• Understanding others: In Goleman’s words, ‘sensing
others’ feelings and perspectives, and taking an active
interest in their concerns. This includes listening well,
paying attention to non verbal communication, showing
sensitivity, and understanding others’ perspectives.
• Developing others: Developing others means acting on
their needs and concerns, and helping others to develop
to their full potential. People with skill usually (a) reward
and praise people for their strengths and
accomplishments, and provide constructive feedback
designed to focus on how to improve, (b) provide
mentoring and coaching to help others to develop to their
full potential.

136. • Having a Service orientation: This means putting the needs
of others’ first and looking for ways to improve their
satisfaction. They genuinely understand other people’s
needs, and go out of their way to help meet them. They
develop a long-term relationship with people.
• Leveraging diversity: This means being able to create and
develop opportunities through different kinds of people.
They adopt a tailor-made way to interact with others to fit
with their needs and feelings. People with this skill respect
and relate well to everyone, regardless of their background.
As a general rule, they see diversity as an opportunity,
understanding that diverse teams work much better than
teams that are homogeneous.
• Political Awareness: Political awareness means sensing and
responding to a group’s emotional undercurrents and
power relationships. This can help individuals to navigate
organisational relationships effectively.

137. Types of Empathy
Psychologists have identified three types of
empathy:
• Cognitive empathy is understanding someone’s
thoughts and emotions, in a very rational, rather
than emotional sense.
• Emotional empathy is also known as emotional
contagion, and is ‘catching’ someone else’s feelings,
so that one can feel them too.
• Compassionate (i.e. deep awareness of suffering) empathy is
understanding someone’s feelings, and taking
appropriate action to help.

138. Importance of Empathy
Empathy creates connections between people, bringing them together and
helping to forge trust, friendships and love. It makes us feel as if someone
cares for us. Empathy gives u insights into what others may be feeling or
thinking. It helps us understand how or why others are reacting to
situations, and are more prone to help each other.
• Empathy helps us to connect with each other
• Empathy shows that we care about each other
• Empathy helps to create a better world
• Empathy gives an edge to the one who possess it
• Empathy helps to handle conflicts better
• Empathy makes it easier to convince and motivate others
• Empathy broadens our horizons of understanding
• Empathy brings out the positivity in relationships
• Empathy helps to better understand the non-verbal components of
communication
• Empathy builds cooperation, collaboration, and teamwork

139. How to become more Empathetic
• Be real about how you feel:
– When we’re willing to get real about how we truly feel and have
the courage to be vulnerable about it with ourselves and others,
we can so often liberate ourselves from the negativity,
projections, and judgements that mask what’s really going on.
– When we’re in a conflict with another person or dealing with
someone or something that’s challenging for us, being able to
admit, own, and express our fear, insecurity, sadness, anger,
jealousy, or whatever other ‘negative’ emotions we are
experiencing, is one of the best ways for us to move past our
defensiveness and authentically address the deeper issues of
the situation.
– Doing this allows us to access empathy for ourselves, the other
person or people involved, and even the circumstances of the
conflict or challenge itself.

140. • Imagine what it’s like (i.e. perceive) for
others:
– While it can sometimes be difficult for us to
‘understand’ another person’s perspective or
situation, being able to imagine what it must be
like for them is an essential aspect of empathy.
Whatever the situation is, the more willing we are
to imagine or understand another person’s
perspective or situation or what it’s like for them,
the more compassion, understanding, and
empathy we’ll be able to experience.

141. • Forgive yourself and others:
– Forgiveness is one of the most important things
we can do in life to heal ourselves, let go of
negativity, and live a life of peace and fulfillment.
Forgiveness has to first start with us. When we
forgive ourselves, we create the conditions and
perspective to forgive others.

142. • Examine your attitude:
– Build relationships, and accept others.
– Pay attention, physically and mentally, to what’s happening.
– Without an open mind and attitude, one probably won’t have
enough space for empathy.
– Be flexible, prepare to change direction as the other person’s
thoughts and feelings also change.
• Be good Listener:
– Listen to the entire message that the other person is trying to
communicate. Listen carefully, and note the key words and phrases
that people use.
o Listen with your ears: What is being said, and what tone is being
used?
o Listen with your eyes: What is the person doing with his or her body
while speaking?
o Listen with your instincts: Do you sense that the person is
communicating something important or not?
o Listen with your heart: What do you think the other person feels?

143. Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are the skills that a person uses to
interact with other person. These skills also referred as
‘People skills’ or ‘Communication skills’. Interpersonal skills
involve using skills such as active listening and tone of
voice, delegation and leadership. It is how well we
communicate with someone and how well we behave or
carry our self. It also helps people to further their careers.
Interpersonal skills refers to mental and communicative
algorithms applied during social communications and
interaction to reach certain effects or results. The term
‘interpersonal skills’ is often used in business context to
refer to the measure of a person’s ability to operate within
business organisation through social communications and
interactions. Interpersonal skills are how people relate to
one another.

144. It communicates respect for other people or professionals
which enables one to reduce conflict and increase participation
or assistance in obtaining information or completing tasks.
Having positive interpersonal skills increases the productivity in
the organisation since the number of conflicts is reduced. In
informal situations, it allows communication to be easy and
comfortable. People with good interpersonal skills can
generally control the feelings that emerge in difficult situations
and respond appropriately, instead of being overwhelmed by
emotion.
Essential Interpersonal Competencies:
 Self awareness
 Control
 Motivation
 Acknowledging the interests of others
 Communication skills

145. Nature of Inter-personal Behaviour
• Inter-personal Cooperative Behaviour
• Inter-personal Conflict Behaviour
Factors hampering Inter-personal Interactions
• Poor listening
• Emotional Arousal
• Lack of time
• Different sets of values
• Lack of trust

146. Transactional Analysis and Interpersonal Skills
Transactional analysis is a theory developed by an American
Scientist, Dr. Eric Berne in 1964 through his book ‘Games People
Play’. This theory is an important technique used for developing
inter-personal skills. Originally trained in psychoanalysis, Berne
wanted a theory which could be understood and available to
everyone. Today, this theory is a part of organisational training in
many organisations around the world.
Transactional analysis is a technique used to help people
better understand their own and other’s behaviour. It is a theory
of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal
growth and personal change.

147. Components of Transactional Analysis: Three components
i. Id: id functions in the irrational part and emotional part of
the mind.
ii. Ego: Ego functions as the rational part of the mind.
iii. Super ego: Superego can be thought of as the moral part of
the mind, a manifestation of societal or parental values.

148. Life Positions: Berne has discussed about four life positions that a
person can hold. This helps to identify that how an individual
operationalizes his or her life.
i. I’m ok and you are ok: This is the healthiest position about life
and it means that I feel good about myself and that I feel good
about others and their competence.
ii. I’m ok and you are not ok: In this position I feel good about
myself but I see others as damaged or less than and it is usually
not healthy.
iii. I’m not ok and you are ok: In this position the person sees
himself/herself as the weak partner in relationships as the others
in life are definitely better than the self. The person who holds
this position will unconsciously accept himself weaker as ok.
iv. I’m not ok and you are not ok: This is the worst position to be in
as it means that I believe that I am in a terrible state and the rest
of the world is as bad. Consequently, there is no hope for any
ultimate supports.

149. Ego States: According to Transaction analysis, there are three
ego states that people consistently use. This describes that
how people are structured psychologically.
i. Parent ego: a taught concept
ii. Adult ego: a learned concept
iii. Child ego: a felt concept

150. Johari Window and Interpersonal Skills
• The Johari window is a technique that helps people better
understand their relationship with themselves and others.
• It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington
Ingham in 1955. They named their model ‘Johari’ using a
combination of their first names.
Four Quadrants of Johari Window:
– Open, or Arena
– Hidden, or Façade
– Blind Area
– Unknown

151. Johari Window
Open / Arena Blind Area
Hidden/Facade Unknown
Known to Self Not Known to Self
Known to
Others
Not
Known to
Others

152. Ten ways to improve interpersonal skills
• Smile: One should do their best to be friendly and upbeat with
their co-workers. Maintain a positive, cheerful attitude about
work and personal life. The positive energy we radiate will
draw others to us.
• Be appreciative: Find one positive thing about everyone we
work with and let them hear it. Be generous with praise and
kind words of encouragement. If we let others know that they
are appreciated, they’ll give their best to us.
• Pay attention to others: Observe what’s going on in other
people’s lives. Acknowledge their happy milestones, and
express concern and sympathy for difficult situations such as
an illness or death. Make eye contact and address people by
their first names. Also ask others for their opinions.

153. • Practice active listening: To actively listen is to
demonstrate that we intend to hear and understand
other’s point of view. Our co-workers will appreciate
knowing that we really do listen to what they have to
say.
• Bring People together: Create an environment that
encourage others to work together. Treat everyone
equally, and don’t be biased. Avoid talking about others
behind their back. Follow up on other people’s
suggestions or requests. If people see us fair, they will
develop their trust on us.
• Resolve Conflicts: Take a step to resolve conflicts of
people when they arise. Learn how to be an effective
mediator. By taking such a leadership role, one will earn
respect and admiration from those around him.

