S.Y.

MCA
(TWO YEARS PATTERN)
SEMESTER - II (CBCS)

SOFT SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT LAB

SUBJECT CODE:MCAL22
 © UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

Prof. Suhas Pednekar

Vice-Chancellor,
University of Mumbai,

Prof. Ravindra D. Kulkarni Prof. Prakash Mahanwar

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Director,
University of Mumbai, IDOL, University of Mumbai,

Programme Co-ordinator : Shri Mandar Bhanushe

Asst. Prof. cum Asst. Director in Mathematics,
IDOL, University of Mumbai, Mumbai.
Course Co-ordinator : Mr. Shyam Mohan T
Dept.of MCA,
IDOL, University of Mumbai, Mumbai

Course Writers : Ms.Yogita Kandalgaonkar

Lecturer,
Shri. S. H. Kelkar College.

: Mrs.Maria Achary
Asst. Professor,
Smt. Jayshree Sharadchandra Kothari
Business School.

: Mrs. Swati Kaustubh Kulkarni

Research Scholar Applied Electronics
Department Gulbarga University.

April 2022, Print - I

Published by : Director
Institute of Distance and Open Learning ,
University of Mumbai,
ipin Enterprises Vidyanagari, Mumbai - 400 098.
Tantia Jogani Industrial Estate, Unit No. 2,
Ground Floor, Sitaram Mill Compound,
DTP Composed & : Mumbai UniversityMarg,
J.R. Boricha Press Mumbai - 400 011
Printed by Vidyanagari, Santacruz (E), Mumbai
 CONTENTS
Unit No. Title Page No.

Module - I
1. Soft Skills Introduction 01

Module - II
2. Communication 17

Module - III
3. Written communication 28

Module - IV
4. Presentation techniques 43

Module - V
5. Effective public speaking 54

Module - VI
6. Group Discussion 67

Module - VII
7.1 Personal Interview 81

7.2 Verbal and non-verbal communication 96


 F.Y.MCA, SM -II
Soft Skills Development Lab
Syllabus

Module No Detailed Contents Hrs

1 Soft Skills Introduction: 2

Soft-Skills Introduction What is Soft
Skills? Significance of Soft-Skills –
Soft-Skills Vs. Hard Skills - Selling
Soft- Skills – Components of Soft Skills
– Identifying and Exhibiting Soft-Skills
Self Learning Topics: Types of Soft, Hard
Skills

2. Communication : 03
Concept and meaning of communication,
methods of communication, verbal and
non-verbal communication, techniques to
improve communication. Communication
in a business organization: Internal
(Upward, Downward, Horizontal,
Grapevine). External Communication, 7
C’s of communication. Active Listening,
Differences between Listening and
Hearing, Critical Listening, Barriers to
Active Listening, Improving Listening,
Intercultural sensitivities, Business
etiquette when dealing with people from
different nationalities
Practical (Role plays, case studies)
Self LearningTopics :Problems/Barriers in
communication

3. Written/ Business Communication :

Written Communication: Principles of
Correspondence, language and style in
official letter (full block format, modified
block format), Business letters (enquiry to
complaints and redressal), Application
letter, CV writing, , E- mail etiquette,
Documentation of Meetings, Notice,
Agenda, Minutes of Meetings.

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 Practical (Practice on CV, Business Letters, 4
Applications, Notice, Agenda, Minutes of
Meetings)
Self Learning Topics: Impact of modern
Technology on
Business Communication the paperless office,
use of modern devices

