Soft Skills and Effective

Communication Skills
Priorities - Activity
 Rate your five priorities form one to
five.
can use below examples, and can also
add more of your choice.
n Career
n Personality
n Friends
n Family
Workshop Contents
Workshop Objectives

1. Introduction to ‘Soft Skills’

2. Effective Communication Skills.

What do recruiters look for in a
candidate?

 Technical Skills

 Soft Skills
 Technical Skills

Technical skills teach one how to meet



the expectations of the job.

It is not possible to survive in a job



without sound technical skills.

 Content
 What are Soft skills?
 Importance of Soft Skill
 Important Soft Skills?
Communication skills
Body language
Making Decisions
Self Motivation
Leadership Skills
Team-Working Skills
Creativity and Problem Solving Skills
Time Management
 What are Soft skills?

 Soft skills is a synonym for "people skills." The term

describes those personal attributes that indicate a high
level of emotional intelligence.
 Unlike hard skills, which describe a person's technical
skill set and ability to perform specific tasks, soft skills
are broadly applicable across job titles and industries.
 It's often said that hard skills will get you an interview
but you need soft skills to get -- and keep -- the job.
 What are ‘Soft Skills’?

‘Soft Skills’ are essentially people skills -the

non-technical, intangible, personality-
specific skills.

‘Hard skills’, on the other hand, are more

along the lines of what might appear on
your resume - your education, experience
and level of expertise.
 Skills that qualify as soft skills
Communication
Skills – Oral &
Problem Solving Skills Leadership Skills
Written
Time Management Assertiveness

Interpersonal Analytical Thinking Ability to work

Skills under pressure
Team work
Personal Conflict Resolution
Grooming Self Awareness
Initiative
Flexibility
Integrity Decision Making

Listening Skills Creativity

Work Ethics
Risk Taking
Skills Commitment Diplomacy
Importance of Soft Skill
 Soft skill are very important
o To handle interpersonal relations
o To take appropriate decisions
o To communicate effectively
o To have good impression and impact to
gain professional development
Soft skills are

Place for Quote soft skill

Importance of soft skills
 Technical skills Vs. Soft Skills

Both technical and soft skills complement

each other and the balance between these
two is what makes a complete professional
Now let’s look at one of the most
important soft skill……
 Effective Communication Skills

COMMUNICATION SKILLS IS A DIFFRENTIATOR, ITS

AN ENABLER… ITS AN ASSET…
All things remaining equal , communication skills can
set you apart from competition