154. • Communicate clearly: Pay close attention to both what we say
and how we say it. A clear and effective communicator avoids
misunderstandings with co-workers, colleagues and
associates.
• Humour others: Most people are drawn to a person that can
make them laugh. We can use our sense of humour as an
effective tool to lower barriers and gain people’s affection.
• Empathy: Empathy means being able to put ourself at
someone else’s place and to understand how they feel. Try to
view situations and responses from other person’s
perspective.
• Avoid / Don’t complain: There’s nothing worst than a chronic
complainer. If we must verbalize our grievances, move to our
close friends and family, and keep it short. Otherwise it will
make our bad reputation.

155. Personality Development
Personality:
• Personality encompasses a person’s relatively stable feelings,
thoughts, and behavioural patterns.
• Personality is what makes a person unique, and it is recognizable.
Personality is concerned with the psychological pattern of an
individual – the thoughts, emotions and feelings – that are unique
to a person. In fact, the totality of character, attributes and traits
of a person are responsible for molding his/her personality.
• The word ‘Personality’ originates from the Latin word ‘Persona’
which means ‘a mask’. Personality is the sum of characteristics
that constitute the mental and physical being of a person
including appearance, manners, habits, taste and even moral
character. The personality of a person is how he/she presents
him/herself to the world; it is how others see him/her.

156. Personality Development:
• Personality development is the development of the organized
pattern of behaviors and attitudes that makes a person
distinctive. Personality development occurs by the ongoing
interaction of temperament (i.e. a person’s normal behavior of
thinking, behaving or reacting), character and environment.
Personality development is an all round development of an
individual.

157. Types of Personality
• Extrovert personality: These individuals are highly socialized and
have contact with outside people in the society.
• Introvert personality: Introvert is opposite to extrovert. These
people like to live alone. They do not like to go outside and avoid
social interactions. They have their own imaginary world.
Example, Scientists, thinkers and philosophers.
• Ambivert personality: Between extrovert and introvert
personalities there is a third type called ambivert. People
belonging to this type enjoy both the groups and attend them.

158. Personality Traits
• ‘Big Five’ personality model / traits: The Big Five is a personality model
that has been around since the 1960s. This five core personality traits
has been growing for many years, beginning with the research of D. W.
Fiske (1949), and later expanded upon by other researchers including
Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa
(1987). The five key scales that are measured are as given:
• Extraversion (being sociable, excitable, assertive, expressive, warm,
energetic, seeks excitement). This goes High to Low.
• Agreeableness (being altruistic, kind, cooperative, trusting, showing
prosocial behaviors). This goes High to Low.
• Conscientiousness (being goal-directed, organized, detail conscious,
planned in their approach, reliable, self-disciplined and achievement-
focused). This goes High to Low.
• Neuroticism / Emotional stability (also referred to as Neuroticism
when reversed) (being emotionally stable, resilient (flexible), restrained,
controlled and relaxed). This goes Low to High.
• Openness to Experience (being open to ideas, curious, imaginative,
creative, adventurous, embracing change and even unconventional).
This goes High to Low.

159. Guidelines for Personality Development
• Be Confident: Your confidence reflects your character, attitude and
passion. You should be confident about who you are and whatever you
do. Being confident will help you to express yourself and stand
amongst the crowd.
• Improve your communication skills: The way you speak reflects who
you are. Be polite and gentle with your words. Always think before you
speak. English being globally accepted is preferred everywhere. So
work on your English proficiency by listening to English news, reading
English newspapers and magazines. Always use simple words in general
interactions.
• Dress up well: Dressing sense means the general sense about how you
should dress up for office, party or any other occasion. A person should
therefore wear according to how well the attire suits him/her. Good
looks no doubt will add to your personality but what matters the most
is how you are dressed up. Dressing sense thus plays a major role in
personality and confidence development.

160. • Do what you are Passionate about and be Passionate about what you
do: Always follow your passion and do what interests you. This will not
only help you to grow as a person but will also add to your confidence.
Be passionate about your work. Make sure you give your best in
whatever you do. This will add to your growth and strengthen your self
confidence.
• Watch your Body language: Body language plays an important role to
judge a person’s confidence and personality. Try to make use of positive
gestures while interacting with others. This shows that you’re at ease
while having a discussion. Studies reflect that 75% of our
communication happens non-verbally. Your gestures thus play a vital
role while interacting with others.
• Improve your social skills: Man is a social animal. Every individual has
to interact with a group of people one time or the other. Being shy or
introvert is the least desirable characteristics in any individual. Always
stay updated with the current affairs and what is happening in the
society. Try participating in group discussions and seminars. This will
help you to be more open and adjust amongst a group of individuals.

161. • Develop Leadership qualities: A good leader is believed to have a good
personality. Leadership skills do not mean how well you give orders to your
subordinates. It means how well you can manage your subordinates to
accomplish a particular task. Work harder to set an example to your
subordinates. Express yourself and always do as you say.
• Be Optimistic: Have a positive outlook towards everything. Nobody wants
to be around a person who is negative and complaining all the time.
Nobody wants to work or live with a pessimist. When you face a failure, let
go of the assumption that you’re the unluckiest person alive. Use positive
statements like ‘I can do it’, ‘I always have a choice’, etc. Expect good things
from the future.
• Be a Patient Listener: Be an enthusiastic listener. Listening is very part of
communication. This will help you to see things from the eyes of others.
Mental presence is a must to be good listener. Try to get away from
possible distraction when talking to people. Ask questions to let the other
person know that you were listening to him/her.
• Be a Good learner: Good learning skills in an individual are highly
desirable. You should always have the zeal to learn new things while at
work. This reflects your enthusiasm. Don’t let yourself repeat the same
mistakes. Learn from them. Also ‘Learn from the mistakes of others. You
can’t live long enough to make them all yourself’.

162. Self Confidence
• Confidence
• Expression or feeling of Certainty
• Trust or Assurance
• Faith or Rely
• Preparing yourself for success
• Confidence can be described as a belief in oneself and one’s ability.
This is generally described as a state of being certain. Confidence means
a feeling of trust and firm belief in yourself or others.
– Under Confidence: if you are under-confident, you will avoid taking
risks and stretching yourself; and you might not try at all.
– Over Confidence: if you are over-confident, you may take on too
much risk, stretch yourself beyond your capabilities, and crash
badly. You may also find that you are so optimistic that you don’t
try hard enough to truly succeed.

163. – Self Confidence is having confidence in one’s self. Self confidence
is a good feeling about one’s self and their capabilities. This is
generally described as a state of being certain. A self confident
person feels good about who he is and also feel good about their
ability to achieve things they want to achieve.
Self confidence comes from one’s abilities. This comes from
three powerful abilities that a person possess. They are:
• Ability to think positively about oneself and their capabilities
(rather than negatively).
• Ability to be certain that the person possess positive values and
have powerful capabilities (regardless of whether others doubt
this or disagree with you).
• Ability to continue thinking positively about oneself and their
capabilities in any situation or circumstance, no matter what.

164. Self confidence is extremely important in almost every
aspect of our lives. People who lack self confidence can find it
difficult to face challenges and become successful.
Confident people inspire confidence in others i.e. their
audience, peers, boss, customers, friends. And gaining the
confidence of others is one of the key ways in which a self
confident person finds success.
The good thing is that self confidence really can be learned
and built on. And whether you’re working on your own
confidence or building the confidence of people around you, it’s
well-worth the effort.

165. Most people are reluctant to back a project that’s being
pitched by someone who is nervous, fumbling (clumsy / lack
of elegance), and overly apologetic.
On the other hand, one might be persuaded by someone
who speaks clearly, who holds his or her head high, who
answers question assuredly, and who readily admits when he
or she does not know something.

166. Two important aspects of Self
Confidence
There are two main things to contribute to Self confidence i.e.:
• Self Efficacy: Self efficacy refers to belief in one’s own
capabilities to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific
performance attainments. Psychologist Albert Bandura defined
Self Efficacy as an individual’s belief that he or she will be able to
accomplish a specific task.
• Self Esteem: Self esteem is a feeling of having respect for one’s
own self and their abilities. Self esteem is the opinion of an
individual for his own self. High self esteem is a good opinion of
oneself. And low self esteem is a bad opinion of oneself. Self
esteem affects how a person thinks, act and even how he relate
to other people.

167. Benefits of Being Confident
• Self confident people are in an advantageous position to enjoy
happiness. They manage stress efficiently, control their own
emotions, behaviors, and feelings with greater responsibility.
• Self confident people possess leadership qualities. They trust
their judgment. They are risk takers.
• A confident person is not afraid to fail or make mistakes. Because
deep down they know that mistake is not a failure, rather a
learning process. They are the most successful people.
• A self confident person use criticism as a learning experience.
• An individual that is self confident is one that earns the most
money. This holds true in the corporate world and
entrepreneurship.