4. Presentation Skills :
Presentation techniques, Planning the
presentation, Structure of presentation,
Preparation, Evidence and Research,
Delivering the presentation, handling
questions, Time management. Visual aids.
Practical - Presentation by students in
groups of maximum 3 on Organizational
Behavior topics allocated by faculty.
Topics have to cover –
1. Personality: Meaning, Personality
Determinants, Traits, Personality types
and its, impact on career growth,
2. Individual/ Organizational Decision
Making.
3.Attitude: Meaning, Components of
Attitude, changing attitude and its impact
on career growth
4. Perception and Values.
5. Motivation and Leadership: Concept,
Importance.
6. Goal setting: SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Realistic,
Timely) Goals, personal and professional
goals
7. Time and Self-Management.
8. Learning in a group, Understanding
Work Teams, Dynamics of Group
Behavior, Techniques for effective
participation
9. Etiquette- General & Business Etiquette,
Body language
10.Emotional intelligence of self and SWOC

II
 11. Threats v/s Challenges 8
12. Dos and Donts of a presentation/
meetings Online & offline.(presenter &
members)
Self Learning Topics : Voice modulation,
Tone, Pitch, Knowledge and self confidence

5. Effective Public Speaking : 3

Public Speaking, Selecting the topic for
public speaking, Understanding the
audience, Organizing the main ideas,
Language and Style choice in the speech,
Delivering the speech, Voice Clarity.
Practical (Extempore)
Self Learning Topics : Preparation, Attire,
Posture and Delivery techniques

6. Group Discussions : 3
Group Discussion Skills, Evaluation
components, Do’s and Don’ts
Practical (Group Discussions)

7. Interview Techniques : 3
Interview Techniques, Pre-Interview
Preparation, Conduct during interview,
Verbal and non-verbal communication,
common mistakes. Preparation of CV.
Practical (Role plays, mock interviews,
Telephonic Interviews, Body Language,
Facial Expression)
Self Learning Topics : Sample
communications and exercises, audio-visual
presentations



III
 Module I

1
SOFT SKILLS INTRODUCTION

1.0 Objectives
After going through this unit you will be able to understand:
 Importance of effective communication
 Effective presentation skills
 Critical and Reflective thinking
 Self-management and self-awareness skills

1.1 Introduction
It may be a personal life or at work place we all use soft skills every day.
Soft skills play an important role in acquiring and maintaining healthy
relationships in your professional as well as personal life. Developing your
soft skills lets you promotion and progression in your career.
Soft skills are valuable set of skills needed to accomplish various job
requirements that may not be taken care of just by mastering hard skills.
Research by iCIMS says that 58% of recruiters believe that soft skills are
of importance for senior-level positions as compared to entry level
positions. Further, the research highlighted that 94% of recruiters believed
that possessing stronger soft skills were more likely to be promoted to a
leadership position compared to those who had weaker soft skills although
having more years of experience. Soft skills allow you to have the upper
hand in convincing people around you.
In a global perspective to strengthen the recruitment scenario and
professionalism, many global business giants and work organizations
advocate strongly the need of imparting soft skills to the young talent
along with the functional knowledge of their respective domains.
UNESCO in its annual report says “Youth at Work”. This clearly states
that If young people are to maximize the benefits of technical and
vocational training, foundation and transferable skills are essential even
so in today‘s global economy, where labor market demands and the skills
for specific occupations are constantly evolving.

1.2 What is Soft Skill?

According to Wikipedia the term “soft skill” came to life through the US
Army, to describe “important job-related skills that involve little or no
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Soft Skills Development Lab interaction with machines and whose application on the job is quite
generalized”.

Definition 1.1:
Soft skills comprise personality traits, social graces, facility with
language, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that characterize a
person's relationships with other people.
In other words soft skills are those qualities that help us build, maintain
and strengthen relationships. Maintaining strong relationship with people
strengthens our ability to do our work best.
We are living in an edge where we have to deal with people where we
actually have to come across certain situations where only the machines
cannot work rather than machinery of language the etiquette, the manners,
the behavioral tricks and then some other extra edges can help.
Soft skills can be said as behavioral skills or life skills. It is the ability to
communicate with prospective clients, mentor your coworkers, adapt to
shifting relationships with team members and customers, teamwork,
emotional intelligence, leadership or problem-solving, follow instructions,
and get a job done on time. So these skills refer to the behavior you exhibit
in different conditions. It‘s the ability to see yourself in the place of other
people and how your actions affect them.