Laptop-memory-monitor
 COMMUNICATION WORKS FOR THOSE FOR THOSE WHO
WORKS AT IT …
 Human beings gets results based on their priorities ….
EXAMPLE… Make Communication skills your priority … no force
in the world can stop you from improving …GET OBSESSED ..
 WE HUMANS ARE EMOTIONAL BEINGS ….WORDS HAVE
POWER… HAVE SOME ONE’S WORDS EVER MADE , YOU CRY ,
MADE YOU LAUGH, TOUCHED YOUR EMOTIONS.
 ITS NOT ABOUT , WHAT YOU SAY , ITS MORE ABOUT , HOW
YOU SAY IT 😊 find example
 Timing , voice tone , facial expressions, your energy levels,
 Good English Vs Good Communication skills
 Good communication – DOES NOT mean Good ENGLISH skills-
 English – BHASA , Communications – KALA (Ex- Good English but no
participation )
 Communication – an ART that can be learnt , can be Developed .
 English – can also be learnt
 Misconception- Learn Words from Dictionary and Keep inserting in your
communication. 😊
 My Advice- TRY LEARNING THE ART OF COMMUNICATION FIRST, it can be
developed just like a muscle…. ideally start with your mother tongue---
 Communication is not just speaking
 Spoken part is just 7% of the communication.
MAKING EYE-CONTACT ,
BODY LANGUAGE ,
VOICE MODULATION ,
TONALITY ,
BEING PROACTIVE (YOUR FULL BODY/PERSONALITY SPEAKS IN
COMMUNICATION SKILLS ,
IT ALSO INCLUDES YOUR BEHAVIOUR SKILLS – LIKE BEING PROACTIVE
(plz note , English is not very important there, side by side , one can keep
investing and improving English.. Keep a Journal , Make CUE Cards)
What you Hear is what you learn
 Go back to your Childhood
 HOW DO KIDS LEARN.. THEY LEARN BY OBSERVING… WE HAVE TO ALSO LEARN BY
OBSERVING….
 TO SPEAK , YOU HAVE TO LISTEN FIRST….
 Immersion – Neurons in Brain are NeuroPlastic-(ABILTIY OF BRAINS TO CREATE NEW
NEURAL COMMECTIONS) regardless of the age ,,, you can learn a new skill…YOUR BRAIN
CHANGES ACCORDING TO YOUR PRIORITIES..
 Kids have early exposure… they start thinking in the same language .. that’s mother
language .. (you noticed,,, when we are stuck ,,, or in pressure , one will only remember
the hindi words…)
 Cartoon Pepper Pig-Proper British English.. early exposure gives you a head start…
 INCREASES YOUR READINGS, WRITE DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS,
WATCH GOOD COMMUNICATORS… LISTEN TO PODCAST, LISTED TED-eX VIDEOS..
 KEY - WE LEARN ONLY WHAT WE SEE AND ADMIRE
NO FREE LUNCHES- “LAW OF PAYING THE PRICE”
 “LAW OF PAYING THE PRICE” Nothing is FREE , More the quality , more you have to pay
for it.
 EXAMPLE- a celebrity going to GYM, with Bodyguards , well built, pistol , one holding
Towel, Other holding water, protein shake ….. BUT THE PUSH-UPS WOULD HAVE TO BE
DONE BY HIM ONLY 😊 …. No matter how rich or how influential your father is … you
cannot pay some one to do Push-Ups for you…… Learn to do your own Push-Ups 😊 …
 Hard work and Efforts goes in developing Communication skills …. PLEASE NOTE THERE
ARE NO SHORT-CUTS TO MASTERY /EXPERTISE !! it takes , time , hard work , efforts,
patience …. You might not get quick success… just hold on …
 You need someone to learn from .. find out who’s your ROLEMODEL , whose
communication you admire the most.. which POLITICIAN , which NEWREPORTER, which
PROFESSOR , who are good at the ART of PUBLIC SPEAKING…
 Notice an Learn that ART , Hows a person ENGAGING AND INFLUENCING his audience…
 Words are just enablers…. HOWARD STUDY – COMMUNICATION IS JUST 7% WORDS…
 START WITH YOURSELF…START WITH A MIRROR… IMAGINE YOURSELF AS THE BEST
COMMUNCIATOR…. GO STEP BY STEP .. GROW BABY STEPS …EACH DAY
 BEST WAY TO LEARN IS MAKE YOURSELF ..UNCOMFORTABLE…..EACH DAY ….
ROUTE TO MASTERY
 STAGES OF MASTERING A SKILL (explain with a parallel example of car
driving/cooking)
 Unconscious-Incompetent ,, ignorance is bliss
 (very IMP) Conscious (about the skill) – Incompetent (GREATER AWARENESS-
AWARENESS IS THE FIRST STEP OF CHANGE)
 Gets Conscious of the skills and starts acquiring Competency by putting efforts.
 Stage of Knowing – UNCONSCIOS COMPETENCY !! , IT FLOWS
AUTOMATICALLY FROM INSIDE….THAT’S MASTERY
 PERSISTENCE … keep investing in efforts , it takes time to be created as a
MASTER PIECE …ex= plant a seed, working out at GYM …
 JOB IS TO PUT IN THE EFFORTS…
 SECRET OF SUCCESS- SOCRATES AND DISCIPILE STORY (WATER)… WANT IT
SO BAD AS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH….
STAGES TO MASTERY….
 STAGES TO MASTERY….
 1. Immersion… IS IMPORTANT TO COMPENSATE LACK OF EARLY
EXPOSURE…compared to young kid …peppa pig.. you may have missed that
stage ,,but can redo it consciously
 i) Know your dominant learning style …. Read, listen , experiment …
 ii) Find a support group.. toast master
 iii) Fire ur mental faculty from all directions- audio , video, read , podcast .
events, WRITE PLEASE(IT’LL FIRE YOUR ORIGINALITY AND NOVALITY 😊 )
 iv) Consciously , collect your content for the week… audio books, reading
material …etc
  