168. Ways to boost Self Confidence
• Stay away from negativity and bring on the positivity
• Choose a right body language and image
• Don’t accept failure and get rid of the negative voices in your head
• Be prepared
• Create a list of all the things you are proud of accomplishing
• Dress better (the way you dress has a dramatic effect on your confidence level, like
outfits, glasses, perfume, accessories, shoes. When how you appear is in sync with
how you want people to view you, confidence can easily follow.)
• Fix things you don’t like about yourself
• Be yourself
• Enter competitions you can do well in
• Speak on something you understand well
• Work out (Exercise)
• Learn, gain knowledge and experience
• Use criticism as a learning experience
• Being assertive (means standing up for what you believe in and sticking to your
principles)
• Avoid Arrogance (be polite, humble and down to earth)

169. Self Efficacy
• ‘If you believe you can, you can’.
• ‘If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it,
even if I may not have it at the beginning’.
- Mahatma Gandhi
• Self efficacy can have an impact on everything from psychological states
to behaviour to motivation.
• People with a strong / high sense of self efficacy:
– View challenging problems as tasks to be mastered.
– Develop deeper interest in the activities in which they participate.
– Form a stronger sense of commitment to their interest and activities.
– Recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments.
• People with a weak sense of self efficacy :
– Avoid challenging tasks.
– Believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities.
– Focus on negative outcomes.
– Quickly lose confidence in personal abilities.

170. Origin of Self Efficacy
• Self efficacy was developed by Albert Bandura, as part of a large
theory the Social Learning Theory, which was progressed into the
Social Cognitive Theory.
• Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes how
cognitive, behavioral, personal, and environmental factors
interact to determine motivation and behavior.
• Self efficacy is a person’s belief about his or her ability and
capacity to accomplish a task or to deal with the challenges of life.
Self efficacy can also be referred as Self Confidence.
• The basic principle behind Self efficacy theory is that individuals
are more likely to engage in activities for which they have high
self-efficacy and less likely to engage in those they do not.

171. • Self efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate
themselves and behave. Self efficacy reflects confidence in the
ability to exert control over one’s own motivation, behavior and
social environment.
• A strong self efficacy enhances human accomplishment and
personal well-being in many ways. People with high assurance in
their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be
mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. Such an
efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep
engrossment (i.e. concentrate, engage) in activities. They set
themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to
them.

172. Sources of Efficacy beliefs
Albert Bandura has referred the following first four sources of self
efficacy. They are:
• Mastery experiences / Performance accomplishments: The most
effective way of developing a strong sense of efficacy is through
mastery experiences. Performing a task successfully strengthens
our sense of self efficacy . However failing to adequately deal
with the task or challenge can undermine or weaken self efficacy.
• Vicarious experiences: Observing someone else who perform a
task or handle a situation can help people to perform the same
task by imitation, and if they succeed in performing a task, they
are likely to think that they will succeed as well, if the task is not
too difficult. Observing people who are similar to a person will
increase their beliefs that they can master a similar activity.

173. • Verbal persuasion: When other people encourage and convince a
person to perform a task, they intend to believe that they are
more capable of performing the task. Constructive feedback is
important in maintaining a sense of efficacy as it may help
overcome self-doubt.
• Emotional and Physiological states: Moods, emotions, reactions
and stress levels may influence how people feel about their
personal abilities. If they are extremely nervous, they begin to
doubt and develop a weak sense of self efficacy. If they are
confident and feel no anxiety or nervousness at all, they may
experience a sense of excitement that fosters a great sense of self
efficacy. For this reason, being able to diminish or control anxiety
may have positive impact on self-efficacy beliefs.
• Imaginal experiences: Psychologist James Maddux has suggested
a fifth route to self efficacy through ‘imaginal experiences’, i.e.
the art of visualizing oneself behaving effectively or successfully
in a given situation.

174. Self Esteem
• Synonyms of Self Esteem: Self worth, Self regard, Self respect, and
Self integrity
• Self esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself. For example, ‘I am
competent’, ‘I am worthy’.
• Smith and Mackie (2007) defined it by saying, “Self esteem, is the
positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about
it”.
• In psychology, the term self esteem is used to describe a person’s
overall sense of self-worth or personal value. In other words, how
much a person appreciate and like him/herself.
– Self esteem is often seen as a personality trait, which means that
it tends to be stable and enduring.
– Self esteem can involve a variety of beliefs about oneself, such as
the appraisal of their own appearance, beliefs, emotions, and
behaviors.

175. • Self esteem is also called Self Respect factor. It is basically the
emotional component of the Self Concept System and represents
the real sense or the core aspect of human personality.
• Self esteem is singularly the most important factor which affects
your total performance. It projects your liking and self dignity and
the feelings about being yourself.
• It reveals as to how a person feels about himself and conducts
himself in public. Your self esteem is always true to the image you
hold in your mind. It has the moral power to propel you forward
or retain you behind.
• Since it is an overall judgement about yourself, it causes a deep
influence on all your activities, friends, relationships, and
productivity. It affects your creativity, integrity, stability and
potential.
• Self esteem becomes the single motivating factor for you to do
things correctly, sincerely and honestly and more so in a dignified
manner.

176. Types of Self Esteem
• High level of Self esteem: High self esteem means that you believe in
yourself and know that you are a great addition to this world. You
recognize that you might have a few weaknesses, but you also have a lot
of strengths which really shape up who you are. Your glass is always ‘half
full’.
• Low level of Self esteem: Low self esteem means that you don’t believe in
yourself. Often you compare yourself to other people, and find that you
‘don’t measure up’, which is discouraging. You tend to focus on your
weaknesses, and don’t focus on your strengths. Your glass is always ‘half
empty’.
If you feel that you have low self esteem, remember this, you are such a
valuable addition to this world. Just like everybody else, you are good at so
many things which will help make our world a better place.

177. Self Esteem Theories
• The need for self esteem plays an important role in psychologist
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which depicts self
esteem as one of the basic human motivations.
• Maslow suggested the people need both esteem from other
people as well as inner self respect.
• Both of these needs must be fulfilled in order for an individual to
grow as a person and achieve self-actualization.
• It is important to note that self esteem is a concept distinct from self
efficacy, which involves how well one believes they will handle their
future actions, performance, or abilities.

178. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid
Physiological
Breathing, Food, Water, Sleep, etc.
Safety
Security of Life, Employment, Resources, Morality, Family,
Health, Prosperity
Social / Belonging
Friendship, Family, Marriage
Esteem
Self esteem, confidence,
achievement, Respect of others,
Respect by others
Self actualization
Creativity,
Spontaneity, Problem
solving, Acceptance
of facts

179. Developing Positive Attitude
Attitude
• Synonyms: point of view, frame of mind, way of thinking, way of
looking at things, outlook, perspective, reaction, orientation, approach.
Example,
– Do you believe that God exists?
– What is your opinion on politics?
– Which are your favorite pizza toppings?
• The above questions may be seemingly unrelated, but it’s likely you have
strong opinions about all the three of these topics.
• Developing opinions and forming likes and dislikes about everything
around us are part of our daily lives.
• These attitudes affect the way we live and the choices we make.

180. • Attitude is the settled way of thinking or feeling about
something. Example, Glass half filled with water or half empty.
• Attitude is a tendency to respond positively or negatively
towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation.
• Attitude influences an individual’s choice of action, and
responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards.
• Attitude are formed with respect to situations, persons or groups
with which individual comes in contact in course of the growth
and development of his personality.
• The attitude of a person is determined by psychological factors
like ideas, values, beliefs, perception, etc.
• It is a generalized tendency to think or act in a certain way in
respect of some object or situation, often accompanied by
feeling.
• It is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistent manner
with respect to a given object.

181. Why Attitude is important to you?
You can’t build anything without a solid foundation. The ‘A’ is for Attitude –
the foundation sustaining all successful people. The roots spread inward
and are anchored in past experiences, and the fruit branch outward
exposed for all to see.
• Attitude is both our best friend and our worst enemy.
• It is more honest and more consistent than our words.
• Our Attitude is 100% within our control. For example, there is
absolutely nothing we could do about how people react to us, or
our products and services. All we can do is control the manner in
which we react.

182. Components of Attitude
• Affective component (Emotions or feelings): The affective component of
attitudes refers to your feelings or emotions linked to an object. Affective
responses influence attitudes in a number of ways. For example, many people
are afraid or scared of spiders. So this negative affective response is likely to
cause you to have a negative attitude towards spiders. Another example,
statements such as ‘I like this’ or ‘I prefer that’ reflect the affective component
of an attitude.
• Behavioural component (Observed behaviour): The behavioural component
refers to the way one behaves when exposed to an object. It is an attitude
consists of a person’s tendencies to behave in a particular way toward an
object. It refers to that part of attitude which reflects the intention of a person
in short run or long run. For example, the attitudes of men towards women in
management may be inferred from an observation of the way they behave
towards a female supervisor.
• Cognitive component (Belief or opinions held consciously): The cognitive
component of attitude refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we
would associate with an object. Many times a person’s attitude might be based
on the negative and positive attributes they associate with an object. It refers
that part of attitude which is related in general knowledge of a person. For
example, the belief that ‘discrimination is wrong’ is a value statement.