1.3 Significance of Soft Skills

To have positive influence soft skills are essential. They are essential part
of improving one‘s ability to work with others and have a positive
influence.

 Soft skills help you read people and situations, adapt accordingly,
build trust and connect more effectively with others.

 People with good soft skills tend to have strong situational awareness
and emotional intelligence.

 It helps you find, attract and retain clients and also gain confidence.

 In the workplace soft skills such as communication skills, presentation

skills, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, time management,
working well under pressure, being a good team player helps
employees to fully utilize their hard skills.

 Improved productivity enhanced employee satisfaction and increased

workplace communication leads to better development of company.

 Being able to communicate effectively during a time of uncertainty or

collaborate with others when solutions aren‘t immediately obvious is
hugely important whether someone is in a leadership position or not.

 Helps people to adapt to changing circumstances.

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 Builds ability to influence peers and relationship building. Soft Skills Introduction

 Gives courage to make recommendation, will show your commitment

and courage to be a problem solver and solution seeker.

 Soft skills differentiate between adequate candidates and ideal

candidates.

For example:
A teacher is required to have extensive hard skills, the ability to teach the
syllabus thoroughly and clear all the concepts. But a teacher who does not
have the soft skills of social and emotional intelligence, trustworthiness
and approach ability is not likely to be highly regarded by their students.

1.4 Soft Skills Vs Hard Skills

Everybody remembers that first presentation at school or college level.
It‘s one of our earliest stressful memories. As we move through education
and then into the workforce, we tend to spend more time presenting one
way or another. The ability to present information in a way that is easy for
an audience to understand is a useful soft skill. Preparing Presentation
requires language mastery and software knowledge (PowerPoint) is a hard
skill. Therefore the key difference between soft skills and hard skills are
how they are gained and put to use.

Soft skills Hard skills

 Hard skills are technical
 Soft skills are personal
knowledge or training that you
habits and traits that shape
have gained through any life
you work on your own and
experience, including in your
with others.
career or education.
 Soft skills, on the other
 Hard skills are teachable abilities
hand, are subjective skills
or skill sets that are easy to
that are much harder to
quantify.
quantify.
 Soft skills, on the other
 Hard skills refer to the job-related
hand, are the personal
knowledge and abilities that
qualities that help
employees need to perform their
employees really thrive in
job duties effectively.
the workplace.
 Interpersonal skills or
 Technical skill.
people skills.
 Developed life-long
 Developed through education and
professional and personal
on-the-job practices.
experiences.

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Soft Skills Development Lab
 Better assessed by
asking situational and
behavioral interview
 Evaluation of hard skill is done
questions and by taking
through resumes, portfolios, job
into account a candidate‘s
related assignments and role-
overall personality
specific interview questions.
characteristics as
presented during the entire
hiring process.
 Ability of dealing with other
 Things done on workplace
people on workplace
 For example:
 For example:
Imagine you‘re hiring a
If you value collaboration in
developer. Some hard skills
your company, you want to
examples that are necessary for
hire employees who are
this role include knowledge of
great team players and can
specific programming
communicate well with
languages (e.g. Python, java)
others.
frameworks and tools
 Examples: Effective
 Examples: Database
communication,
management, Mobile
Teamwork, Adaptability,
development, Marketing
Empathy, Open-
campaign management, Statistical
mindedness, Willingness to
analysis
learn

1.5 Selling Soft Skills

Focusing on presenting your soft skills is a way to make you stand out
among others. They are transferable, interpersonal and social skills. The
ability to listen is most important selling skill. No matter your profession,
soft skills are useful to all kinds of employers and can set any candidate
over the top during the interview process. Never sell your soft skills short.
i.e. By knowing how to describe yourself in an interview, you could be
making a huge difference. You must focus on your best features and try to
sell those skills to others.
Most of candidates focus on their areas of expertise and the special skill
sets companies require for job description. Almost every single person
applied has similar expertise. What sets you apart from those candidates?
Quality candidates bring a lot to the table when they have soft skills that
employers are looking for. It includes basic traits that professional should
hold. These traits help explain how well you work with others, whether
you can communicate effectively with clients and teams or if you bring
more to the table., Soft skills define your overall work ability. You need to
sell your skills to the company and show them how you are different from
the candidates waiting for an interview.