  
STAGES TO MASTERY….
 2. VMR (visual mental rehearsal , rehearse mentally and get comfortable
with situation..if MIND S READY…. BODY WILL FOLLOW, understand and believe
the power of this ) techniques for the Athletes , stage performers, stand up
comedians (let your audience taste the sweet taste of success and make them
imagine …) BELIEVE IN THE IMAGE , BELIEVE YOURSELF ,IT WILL SLOWLY
START BECOMING IN THE REALITY… THERE ARE MANY FUTURE LEADERS
AND MILLANERS SITTING IN THIS ROOM…
 i) Example for english/communication skills… PRETEND TO BE A NEWS
ANCHOR
 Selling Skills – Upselling and Cross selling
 ii) Use it for any new , stress full situation .. interviews, public speaking ,
stage exposure..
  
STAGES TO MASTERY….
 3) Play the game (NOT TRY TO WIN THE GAME, YOURE NOT THERE TO
PROVE SOMETHING)- START with some example- cricket…… more you stay in
the game , better you become.
 Put your skin in the game.. ncholas book
 MARTINA NAVRATILOVA- the more I realize how better I can get , the more I
push to Improve my self…its addictive
 4) REVIEW….love making mistakes….dont be afraid…make mistakes, but
always make new mistakes only… repeating old mistakes is a sin.
 Take feedback , review… create your confidence to a level that REJECTION is
not a big deal.
 Ability to take initiative is key component to success
 DON’T BE HARSH WITH YOU , GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME
TOTAL COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Writing
9% Speaking
30%
Reading
16%

Listening
45%
 COMMUNICATION
 7% WORDS
 Words are only labels and the
listeners put their own
interpretation on speakers words
 38% PARALINGUISTIC
 The way in which something is
said - the accent, tone and
voice modulation is important
to the listener.
 55% BODY LANGUAGE
 What a speaker looks like while
delivering a message affects the
listener’s understanding most.
TYPES OF BODY LANGUAGE
Remember that you are dealing with “PEOPLE”

 (P)OSTURES & GESTURES

 How do you use hand gestures? Stance?
 (E)YE CONTACT
 How’s your “Lighthouse”?
 (O)RIENTATION
 How do you position yourself?
 (P)RESENTATION
 How do you deliver your message?

 (L)OOKS
 Are your looks, appearance, dress important?
 (E)PRESSIONS OF EMOTION
 Are you using facial expressions to express emotion?
 Now let’s look at each one of them in detail….
How to control fear

 Take a deep breath, relax and be yourself

 Focus on the
 Listener (not yourself)

 Message (not words)

 Success (not alternatives)

 Visualize a positive outcome

 Do your homework, know what you want to say
 Keep negative thoughts under control
Making Decisions

 Valued by employers for many reasons,

being able to make decisions is key to
getting on in life.
 Sometimes the actual decision doesn’t
even matter; what matters is that you
have made one and moved on.
Self Motivation
 People who are self-motivated get on by
themselves.
 They don’t need close supervision and
they are good to work with because they
are generally positive about life and can
be counted upon to keep going.
 It also helps to work on your personal
resilience and adaptability to change.
Leadership
 Leadership is a soft skill you can show even
if you’re not directly managing others.
 Leadership can be thought of as a
collection of various other soft skills, such
as a general positive attitude and outlook,
the ability to communicate effectively, and
an aptitude for both self-motivating and
motivating others.
Team-Work
 Like leadership, good teamwork involves a
combination of other soft skills.
 Working in a team towards a common
goal requires the intuition and
interpersonal acumen to know when to be
a leader, and when to be a listener.
 Good team players are perceptive, as well
as receptive to the needs and
responsibilities of others.
Creativity and Problem-
solving
 Creativity and problem-solving skills are highly
valued because they are hard to develop.
 There are many people who believe that
creative thinkers are born, not made, and there
are certainly some people who find these skills
much easier.
 But, like other skills, you can develop them if
you work to do so and our pages on these
topics will give you some ideas about how to do
this.
Time Management and Ability to
work under pressure