183. Attitude and Behaviour
Be Yourself (An original is always worth more than a copy)
• Change in attitude causes change in the behaviour.
• Vice-versa change in behaviour causes change in attitudes.
Eg. An Original brand worth more value, than the first
copy of that brand. So consider urself as an original brand.

184. Formation of Attitudes
Individuals are not born with certain attitudes. Attitudes are not
inherited. These are acquired and learned by individuals from the
situation they face in their life. Various factors influencing the
formation of attitudes:
• Psychological factors (like his ideas, values, beliefs, perceptions,
etc.)
• Family
• Education
• Society
• Economic factors (like his salary, status, work, etc.)
• Political factors (like ideologies of political parties, political
leaders, and political stability)

185. Change of Attitudes
• Changing attitude is a long-term process. Acceptance of new
attitudes depends on who is presenting the knowledge, how it
is presented, how the person has perceived, the credibility of
the communicator, and the conditions in which the
knowledge has perceived.

186. Positive Attitude
Nervous, I can’t do it ----- Smile, and say, I can do it
• The way you think and feel, affects all aspects of your life.
• Positive attitude helps to cope more easily with the daily
affairs of life.
• It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to
avoid worry and negative thinking.
• If you adopt it as a way of your life, it will bring constructive
changes into your life, and make you happier, brighter and
more successful.
• With a positive attitude you see the bright side of life,
become optimistic, and expect best to happen.
• It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing.

187. Positive attitude manifests in the following ways:
• Positive thinking
• Constructive thinking
• Creative thinking
• Optimism
• Motivation and Energy to do things and accomplish goals
• An attitude of happiness

188. Negative Attitudes
Negative Attitude in Action Results
Inconsiderate Worry
Pessimistic Tension
Weak Frustration
Rude Failure
Soar Sickness
Irritable Poverty
Inferiority Boredom
Indecision Dissatisfaction

189. Developing Positive attitude
• Listen to internal dialogue (jot down all your negative thoughts on the
paper. Rewrite each thought in a positive way in front of that. Practice
doing it in ur mind until it becomes a habit.)
• Learn to communicate (not sharing our opinions, feelings, thoughts can
bring frustration. If u find communicating difficult, or are afraid of
arguments, then learn how to communicate effectively)
• Get back to basics (reconnect with old friends, do the things which u like d
most, listen ur favorite music, etc. this will give u the pleasure)
• Help someone out (simple act of helping others helps us to feel good)
• Find your spirituality (believe in your own personal and unique beliefs)
• Love yourself and others
• Laugh and find humor in simplest things
• Don’t underestimate yourself and others
• Participate in physical and mental activities
• Follow the principles of holistic health (better nutrition and exercise helps
to improve mood and attitude)

190. Leadership Skills
Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act
towards achieving a common goal. Leadership involves:
• establishing a clear vision,
• sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly,
• providing the information, knowledge and methods to realize
that vision, and
• coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all
members and stakeholders.

191. Traits of Leaders
• A leader steps up in times of crisis, and is able to think
and act creatively in difficult situations. Unlike management, leadership
cannot be taught, although it may be learned and enhanced
through coaching or mentoring. Someone with great
leadership skills today are those who, despite of various failures, with
continued passion and innovation has driven to success.
• Leadership is a process of inter-personal interaction. Leaders inspire
people and people inspire leaders. Leaders have strong self values, and
self-esteem. Leadership is all about performance, motivation and
communication.
• A leader defines change and takes on challenges. Leadership is all about
taking that step forward. It is about having self worth and self
confidence. Leaders always show respect for others.
• Leaders are positivists. They appreciate what’s good. They ignite
imagination, inspire passion in people. Leader’s role is to review,
communicate, appreciate, and celebrate. Leaders help people to realize
their full potential.

192. Leadership Styles
i. Autocratic: The autocratic leadership style allows leaders to make
decisions alone without the input of others. Leaders possess total
authority and impose their will on followers. No one challenges the
decisions of autocratic leaders. Countries such as Cuba and North
Korea operate under the autocratic leadership style. This leadership
style benefits followers who require close supervision. Creative
employees who thrive in group functions detest this leadership style.
ii. Laissez-Faire: A laissez-faire leader lacks direct supervision of
followers and do not provide regular feedback to those under his
supervision. Highly experienced and trained followers who requires
little supervision fall under the laissez-faire leadership style.
However, not all employees possess those characteristics. This
leadership style hinders the production of employees need
supervision. The laissez-faire style produces no leadership or
supervision efforts from managers, which can lead to poor production,
lack of control and increasing costs.

193. iii. Bureaucratic Leadership: Bureaucratic leaders "work by the
book", ensures that their subordinates follow procedures
exactly. This is a very appropriate style for work involving
serious safety risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic
substances or at heights) or where large sums of money are
involved (such as cash-handling). In other situations, the
inflexibility and high levels of control exerted can demoralize
followers, and can diminish the organizations ability to react to
changing external circumstances.
iv. Democratic or Participative: The democratic leadership style or
participative leadership values the input of team members, but
the responsibility of making the final decision rests with the
participative leader. Participative leadership boosts employee
morale because employees make contributions to the decision-
making process. It causes them to feel as if their opinions
matter. This style meets challenges when companies need to
make a decision in a short period.

194. v. Charismatic Leadership: Under charismatic leadership style are
sometimes called as transformational leadership style, this
leadership style relies on the charm and persuasiveness of the
leader. Charismatic leadership is the process of encouraging
certain behaviors in others through their personality, persuasion
and eloquent communication. As such, charismatic leadership
carries great responsibility, and needs long-term commitment
from the leader. However, a charismatic leader can tend to
believe more in him or herself than in their team. This can create
a risk that a project, or even an entire organization, might
collapse if the leader were to leave.

195. vi. Transactional: The transactional leadership style is a style in
which leaders motivate their followers through rewards or
punishments based on performance results. Managers and team
members set predetermined goals together, and employees
agree to follow the direction and leadership of the manager to
accomplish those goals. The manager possesses power to review
results and train or correct employees when team members fail
to meet goals. Employees receive rewards, such as bonuses,
when they accomplish goals.
vii. Transformational: The transformational leadership style
depends on high levels of communication from leader to meet
goals. Leaders motivate their followers and enhance
productivity and efficiency through communication and high
visibility. This style of leadership requires the involvement of
management to meet goals. Leaders focus on the big picture
within an organization and delegate smaller tasks to the team to
accomplish goals.

196. Keys to become an Effective Leader
• Clear Vision
• Set goals
• Delegate wisely
• Communicate
• Interpersonal relations with people / pay attention to people
• Recognize achievements of people
• Think about solutions, not problems
• Take responsibility for their people’s performance
• Determined and Supportive
• Self assessment
• Listen carefully
• Allows failure to guide people rightly
• Focus on the positives
• Motivate people
• Unbiased

197. Ways to improve Leadership Skills
There are several strategies found useful in the art of
successful leadership and supervision.
• Verbalize, or communicate the goals and ambitions to
people.
• Ask advice from people. This makes people feel that
their opinion is worth considering.
• Remember the name of the person you are dealing
with, and use it often in the conversation.
• Sincerely compliment people occasionally.
• Be more willing to listen than to talk.
• Keep people well informed on all matters that may
concern them.

198. • Show respect for a person's knowledge by repeating
a remark of their that will reflect favorably on them.
• Eliminate bias in the thoughts about a person.
• Stay alert in your posture and facial expression.
• Challenge a person, thus allowing them to grow.
• Make people feel proud of the job they are doing.
• Recognition is more important to some people than
salary.

199. • Have regular meetings to exchange thoughts and take
the opportunity to advise people of what is going on
around the company, with customers and in the
industry.
• Set goals for those you supervise. Also, help them to
achieve the goals by giving them the opportunity to get
things done.
• Be enthusiastic, have a great vision and continually look
for ways to maintain morale, build confidence, and
motivate.
• Show your human side. Demonstrate that you care
about people.
• Provide the tools, environment and most importantly
support for the team to perform at its peak.

200. • Do a good job of planning and scheduling. Keep
the team informed so that they will understand
their role in the organization.
• Keep people busy. Generally, people would like
to have too much to do. They lose self esteem if
they are not kept busy, and then productivity
falls off dramatically.
• Try to solve problems promptly. Letting bad
situations go tends to only make them worse.