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For example: Soft Skills Introduction
In company, you could describe how you used conflict resolution and
communication skills during a client escalation. Show how you worked
with the client to deescalate the situation and what steps you took to help
them.
Just because you think your skills are important doesn't mean the
company needs or wants those skills. Prove to the hiring manager your
soft skills are important to the company and show how you can help to
improve business relations. The simplest method connecting your skills
with the company's purpose is research. Learn what the company does, its
mission and values, how it provides services and whether your skills
complement these aspects or not.
Showing off your soft skills on paper can enhance your resume and help
readers see your potential more holistically. Try to showcase your
interpersonal skills, positive attitude with confidence, communicate with
conviction, build rapport and be an active listener.

1.6 Components of Softskills

Soft skills are desirable in all professions. These includes

Figure 1.1 Components of Communication

1. Communication skills
It is most important soft skills. Able communicator can adjust their tone
and style according to their audience, comprehend and act efficiently on
instructions, and explain complex issues to colleagues and clients alike.
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Soft Skills Development Lab Successful communication skill involves listening capability, verbal,
nonverbal, written, and visual communication. Strong listening skills is
required to have an effective two way communication.
Communication is viewed in three stages, which represent thinking,
encoding and decoding. The first stage of thinking requires an assembly of
thoughts, or piece of information in a person‘s mind. This could be
anything, ranging from feeling and ideas to professional prospects.
Encoding is second stage, the process of turning thoughts into
communication. The encoder uses a medium ‘to send the message’ a
phone call, email, text message, face-to-face meeting, or other
communication tool. The process of turning communication into thoughts
is the third step i.e. Decoding.
For example, you may realize you‘re hungry and encode the following
message to send to your roommate: ―I‘m hungry. Do you want to get
pizza tonight? As your roommate receives the message, they decode your
communication and turn it back into thoughts to make meaning.
Non-verbal communication uses cues related to voice, touch, distance,
physical surroundings, appearance, facial expression, gestures, eye
contact, body movement and postures.

2. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving/ Decision Making

Creativity is to do anything in a different way to reach the end result.
There is an extreme need for organization to be creative else there is risk
of survival. People usually do not attempt to be creative because of fear of
failure. Creativity and motivation are interrelated as they force people to
think out of the box. Creativity is helpful in problem solving. Skills such
as observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation helps to
develop critical thinking and problem solving capability.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
- Albert Einstein
Discussing mistakes and what you learned from them is an important part
of building this soft skill. To work on different solutions of a problem do
not only involve in brainstorming but lateral thinking skill like brain
sailing. To keep the motivation of employees high, the companies keep
launching new programs on creativity. Trust is the key factor of keeping
motivation of the employees high. Varieties of hobbies are added to
rejuvenate the employees. It is about ability to think on your feet, assess
problems and find solutions to resolve problem.
Decision making is the process of weighing our choices, comparing them
and taking the right call. For making a good decision, clear thinking,
strong conviction and effective implementation of decision are to be done.
Taking the right decision has an important bearing on the facts, pondering
over available choices, choosing the best option and taking action for
implementation of the chosen.

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 3. Teamwork Soft Skills Introduction
Behavior and tactics are used every day when we interact effectively with
others whether individually or in groups. It includes building teams with a
strong foundation of trust and accountability. Ability of working well with
others, collaborating, encouraging and inspiring people to do their best is
some of interpersonal skills.
Working in a team towards a common goal requires knowing 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. You may prefer to
work alone, but it‘s important to demonstrate that you understand and
appreciate the value of joining forces and working in teams to accomplish
the company‘s goals. This shows that you possess the soft skills necessary
to engage in productive collaboration.
An individual should quash self-interest and work for the common goal to
get satisfaction.