 Many would say that these two skills, which

often go hand-in-hand, are more an attitude
than a skill.
 However they can also be developed and
honed, which is why we include them as
skills.
 Highly valued by employers, they are also
very useful for organising a family or a team,
and for making sure that the job gets done.
 Establish eye contact with the listener

 Very important to get feedback for non verbal

cues

 Helps you to adjust your conversation

according to the visual feedback you get

 For example, if you get a quizzical look, you

can clarify or ask questions to ensure proper
understanding by the listener
Listening skills
 We may listen for comprehension, as in a lecture
where we are attending to ideas, facts or themes.
Sometimes we practice evaluative listening when we
need to make a judgement, as in the recent
discussions on the Nice Treaty. At other times we
listen empathically, when someone is trying to be
understood and heard while many times we are just
practicing appreciative listening, for pleasure (Hayes,
1991).
Listening Skills
 In active listening the key is our intention - to understand
someone, to learn something, to give help or comfort.
 It also involves the ability to take in the whole message,
accepting what is said without judging, understanding not only
the words spoken but also the feelings that underlie the word.
 Have belief in your message
 The crux of successful communication

 Speak with conviction and passion

 Be as natural as you can be with your feelings, body

language and tone

 Show enthusiasm

 Avoid faking or putting on an act

Use gestures effectively

 Gestures are facial expressions, hand and

body movements used in communication

 They make the communication process livelier

 They can be used to support or emphazie a

point
 Reiterate major points

 Reinforces your main points and enables

information retention by the listener
 Know what you want to emphazise
 Reiterate it during the conversation in different
ways
 Ask the listener for feedback tactfully
 Frame questions to ensure that the listener has
understood your main points
 Handle objections

 To avoid future barriers in the communication process

 Avoid quick judgements. Put yourself in the other’s
shoes.
 Be fair in handling objections.
 Understand that objections are not personal attacks
and are against a point being made
 Do not get emotional
 You can pre-empt an objection and support it with
your points
 What you can do to be a better
communicator
 Increase your vocabulary
 Read – no shortcuts here
 Keep up-to-date with current events
 Read inspirational books
 Avoid audible pauses like “ah”, “er”, “um”
 Practice pronouncing words properly
 Speak neither too slowly nor too fast
 Watch the tone of your voice
 Adjust the volume of your voice according to the situation
 Get to the point quickly
 Use gender neutral language
 Illustrate with personal examples
 Be concise and simple
 Simple tips to improve your English
communication skills
 Watch an English news channel everyday – NDTV,
Headlines Today, etc
 Pay attention to the way words are pronounced
 Helps to increase your general knowledge indirectly
 Read an English newspaper everyday
 if possible read loudly by locking yourself in a room
 Helps you to hear and understand how you pronounce words
 Make it a point to speak to your friends/siblings in
English at home/college.
 Begin reading light fiction if you do not have the
habit of reading books.
 COMMUNICATION GAME # 1
RULE:
 Make a group of Four.
 Sequentially assign a number to every individual.
 1 representative Pick up on chit from the lot.
 Memorize the sentence and return the chit.
 Go back and utter the sentence to the 2nd person.
 No one else should hear the sentence.
 Then the 2nd person should utter it to the 3rd person and
so on.
 The last person should announce the sentence to all.
 And 1st person reads the chit.
WHAT DID WE LEARN?

 Only verbal communication can create chaos while

it reaches the last person.

 Every person’s thought process influences the

individual understanding.

So be an active listener......
Questions???
Thank You!