201. Self Development
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as the process of Self
Actualisation or Self Development.
• Self development is the state or process of improving or
developing oneself. This is the efforts toward self-
fulfillment, either through formal study programs or on
one’s own.
• Meditation can boost self development because it helps
people gain awareness of oneself and the world around
them.
• Self development is taking steps to better yourself, such as
by learning new skills or overcoming bad habits. An Example
of self development is taking courses at the university to learn
new skills and interesting things.

202. • Self development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to
assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set
goals in order to realize and maximize their potential.
• This is the process by which a person’s character or abilities are
gradually developed. It includes taking steps to better oneself,
such as by learning new skills or overcoming bad habits.

203. • Self development may include the following dimensions:
– Improving self awareness
– Improving skills and learning new ones
– Building self esteem
– Developing strengths or talents
– Improving career
– Identifying potential
– Enhancing lifestyle or the quality of life
– Improving health
– Improving wealth or social status
– Fulfilling aspirations
– Improving social relations
– Improving emotional intelligence

204. Factors influencing Self Development
• External factors
– Parents (guidance and right direction shown by the parents)
– Upbringing and Education
– Relations
– Environment (like rural, urban, backward, forward, literate, illiterate,
rich, poor, noisy, silent etc. kind of surroundings)
• Internal / Self driving factors
– Self image
– Vision
– Inner desire / Ambition / Life aspiration
– Awareness
– Initiative
– Will power

205. Process of Self Development
SOUL MIND
HEART BODY
SELF DISCOVERY
SELF ACTUALIZATION SELF IMPROVEMENT
SELF MASTERY

207. Process of Self Development
The self / personal development process begins with self – discovery and
continues to self actualization.
• Self Discovery: Self discovery is the first step in self development. It is the process of
gaining a deep understanding of our own self, character, needs, values, and purpose in
life. It is the exploration of our inner self in an attempt to discover who we are, our
potential, our purpose in life, and what core principles are guiding us to take different
paths along the way.
The key components of self discovery are Self reflection and Self awareness.
Self reflection allows us to explore our individual personality, preferences, values,
beliefs, preferred styles and tendencies in order to become self aware. Meditation and
reflection allows us to refocus our mind and concentrate on our inner self, and allow us
to examine the way we see our self.
Self awareness can be defined as having an insightful understanding of our
personality, values, emotions, tendencies, and beliefs. Self awareness is about knowing
and understanding the core of who we are:
• Our beliefs and principles
• Our emotions
• What motivates us
• Our thinking patterns
• Our tendencies to react to certain situations
• What we want out of life

208. • Self Improvement: Self improvement is a process of
consciously improving our self in various aspects of
our life. It is the conscious pursuit of personal growth
by improving personal skills, competencies, talents,
and knowledge in order to seek self-fulfillment and
proactively reach our fullest potential. Self
improvement enables us to assess our skills and
talents, to set goals, and then take action to achieve
those goals and to maximize our potential.

209. Elements of Self Improvement / development
– Self knowledge: It is the bridge between self discovery and self
development. Self knowledge identifies what we know about
our self. With self knowledge we can understand our strengths
to build upon, as well as identify areas where we would like to
make improvements.
– Self assessment: It is the process of gathering information
about our own aptitude, skills, competencies, and talents and
critically reviewing the quality of our performance and abilities.
– Skill enhancement and Personal growth (action steps):
Through effective skill enhancement, one can become more
capable, competent, and confident in our self and our abilities,
and are better able to reach our goals. One should focus on
developing their personal effectiveness. Personal growth can be
perceived as becoming a better person by modifying personal
attitudes, traits, and characteristics. Personal growth also
includes building self esteem, self image, and self confidence.

210. • Self Mastery: Self mastery is the ability to recognize,
understand, control, and make the most out of our
physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self. It is gained
through awareness, understanding, and control over our
thoughts, emotions, and actions. Self mastery over our
own thoughts, emotions, words, and actions can change
and transform our life and our self.
• Self Actualization: Self actualization is seeking personal
growth through experiences in order to realize our fullest
potential and reach self fulfillment. Self actualization is
the ultimate goal of Self development.

211. Topics for Group Discussions
• Indian economy in 2018-19: Performance and Policies of
Modi Regime
• Social Media: Impact on human behavior and society
• Impact of technology on Jobs
• Zero
• Knowledge is the biggest asset one can accumulate

212. Group Discussions
• An individual working in an organisation spends a considerable amount
of time in groups. In fact, a study reveals that 50% of the time the
executives spend in attending meetings. Meetings are the interaction
with lot of individuals. Ability to work in teams has become more
important than knowledge of quantitative and statistical technical
techniques.
• Group Discussion is a process of examining or considering the
subject in detail in a group. It is a process of incorporating views
of different team / group members to reach a common goal. The
discussion enables the participants to see and appreciate other
people’s point of view.

213. • About GDs:
– Normal Duration of a GD: 15 to 20 minutes
– Number of Panel members: Usually to 1 to 4
– Time for preparation: 2 to 5 minutes
– Seating arrangements: Circular or Semi-Circular
– Addressing the members: Dear friend/s, He, She
– When the topic is not clear: Do not ask the panel member. Wait for
someone to begin and learn.
– Language or Content: Content is preferred over the language. Use
examples and relevant data.
– How many times one can speak: 4 to 5 times in a span of 30 minutes.
– Language to be spoken: Only English
– GD is an elimination or selection process: Generally a selection process.
– If the group is asked to select a topic: Have a brainstorm session and
decide in 2 to 3 minutes time.
– Acceptable ways of interrupting somebody in a GD: Use the words, “I
agree with you but”.

214. Objectives of Group Discussion
• To arrive at a consensus
• To get feedback
• To know other person’s point of view
• To solve a problem
• To collect ideas
• To understand the situation
• To learn and train
• To inform and explain

215. Significance of Group Discussion
• It helps us to understand a subject more deeply.
• It improves our ability to think critically.
• It helps in solving a particular problem.
• It helps the group to make a particular decision.
• It improves the listening skills.
• It increases the confidence in speaking.
• It can change people’s attitudes.

216. Characters / Personality Traits tested in a Group Discussion
Group Discussion is conducted to assess if the candidates have the
following traits as expected in the workplace.
• Team Player: In the beginning of one’s career, a person has to work in a
group and only at a later stage he/she starts working as a leader
independently. Individuals lacking team skill cannot be good managers.
• Reasoning ability: It plays an important role while expressing one’s
opinions or ideas.
• Leadership quality: At times, one has to direct the group, facilitate the
situations, inspire individuals and guide in coming to a conclusion.
Address the group as a whole.
• Flexibility: One must be open to other’s ideas as well as to evaluation of
one’s ideas. It is advised that one should not start the group discussion
with a stand or conclusion, because one may have to change or alter.

217. • Assertiveness: One must put their views in a confident yet polite way.
• Initiative: One must be the first one in the group to initiate the group discussion.
But there is a risk involved in it, that is, if one is not well versed with the topic, it
can backfire them.
• Creativity: One should be able to think out of the box. If one’s ideas are open to
new horizons for the discussion in a group then it is always appreciated.
• Inspiring ability: When one find some team members want to express their ideas
but are not getting the chance to do so, give them a chance to speak will attract
the attention of both the participants and the evaluator.
• Listening: The bigger part of communication is listening. One must strike a balance
between expressing their ideas and listening to other’s ideas.
• Awareness: One’s awareness about the topic both at the micro and at the macro
level is assessed.
• Knowledge and ideas regarding the given subject
• Communication skills
• Self Confidence
• Logical thinking
• Sense of responsibility and sincerity
• Appropriate body language
• Proper eye contact with all the group members

218. Types of GDs
• Factual topics: Factual topics are about practical things, which an
ordinary person is aware of in his day-to-day life. Typically, these
are about socio-economic topics. A factual topic for discussion
gives a candidate a chance to prove that he is aware of and
sensitive to his environment. Example, The education policy of
India, The status of the aged in India.
• Controversial topics: Controversial topics are the ones that are
argumentative in nature. They are meant to generate controversy.
The idea behind giving a topic like this is to see how much
maturity the candidate is displaying by keeping his temper in
check, by rationally and logically arguing his point of view without
getting personal and emotional. Example, Reservations should be
removed, Women make better managers.

219. • Abstract topics: Abstract topics are about intangible things. These
topics test one’s lateral thinking (i.e. indirect or creative approach)
and creativity. Example, Smart work v/s Hard work, Food is more
important than Ethics.
• Case-based GD: Information about the situation will be given to
members and they can be asked as a group to resolve the
situation. In the case study there are no incorrect answers or
perfect solutions. The objective in the case study is to get
individuals to think about the situation from various angles.