4. Leadership skills
Even though you are not directly managing other you can showcase your
leadership ability to inspire others and lead team to success. People with
good leadership skills have a positive outlook and attitude, ability to
communicate, make quick and effective decisions. Understanding how to
influence people and accommodate their needs is an essential element of
leadership.
The core characteristics of an effective leader as cited in Leadership: Do
traits really matter?‘ by SA Kirkpatrick and EA Locke are as follows:
 Motivation
 Drive
 Honesty and integrity
 Self-Confidence
 Business Knowledge
 Cognitive ability
There is a difference between a manager and a leader but sometimes these
terms are used interchangeably. For any organization to be successful it
should be working under a strong leadership. Leaders should motivate
employees and inspire them to scale new heights in their careers. Leaders
should give equal treatment to others. This will bring positive energy to
work for achievement of organizational goals. Leadership styles are not
compartmentalized, they change as per the need of the situation.

5. Etiquette and Mannerism

Ethics point to standards or codes of behavior expected by a group to
which individual belongs. Manners are behaviors that reflect a person's
attitude.
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Soft Skills Development Lab Being responsible and doing the job you‘re getting paid to do, which
includes being punctual when you arrive at work, meeting deadlines, and
making sure that your work is error-free. And going the extra mile shows
that you‘re committed to perform your work with excellence. Integrity,
honesty. discipline, respect, appearance, time management, attitude are
traits of work ethics.
Etiquette and manners are integral part of civilized society. They are
different only in terms of etiquette being more specific and manners being
more generalized. Manners teach you that you must respect your elders
while etiquette consists of things like the desired way to address your
teachers or, may be, the chairperson. You must not think too much about
the difference between them as most of the time you will find them
overlapping. Many people who follow etiquette do have good manners.
Following points high lights some behavioral traits that are essential to
inculcate etiquette and manners for behaving in a socially desirable way.

 Respect - Be polite and kind.

 Networking - Be a Sport.
 Manners - Value time.
 Smile - Be respectful.
 Kindness - Allow others to go first.
 Communication - Keep Mobile Ringtone Volume Low.
 Awareness - Follow etiquette while eating with others.
 Bye contact - Introduce others.
In a professional setting, it is essential to follow the right etiquette and
mannerism. They are usually learned from the surrounding environment
and by observing other sophisticated people. People around you will not
accept you if you remain rude. You must value the time and meet
deadlines. Introducing people should be rightly done followed by
handshake and smile. The technology etiquette includes both phone and
email etiquette. Be very conscious of the sentiments of the surrounding
people while talking. Keep your email short and sweet.

6. Flexibility / Adaptability
Flexibility demonstrates an ability and willingness to accept new tasks
and new challenges calmly and without hassle. Being adaptable means
you are able or willing to change in order to suit different conditions.
Being flexible means you can do it easily.
Technological innovations, diversity and society changes therefore
businesses require employees that are open to new ideas, flexible enough
to deal with issues when things go unexpected. Adaptive employees tend
to have a better understanding of their company‘s product and services.
Adaptability exhibited through action may win you favor.

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 Primary ways in which you can demonstrate adaptability and flexibility Soft Skills Introduction
are as follows:

 Be open to change and new ideas.

 Able to adapt new environment easily.

 Manage time and resources.

 Able to stay organized under pressure.

 Accept multiple perspectives.

 Learn how to balance life.

