International Journal of Computer & Organization Trends – Volume 5 – February 2014
Soft Skills and Professionalism – The Need of The Hour. R. Suresh Kumar, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, PSNA College of Engineering and Tech, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu
Abstract: In the era of globalization, Professionalism is sought everywhere. Anyone who utters the term Professionalism cannot miss Soft Skills which are embedded into it. For to be a good professional one has to be a master of Soft Skills. There are many who mistake Professionalism for how one performs in his/her profession and communication skills for employability skills. In short, Professionalism is not defined by the position held by someone. It encompasses many qualities such as the inner character, what individuals do: behavior exhibited and how others perceive the individual. This paper makes an attempt in explaining the hidden qualities of the term Professionalism and Soft skills, and the importance of teaching them to the students. Keywords Globalization,Professionalism,Soft Skills,Communication skills,Employability skills
Introduction “All composite things decay, strive diligently” said Buddha. His words are true in every aspect of life, especially in earning a living. In this competitive world, earning a living is getting more and more difficult and the world can accommodate only those who are fit to compete. Human beings do have
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‘n’ number of choices to make the competition success. But the number of those who are successful in their profession is not many since, our educational system, from which students brew knowledge (professional skills), fails to teach them the true concept of Professionalism. Be it Professional Education or Arts and Science the current system of teaching is not successful in molding their students with regard to the corporate expectations. Soon after school education aspirants (students), aspiring for a brighter future joins higher education. Presently, more number of students opt for professional education after their schooling, hoping that they will make better competitors in future. But the painful fact is that most of them fail to be so. In recent times graduates, both from Professional education and Arts and Science, prefer I.T based jobs than teaching and core companies. This is because, in their view, it offers a better life style and living. At this juncture, The National Employability Study 2011 conducted by Aspiring Mind Research Cell has come to say that graduates from Tamil Nadu are the least employable in comparison with other states in India. Though this report is criticized to be supporting the colleges running in North India, no one can deny the fact behind the report. The report says that Colleges in Tamil Nadu are not teaching Professionalism to their students and that results in generating a bunch of human resource without employable skills every year. This is because most educational institutions oversight the term Employable
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International Journal of Computer & Organization Trends – Volume 5 – February 2014 Skills and misunderstands it to be Communication Skills. Though Communication skills are a must to get placed in any corporate, it is just one of Employable Skills. As a result of this misunderstanding they only teach profession and not Professionalism to their students.
Soft Skills and Professionalism To produce employable graduates, every educational intuition must be aware of the term Professionalism and that should be a part of their teaching. When there is a talk on Professionalism, Soft Skills cannot be skipped because of the fact Professionalism and Soft Skills are interrelated. Analyzing the term Professionalism, proves that one needs to be a master of Soft Skills to be a true professional. Whatever people do to earn a living is their profession, but Professionalism is how people do their profession and that is why Professionalism is not just defined by the position held by someone, rather, it is who they are: the inner character, what they do: behavior exhibited and how others perceives them: image projected. Character or the inner self is exhibited through behavior and technically known as projecting the self. Studies have proved that Character (self) is the molded outcome of knowledge, which means the word self or character is a combination of knowledge and behavior. What is projected is what is observed by others (society) and this forms the basis for how others perceive, and here comes Soft Skills as it deals with the art of projecting the self (knowledge + behavior). Soft Skills are different from hard skills. Whatever one has learned from childhood to till date falls under the category of hard skills. To put in a nutshell, the knowledge possessed by someone is what is called his/her hard skills. This is like differentiating the hardware and software of a computer. The visible and expensive physical part of a computer is its hardware; on the other hand the invisible and less
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expensive part of a computer is its software. The important point to be noted here is that the visible and expensive hardware cannot be utilized unless we install the invisible and less expensive software. This only explains the importance of the software than the hardware of a computer. But when there is a question in which way this comparison is relevant to us in understating the human hard skills and Soft Skills, the researcher can say that it has a greater relevance. As discussed earlier, knowledge possessed by a human being is his/her hard skill. The way it is exhibited or projected to the world is what Soft Skills are. The stress is on the word “the way” because, how something is done shows a person’s knowledge on that particular field. To be short, every action of a human being is a soft skill, the way of dressing, the way of walking, the way of talking on something etc. Unless and until anybody learns to express or exhibit (Soft Skills), his/her knowledge (hard skills) there is no use of their hard learned hard skills as in the case of hardware and software of a computer. The above analysis on the terms Soft Skills and Professionalism proves that they are highly interconnected and to become a true professional, one has to be a master of Soft Skills. In general, there are more than 64 Soft Skills. The ability to solve an arithmetic problem itself is a soft skill. But not all of them are related to Professionalism as Professionalism matters only with the profession and the professional that is, how a professional is doing his/her profession. The focus is on the person itself with regard to his/her profession. The relation between Professionalism and Soft Skills can be narrowed down to just 5 Soft Skills and they are 1. Empathy – Art of understanding others. 2. Intrapersonal communication skills – Art of communicating to the self or thinking.