220. Effective Planning
Planning is deciding in advance about a future course of
action. It is deciding what needs to be done, when and how it
needs to be done. It is the process of making assumptions
about the future and gathering facts in order to achieve the
objectives.
Effective planning is defined as the extensive and
complete designing and scheming of a project or action in
order to achieve certain objective.
Effective planning is completed using the following three
methods:
 Long term planning
 Short term planning
 Daily planning

221. Criteria of Effective Planning
• Simple: A good plan must be simple to understand and easy to put into action.
• Well defined objectives: A good plan is one in which objectives are clearly defined and
properly selected. It must be based on clear, concise, definite, and accurate objectives.
• Comprehensive: A good plan has to be comprehensive enough to cover all the action
required for the satisfactory fulfilment of the objective.
• Balanced: A good plan maintains a balance between goals and resources, between long
term and short term results, and between change and stability.
• Flexible: A good plan is capable for quick and smooth adjustment to changing
conditions. It should be responsive to the dynamic changes of the environment.
• Stable: Plan should not be changed too often.
• Economical: A good plan always achieves the goals at minimum cost.
• Practical: A plan must be capable of being implemented. It must be based on feasible
and realistic conditions.
• Participation: A good plan always involve participation of people.
• Written: Plans must be put in writing.
• Time bound: A good plan is time bound and action oriented.

222. Process to make a Life Plan
• Determine your priorities
– Consider what roles you play in the present
– Think about your future roles
– Think about your physical and emotional needs
– Write down your priorities
• Creating your Goals
– Consider your goals you want to accomplish during your
life time
– Figure out how you will accomplish your goals
• Writing your Plan
– Write down the actions you need to take to reach each of
your goals
– Review your life plan
• Take required Actions

223. Non Verbal Communication
• Non verbal communication can be defined as
communication that involves neither written nor spoken
words, but takes place without the use of words.
• In non verbal communication, we are concerned with the
non verbal aspects such as body language, space, time,
voice tone, voice pitch, general characteristics of
environment like color, layout and design, and any audio or
visual signals that communicator may devise.
• Non verbal communication involves the conscious and
unconscious processes of encoding and decoding. Culture
plays an important role in non verbal communication, and
it is one aspect that helps to influence the communication
and learning activities.

224. Types of Non-verbal Communication
• Kinesics (Body language- D ance)
• Proxemics (Space, Time and Surroundings)
• Paralanguage (Voice)
• Sign Language (Emoticons, Symbols)
• Haptics (Touch)
• Artifacts (Objects and Images, Physical Environment)
• Appearance (Dress and Grooming) (gives the idea of one’s personality)
• Chronemics (Time)
• Human Behaviour (transmission of thoughts, feelings through one’s
manner of action or behaviour)
• Charts, Maps and Graphs (pictorial representation of statistics and
information)
• Posters (Advertisements)
• Colors (Traffic Signals)
• Silence (Silence speaks louder than words) (Consent, Disagreement,
Indifference, Appreciation, Withdrawals)

225. Kinesics (Body Language)
The study of body language is known as Kinesics. Body language is an
important factors in oral or face-to-face communication. Much of the body
language is involuntary or unconscious, but it makes a powerful impact.
Types of Body language:
i. Postures: the position of the body (sitting, standing and lying down)
ii. Gestures: natural movement in any part of the human body (moving head,
legs, hands, fingers etc.)
iii. Facial expressions: individual emotions could be read (happy, sad, fear,
anger etc.)
iv. Eye contact (a sign of honesty)
v. Smile
vi. Silence
vii. Appearance
viii. Touch (shaking hands, hugs)

226. Proxemics
The language of time, space and surroundings is known as Proxemics.
This is very important for communication because proxemics completes
the process of communication through the use of surroundings and
distance.
i. Space language: In space language the nature of communication is
affected by the distance between two people.
Types of Space language
a. Intimate space language: The distance between two people should
not be more than 1.5 feet like in shaking hands.
b. Personal space language: The distance between two people ranges
from 1.5 feet to 4 feet like close friends.
c. Social space language: The distance between two people lies from
4 feet to 12 feet like in a meeting.
d. Public space language: The distance is more than 12 feet like in
Seminars, Conferences, public speech.

227. ii. Time language (i.e. Chronemics): In time language the people
connected with communication complete the process of
communication keeping the time limits in mind. The way a person
treats time reveals something about that person. Culture tells us
how to manipulate time in order to communicate different
messages. For instance, most people who have medical
appointments are expected to arrive early and wait patiently for
their doctor to see them. An invitation to a party is an entirely
different matter. It is often expected that most guests will arrive
“fashionably late”.
iii. Surroundings: Surroundings covers the environment of
communication and has the following parts:
a. Colour
b. Layout
c. Design

228. Paralanguage
Paralanguage is the study of voice or how the person speaks.
Main elements of Paralanguage:
i. Voice or tone: The tone of the person giving the message
tells about his behaviour and education.
ii. Pitch: Pitch means increasing or decreasing a tone.
iii. Speed of Voice
iv. Pause
v. Volume
vi. Proper Stress (or Highlighting)

229. Sign Language
Sign language is also known as audio-visual elements. In the
process of communication different signs are used to convey
different meanings. It includes different signs and symbols. These
signs are also described in words so that every one can
understand them. Colours and sounds are also used in sign
language.

230. Professional Grooming and Etiquette Skills
• Professional grooming and etiquette skills is targeted at
making the participants learn about behaviors that are
appropriate for the workplace.

231. Business Etiquettes
Etiquette, is an important part of personality and
business communication. All successful business
relationships rely significantly on personal contact, sharing
of mutual relationship and responsibility for each other’s
benefit. Etiquette is free, and is never employed to obtain
unscrupulous (i.e. illegal, immoral) advantage.
Courtesy, politeness and service are necessary in any
business and in personal relationships. Etiquette is the
ability to learn and use social skills to transact business
with thoughtful consideration.

232. The word ‘etiquette’ is a French word that conveys
an air of sophistication and time-honoured practices.
One should respect those with whom they conduct
business. A firm must deliver what they promise, keep
in touch, build the relationship and offer competent
service and reliable products, so that people will look
forward to work with them and will recommend them
to other business associates. People are attracted to
those who are kind, considerate, thoughtful, courteous,
respectful and interesting.

233. Business Etiquette is an integral part of different
countries’ and regions’ business culture. Etiquette
encompasses (i.e. include, cover) the prescriptive elements
of culture – the things people are expected to do and say, or
to avoid doing and saying. As the globalisation of industries
and marketplaces bring managers ever closer to unique
cultures around the world, it is more important than ever for
managers and small business owners to understand the
importance of business etiquette.
Knowledge of etiquette will help the businessman to
become more considerate, competent and a credible person
in the domain of business communication. It will enhance
the quality of his business dealings, leading to long-term
benefits by way of quality links.

234. Need for learning appropriate and polite ways to relate
to others in the business world is extremely important.
Whenever we meet with clients, we present an image of our
company and the way our company conducts its business
relationships. The ability to relate positively and
professionally to our colleagues and associates will place us
in the forefront of business.
Currently, we are under pressure to do more in less
time, without sacrificing the quality of our interactions and
amicability (pleasant to other people) with our colleagues
and clients. Our business survival against cut-throat
competition depends upon our knowledge and practice of
good manners. In fact, business etiquette is not constrained
by rigid conventions or rules. Thus, etiquette can be better
defined as guidelines for conducting business with grace,
charm, and confidence.

235. Features of Business Etiquettes
• Verbal and Non-Verbal communications are a large part of
etiquette.
• Communication styles, social customs / social taboo (social
customs to avoid doing that activity or talking about that
subject) topics and preferred speaking distances vary by
culture.
• Dress and appearance is another important facet (elements)
of etiquette. Business people are expected to dress
professionally, or at least to take cues from those around
them as to what is acceptable.
• Time sensitivity is another element of consideration. Some
cultures place emphasis on punctuality, and others see
punctuality as a sign of eagerness or even hastiness.

236. Types of Etiquettes
• Social Etiquette: Mannerisms, Communication and behaviour in
general. One needs to be polite and humble. Use language effectively.
Ask relevant and appropriate questions. Read newspapers regularly and
be socially aware. Give other people chance to speak and listen them.
Social etiquette conversations should be pleasant and short.
• Phone Etiquette: There are dos and donts involved under phone
etiquettes. Be courteous. The voice and choice of words over the phone
must be kind, polite, and clear. Before you begin your conversation
introduce yourself incase you are talking to the person for the first time.
Before speaking, take permission of the other person on the line
whether it is the right time to talk to them or not. Keep the subject
matter short.
• Email Etiquette: This is an important aspect in any organisational
communication. Be cautious while drafting e-mails for office purpose.
Be concise and to the point. Avoid long unclear emails. Use of grammar
and punctuation should be correct. Use correct spellings and do not use
the SMS language. Try and respond to emails faster. The subject line of
email is important.