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International Journal of Computer & Organization Trends – Volume 5 – February 2014 3. Interpersonal communication skills – Art of communicating to the world. 4. Negotiation skills – Art of convincing others. 5. Problem solving skills – Art of solving problems. To start with, of all the 5 Soft Skills, Empathy comes first. It is the ability of a human being to understand others’ feelings. It carries more importance than the rest because; this is the skill which differentiates human beings from animals. In any profession, Empathy plays an important role as understanding the customer, colleagues and the employer forms the basis of the profession. On understanding their needs, the professional can serve them better and in this way Empathy becomes an essential soft skill in becoming a true professional. Next to Empathy, Communication skills are most essential for a professional. Communication is a form of interaction between humans to convey messages of different kinds. Messages can be structured to inform, convince and can even function as a medium for people to form bonds and judge other individuals. Thus, having effective communication is important to attain these goals and create good reputations. Whether it’s written or verbal, the ability to communicate a message accurately is extremely important. Whether or not, the receiver understands what was intended by the speaker will have an effect not only on the conversation but also the relationship. Individuals that have mastered the art of communicating are often able to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships on a personal level. Professionally, they are able to communicate more effectively with both their colleagues and clients. When employers are asked what today’s workers lack most (both college graduated and those that haven’t completed college), one of the most often noted, is in the area of communication. Workers have a difficult time accurately conveying their
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message, whether spoken or written. In interpersonal relationships, the stakes may be even higher. Relationships are often ruined when those involved, are unable to craft and deliver messages in the way in which they are intended. Miscommunication or misunderstanding of the conveyed message is due to shortage of both intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills. When there has to be a communication, intrapersonal communication comes first and it has to be followed by interpersonal communication. Because, intrapersonal communication deals with the art of thinking within. In any form of communication, the sender (speaker or writer) has to think of what he/she is going to share. Once it is decided, the next step should be to choose an appropriate mode of expression and here comes interpersonal communication skills as it deals with the art of expression. Therefore by inculcating the art of intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills, one can become a true professional. Problem solving is a fixture in life. One has to be able to solve problems. Problems pop up every day. Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are large. At sometimes, solving a problem is a matter of life and death and at other times, it is merely a matter of keeping our sanity. Regardless of why we need problem solving, we cannot deny that we need it. As far as any profession is concerned, it has plenty of problems and it is up to the employer and the employees to find a way to solve those problems. Sometimes one has to be creative because problems that come up can sometimes be quite difficult to solve without a little creative thinking. Having problem solving/reasoning skills will enable individuals to approach their profession or any other activity with greater confidence. It allows people to interpret their results correctly and support conclusions with valid arguments.
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International Journal of Computer & Organization Trends – Volume 5 – February 2014 People run into problems every day, from flat tires to saving a failing product line, where they are problem solvers and they probably do not even realize it. It is common for people to take problem solving for granted. People do it so much that it is not hard to believe that it becomes second nature. It is this familiarity with problem solving that leads to taking it for granted and to not being creative in problem solving anymore. When anybody thinks about how they solved problems when they were children, chances are that they were much more creative then. Now people tend to go straight to the tried and trusted methods instead of trying innovative things. The problem with this, though, is that taking problem solving for granted can make individuals lazy in problem solving. People may no longer spend time trying to solve a problem but rather go to a tried and trusted solution. It may not be the best solution but since being lay problem solvers people do not take the time to use their problem solving skills to try to come up with a better solution. Problem solving can be an amazing process, but it is up to the individuals to make it that way. Every individual has the ability to become great problem solvers, but they have to begin looking at it as an art and when a professional do so, he/she becomes better. Negotiation is actually a part of problem solving skills, since, most people find problems to be as big as a mountain. Negotiation is a technique employed to avoid conflicts and decide something which would benefit all. Individuals negotiate with each other and try to find a solution satisfying all. Negotiation is not possible unless and until individuals learn to compromise to certain extent and stop finding faults with each other. Professionals must know how to negotiate well to successfully close deals, avoid conflicts, better relations among the
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employees and making the organization a better place to work. An individual spends his/her maximum time at the workplace and thus it is important that he/she is relaxed and tension free for better concentration and output. If individuals do not agree with their team members, do not fight with them, it is always better to negotiate and find a solution which would make all of them happy. One cannot afford to have enemies in his/her organization, thus negotiation is really essential in corporate. Soft Skills are otherwise known as life skills, Professionalism is just one precious output. Professionals without the 5 essential Soft Skills can never be successful in their profession. True professionals can be molded only through Soft Skills or in other words, one can become a professional only through Soft Skills. Considering this fact, Educational institutions must teach Professionalism and Soft Skills to their students to form a basis for a better future for them.
Bibliography Stenson,James. Professionalism and Workplace Savvy. Web. 12 Jan. 2012 India. Communication Skills today.Web. 12 Jan. 2012 India. Aspiringminds Report: National Employability Report Engineers 2011. Mumbai: 15 Jan. 2012
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