237. • Dining Etiquette: Take small bites and do not chew your food with open
mouth. Do not talk with food in the mouth. Eat food with the use of
knife and fork. When using a finger bowl, do not put both the hands in
it. Only dip one hand at a time. Gently wipe hands with table napkins.
Do not put your elbows on the table, that is the sign of getting tired or
bored.
• Business / Workplace Etiquette: Be punctual. Respecting time is the
first sign of a good businessman or a professional. Maintain a planner to
avoid any sort of confusion or delay for a meeting. Avoid gossips.
Encourage ideas and consider other’s opinion. Be aware of what to
wear and not to wear in office. Keep clothing simple and comfortable
yet stylish. Pay attention to oral and written communication.
• Professional Etiquette: Actions and behaviour are important part of
professional etiquette. Always listen to fellow members or clients. Do
not be too aggressive. Be strong in your communication but present it
calmly. Be polite. Maintain a good body language and eye contact.

238. Significance of Business Etiquettes
• Business etiquette provides a standard framework within
which business people can operate as they communicate and
collaborate.
• Attention to etiquette is a sign of professionalism and respect
for others, and it can make positive first impression while
building trust among colleagues.
• Etiquette plays a large role in the business culture of different
countries and geographic regions. An attention to etiquette can
help inter-cultural business dealings to be as productive as
possible by bringing all parties together under a common
understanding.
• Collaboration of individuals with diverse experiences and
cultural backgrounds can bring the world’s brightest minds
together by providing a commonly understood framework for
social and workplace interaction.

239. Essential Practices of Business Etiquettes
In the business world, good manners is essential for getting
ahead. The essential practices of business etiquettes are:
i. Listening skills: This practice is very important in
communication. When others are speaking do not interrupt
them. Also practice an active listening technique.
ii. Meetings: To be on time in meetings, even reach a few minutes
early to meetings. Come prepared with pen and paper and other
documents.
iii. Attire: The way you dress impacts whether you have good
business etiquettes. Make sure that the clothes are clean and
properly ironed.

240. Stress Management
• Stress is a feeling of emotional, physical or mental tension caused by
either excess of efforts or by conflicting situations. Different people
consider different situations as stressful.
• Stress is what one feels when they have to handle more than they are
used to. Some stress is normal and even useful. Stress can help if one
needs to work hard or react quickly. For example, it can help a person to
win a race or finish an important job on time.
• When we are stressed, our body responds as though we are in danger. It makes
hormones that speed up our heart, make us breathe faster, and give us a burst
of energy.
• But if stress happens too often or lasts too long, it can have bad effects.
It can be linked to headaches, an upset stomach, back pain, and trouble
sleeping. It can weaken the immune system, making it harder to fight
off disease.

241. • If one is already having a health problem, stress may make it
worse. It can make person moody, tensed, or depressed.
Relationships may suffer, and one may not do well at work or
studies.
• Stress management consists of making changes to our life if
we are in a constant stressful situation, preventing stress by
practicing self care and relaxation and managing our response
to stressful situations when they do occur.
• Stress management is an important skill that everyone needs
in order to improve themselves as problem solvers and to be
more in control of their lives.

242. Types of Stress
• Good Stress / Positive Stress / Eustress
• Bad Stress / Negative Stress / Distress
• Acute Stress
• Episodic Acute Stress
• Chronic Stress
• Physical Stress
• Psychological Stress (emotional reactions)
• Psychosocial Stress (due to change in social situations)
• Psycho-spiritual Stress (relationship, financial, career pressures,
issues of life goals)

243. • Mental Stress
• Time Stress
• Anticipatory Stress (future based, ex. Upcoming event)
• Situational Stress
• Encounter Stress (due to your role which involves lot of
personal interaction)
• Traumatic Stress (past experience)
• Emotional Stress

244. • Good / Positive stress / Eustress: In such stress, excitement
is felt by people when they are confronted by a demanding
situation, which they think they can handle. This fills them
with thrill and excitement. Dr. Hans Selye, one of the first
to study the effects of stress, coined the term Eustress to
explain the positive, desirable stress that keeps life
interesting and helps to motivate and inspire. Positive
stress is essential for bringing zest to the life. Life without
any kind of stress will be very distressing indeed.
– Effects of Positive Stress:
• Target motivates us
• Challenge inspires us
• Provides an opportunity to prove
• Work better to a deadline
• Gives a positive emotional charge

245. • Bad / Negative stress / Distress: Distress refers to
the negative effects of stress that drain us of energy
and surpass our capacities to cope. When one lacks
the ability to handle the demands, the outcome is
negative. When stress exceeds one’s ability to cope,
this overload contributes to diminished
performance, inefficiency, and even health
problems.
– Effects of Negative stress:
• Become less efficient
• Deadlines makes us panic
• Forces to eat and drink

246. • Acute stress: Acute stress is the result of short-term
stressors, a stressor is the cause and stress is the effect. This
stress is usually quite intense, and then disappears
quickly. For example, imagine being out for a leisurely
evening walk, a street dog barks at you.
• Episodic Acute stress: This is the stress which affects
those who suffer from acute stress more frequently.
People that tend suffer from this always seem to be in
a rush. They take too much on stress and tend not to
be able to organise themselves to deal with demands
and pressures. They often blame their problems on
other people and external events. Example, persistent
tensions.

247. • Chronic stress: This is a long term stress
resulting from those nagging problems that
just don’t seem to go away. Chronic stress is
the response to emotional pressure suffered
for a prolonged period of time in which an
individual perceives he or she has little or no
control. Example, death of a loved one, loss of
job, loneliness, ongoing personal or marital
problems etc.

248. Causes of Stress
• Career Concern
• Role ambiguity
• Rotating work shifts
• Long working hours
• Poor management
• Unclear expectations of work
• No satisfaction at work
• Work overload
• Work underload
• Working under dangerous conditions
• Being insecure at workplace
• Facing discrimination or harrassment at work
• Lack of Group cohesiveness
• Organisational changes
• Lack of Social support
• Emotional traumas in personal life

249. Techniques of Stress Management
• Self understanding (understanding of our personality)
• Self management (managing things better)
• Conflict resolution
• Adopting a more Positive attitude
• Self talk
• Breathing exercises and Exercise
• Meditation
• Altering our diet
• Taking more regular and effective rest
• Learn to say ‘No’
• Do something we enjoy
• Writing about the things bothering us
• Let our feelings out through talk, laugh, cry, and express anger when we
need to.
• Focus on present
• Set priorities

250. Goal Setting
• A goal is a desired result or possible outcome that a person or a system
envisions, plans and commits to achieve.
• Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable,
relevant, and time bounded (SMART) objectives. It is a powerful
process for thinking about our ideal future, and for motivating our self
to turn our vision of the future into reality.
• A research done on goal setting by Edwin A. Locke and his colleagues
suggests that goal setting can serve as an effective tool for making
progress when it ensures that group members have a clear awareness
of what each person must do to achieve a shared objective.
• On a personal level, the process of setting goals allows individuals to
specify and then work towards their own objectives. Goal setting
comprises a major component of personal development and
management.
• Goals can be long-term, intermediate, or short term.

251. Personal Goals
• Individuals can set personal goals. For example, a
student may set a goal of a high mark in an exam.
• Managing goals can give returns in all areas of
personal life. Knowing precisely what one wants to
achieve makes clear what to concentrate and
improve on, and often subconsciously prioritizes that
goal.
• By setting clearly defined goals, one can
subsequently measure and take pride in the
accomplishment of goals.

252. Levels for Goal Setting
• Create a big picture of what one wants to do with his life,
like the next 10 years, and identify the long term goals that
one wants to achieve.
• Break down the long term goal into smaller targets that one
must hit to reach their lifetime goals.
• Once the plan is clear, start working on it to achieve these
goals.
Similarly we work down to the things that we
can do in, like next five years, then next year, next month,
next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

253. Steps for setting Personal Goals
• Setting Lifetime goals: The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what we
want to achieve in our lifetime. Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective
that shapes all other aspects of our decision making.
To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in our life, try to set
goals in some of the following categories:
– Career: What level do one wants to reach in his career, what one wants to achieve?
– Financial: How much do one wants to earn, by what stage? How is this related to
our career goals?
– Education: Is there any knowledge one wants to acquire in particular? What
information and skills will one needs to have in order to achieve other goals?
– Family: How do one wants to be seen as a member of the family?
– Etc.
• Setting smaller goals: Once we have set our lifetime goals, set a five year plan of
smaller goals that one needs to complete, then create a one year plan, six month plan,
and a one month plan of progressive smaller goals that one should reach to achieve
their lifetime goals. Then create a daily ‘To do list’ of things that one should do today to
work towards our lifetime goals.
• Stay on Course: Once it is decided our goals. then keep the process going by reviewing
and updating our do list on a daily basis.

254. Guidelines to set Effective and Achievable Goals
• Set the Lifetime plan: Career, Education, Family, Financial, etc.
• Set smaller goals to reach the lifetime plan: 10 year, 5 year,
one year, six months, one month, one week, each day, so on.
Create a daily ‘To do list’.
• State each goal as a positive statement
• Be precise
• Set priorities
• Write goals down
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals
• Set realistic goals
• Stay on course
• Review the plans and actions periodically

255. Team Building and Team Work
Teams are groups of people that share a common
purpose, to which they are all committed, and who are
empowered to set goals, solve problems and make decisions.
When a group of people in an organization work
together with energy and passion forms team spirit. Most
modern businesses are structured around teams.
Even those with highly individualized jobs like graphic design
and publishing need active co-operation among various
members of the organization for a final product to emerge.
It is critical for every member of the organization to
understand the concept of teamwork and to consider his or
her job as part of a team effort. Teamwork is based on a
company’s culture. Companies that encourage open, honest
communication and foster employee interaction are in a
better position to have good teamwork among employees.

256. Characteristics of an Effective Team
1: Identity: Strong teams have a clear identity,
often signified in a number of ways. Most
obviously a name, but also including budget,
venue/meeting place, uniform, logo, colour
scheme, language, rituals…
2: Shared values: Team members share similar
values, such as integrity, commitment to the
common task, and mutual support. These are
not imposed, but genuinely shared. The teams
should follow a transparent way of working for
the members.

257. 3: Complementary skills: There is an excellent mix
of complementary skills; within the team there is
the competence to get the job done to a high
standard. Everyone’s skill set is recognised,
valued and used.
4: Complementary roles: Based on Belbin’s work,
there is a balance of key roles - eg completer-
finisher, shaper, harmoniser. Too many with the
same role preference, or gaps, will diminish the
team’s effectiveness…

258. 5: Common goal, vision, purpose: The main focal point for the
team is some commonal mission, goal or purpose. Many
manufactured teams are created around achieving a specific
goal or outcome; but others - often more informal - are built
around other commonalities - eg shared values, or
friendships. It may be worth thinking of three types of
commonalities - not necessarily mutually exclusive:
commonality of destination, commonality of journey,
commonality of state.
• destination: team members want to achieve, a shared end
product, result, or goal
• journey: more important for the team members are to share
the journey -whatever the project, or goal they have. The
team members are less bothered about where they go, than
that they go there together

259. • state: The team members just share ‘being’ together; a
common of attitude, or state of mind.
6: Leadership: Strong teams have clear leadership. Some
teams can be self-managing also. But whatever the form
of leadership, it is known and supported by all team
members, and adds value to the functioning of the team.
7: Clear formal roles and responsibilities: Team members
will have absolute certainty who is specifically responsible
for what, either in terms of task completion, or formal
roles. Individual team members accept accountability for
their role and contribution; they will also tend to have
collective responsibility for whatever disagreements there
are within the team, they provide a united front externally.

260. 8: Clear and agreed ground rules: The team operates within an
agreed set of ground rules, which provides for team
discipline. These will include how the team makes decisions,
and how it deals with internal conflict and disagreement.
9: Non-insular: One team strength is a potential weakness, that it
becomes so internally strong that it loses touch with its
external world; it becomes precious, internally focused, and
risks becoming detached from ‘reality’. A truly strong team
welcomes external viewpoints and criticisms, and ensures it
stays genuinely in touch with its customers, stakeholders and
markets. (and avoids becoming smug or complacent)…
10: Celebratory: A strong team celebrates its successes, however
measured. These celebrations are a way of bonding and
reaffirming the team’s identity and culture, and possibly
attracting new members…

261. Types of Teams
i. Problem solving team: A problem-solving team is a temporary, cross-functional group of
people who come from different departments, and possess different roles, skills and
interests. A fast, permanent solution to a specific problem is the problem-solving team’s
priority.
ii. Work Group / Self managing: Work groups are often permanent teams that meet
regularly. They are primarily self-managing, as each team member’s accountability to the
group encourages active participation.
iii. Quality team / Cross functional: Quality teams, also known as quality circles or excellence
teams, take a methodical approach to identify and resolve workflow issues that have a
negative and ongoing impact on the organization's efficiency and working conditions.
Although quality teams generally are temporary, the scope of the issues they address
determine whether they’re short-term or ongoing. Quality teams are often cross-
functional. They bring a unique perspective that may be overlooked by management.
iv. Virtual team: Technology allows people to participate in an organization's activities
regardless of their geographic locations. Virtual teams communicate online, through
various conferencing and collaboration technologies.
v. Department / Functional team: Department teams are permanent and typically work on
ongoing projects or goals. As a department team, individuals relate to specialty or focus he
has mastered, with everyone working toward achieving goals outlined in the company’s
mission statement.

262. • Project team: Project teams are groups of employees who work
collectively toward shared goals. This type of team allow to
structure work in a specific, measurable, and time-constrained
way. One can assign clear roles, responsibilities and deadlines.
• Matrix team: These teams are characterized by a ‘two-boss
system’, where an individual report to a different manager for
various aspects of the work.

263. Team Spirit
• Team spirit is the feeling of pride and loyalty that exists among the
members of a team and that makes them want their team to do well or to
be the best. This is the willingness among team members to cooperate as
part of a team.
Characteristics of Team Spirit:
• Sense of Purpose: Team spirit is essential to achieve a clear, specific goal
need sense of purpose.
• Competency: All teams should consist of members who are capable of
contributing to the achievement of the goal.
• Cooperative Spirit: All members need to work together to achieve the
specific goal.
• Playing by the rules: Team should also have a set of rules that determines
its operating procedures.
• Accountability: Team must ultimately be held accountable as a whole for
their failure as well as their success.

264. Importance of Team Spirit
• Team spirit is willingness to cooperate as part of a team.
• Team spirit is essential for better bonding among employees and
getting better output.
• All team members are responsible for getting success of a work.
• Team spirit has a faster pace than an individual work.
• Team spirit improves the ability of individuals to work together
and boosts morale.
• Team spirit creates synergy in the organisation.
• It supports a more empowered way of working in an organized
manner.
• It fosters flexibility and responsiveness, especially the ability to
respond to change.

265. Creating Team Spirit in the Workplace
• Teamwork is based on company’s culture. Companies that encourage
open, honest communication and foster employee interaction are in a
better position to have good teamwork among employees.
• Team spirit comes from the top management. Building effective teams
with the right attitude emanates (i.e. source, comes from) from the
highest levels of an organisation.
• Team members function best when their individual contributions to the
team are recognized. This, in turn, leads to a strengthening of the team
spirit among its individual members.
• Encourage open communication among team members and
management. Solicit (i.e. persuade, bring about, endeavor, attempt) ideas
and suggestions from team members on ways to better achieve the
team’s goals.

266. Negotiation
• Negotiation is a form of meeting or discussion between two parties to reach an
agreement acceptable to both of them. Negotiation is reached through
discussion not through power/ influence/ authority/ orders or instruction.
• Negotiation is a conflict resolution strategy between two or more parties in
which discussion takes place at pre-decided time and place with a fixed agenda
and an agreement is reached for the benefit of both the parties.
• The purpose of the negotiation is to arrive at an agreement that will satisfy
both the parties.
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009:1167) defines negotiation
in the following words: “Official discussion between the representatives of
opposing groups who are trying to reach an agreement, especially in business
or politics”.
• Graham defines negotiation as ‘a face-to-face decision making process
between parties concerning a specific product’.
• The Oxford Dictionary of Business defines negotiation as the process to reach
an agreement through discussion.
• The Winston’s Simplified Advanced Dictionary defines negotiation as, ‘the
discussion and bargaining that goes on between parties before a contract is
settled or a deal is definitely agreed upon’.

267. Types of Negotiation
• Formal negotiation
– Predetermined meeting of the two parties.
– The agenda of the meeting is fixed.
– Two or more persons involved in the meeting.
– Both the parties have time to prepare for the meeting. They can also assign the
task to each member of the party as to who will lead the discussion; who will
be a trouble shooter in case of a deadlock and who will help in case some
important point is not included in the discussion.
– It is simpler to deal with because there is time to study the total situation. It
also gives time to study the strengths and weaknesses of the other party.
• Informal negotiation
– An unplanned meeting with other party.
– It is casual.
– Only two persons participate.
– Since it is unannounced, it gives no time for pre-study of the issue.
– It also gives no time to the participants to study strengths and weaknesses of
the other party.

268. Factors affecting Negotiation
• Place of meeting: The place of meeting should be suitable to
both the parties. This means the other party should be willing
to come to the place chosen by the first party. In any case, the
place of meeting is generally decided by mutual consent.
• Time of the meeting: The time of the meeting should be fixed
in such a way that it is convenient to both the parties. The time
decided for the meeting should be sufficient to hold the
meeting comfortably and conveniently and the parties
concerned do not have to rush through the meeting. They
should be able to discuss all the points in detail and do not feel
that there was a shortage of time for the meeting.
• Personal relationship of parties: The personal relationship
between both the parties plays an important role. if it is sweet
and friendly, the outcome of the meeting is likely to be
positive . If it is strained, it will affect the outcome.

269. • Personal likes and dislikes
• Persuasion