7. Personality Development
Personality development is described as the process of improving and
grooming one's outer and inner self in order to make a positive difference
in one's life. In the world different types of people have different
personalities. Structure of body, face is not alike. People form images
about your personality mostly by your dressing style, behavior, walking
posture, ways of talking and how you present yourself in a group.
Knowing your personality is important to know your characteristic traits.
Knowing what values you cannot compromise and where you can be
flexible. People think they know about their body but they are wrong. The
more you get to know about your body the more you get surprised. Know
your stamina, know your capacity.
Positive thinking enables to have a feeling of security and confidence. If
you remain positive you will reflect a lot of energy to motivate yourself as
well as others. It builds confidence in you, helps you to look your life in a
positive way, creates positive energy within you, improves your health,
improves your skills, decreases your stress, and makes you a more
pleasing personality.

8. Group Discussion
Group Discussion (GD) is a very old method of selecting a candidate for a
job as it tests the competency and communication skills of job aspirants. It
has also become an integral part of organizations for decision making.
Proper seating arrangements in group discussions help to zero in on the
right candidate choice.
In GD job aspirants are free to share their ideas, feelings and opinions
without any inhibition. They are usually face-to-face but with the
technological advancement social media is also used to conduct GD.
There are different kinds of sitting arrangements – U shape, V shape,
semicircle and full circle.
The main objective of the siting arrangement is to ensure that each
participant is able to make eye contact with current topics and must have

9
Soft Skills Development Lab knowledge in the areas of human concerns. Be sure you know the
difference between panel discussion, debate and GD, as each is conducted
in a different way. The traits of the participants, evaluated in GD, are:
knowledge on subject of the GD topic, ability of work in team
communication skills, ability to take initiative, reasoning ability, creativity
and adaptability, taking own stand, assertiveness power to prove own
point, listening skills, leadership qualities and nonverbal cues.
There are two types of GDs – topic base and case based. While
participating in GD, take care of individual traits like creativity, ability to
take initiative, listening, articulation and no-verbal cues.
The traits evaluated during a GD are:

 Knowledge on the subject of the topic.

 Ability to work in a team.

 Communication skills

 Ability to take initiative

 Reasoning ability.

 Creativity and adaptability.

 Taking own stand.

 Assertiveness – power to prove one‘s point.

 Listening skills.

 Leadership qualities.

 Nonverbal cues.
Be as creative as possible in GDs and you will be able to generate
innumerable ideas. The participant must have confidence throughout the
GD.

9. Professional Presentation
If you are not comfortable with public speaking – and nobody starts out
comfortable; you have to learn how to be comfortable – practice. I cannot
overstate the importance of practicing. Get some close friends or family
members to help evaluate you, or somebody at work that you trust.
- Hillary Clinton
Effective presentation is based on a clear analysis of their objectives and
their audience. The presenter must have clarity about the purpose of
presentation. The audience should clear message that you want them to
remember. Planning of presentation involves a decent beginning, a proper
middle and a good ending. While preparing a presentation, it has to be
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ensured that the beginning defines the topic, provides a preview and Soft Skills Introduction
captures the audience‘s attention. Research your topic. Your sound
understanding of the main points of your topic may help you develop a
plan and execute it timely.

 How to keep the Audience Engaged with Yourself

o Describe a scene or a character.

o Tell a story.

o Share a personal experience.

o Relate to a recent event.

o Point out something important about the audience.

o Ask a proactive question.

o Show a compelling visual image.

o State a fact that is remarkable or troubling.

o Explain your own interest about the topic.

o Tell listeners what the topic has to do with them.

The body or middle of the presentation focuses on the key points with
explanation and verbal signposts to engage your audience throughout the
presentation strengthen the issues. The body of presentation helps you
establish the key issues with appropriate examples and cases.
The conclusion or the ending recapitulates the main points and leaves the
presentation open for questions. The presenter plans the certain visual aids
to make his/her objectives clear, convincing and memorable for the
audience. Visual aids can improve the understanding of your idea and add
spice to your presentation. They would simplify the complex ideas and
illustrate something dry in a more colorful manner.
The mode of presentation delivery should be clear – whether you are
going to speak impromptu or with the help of notes. Planning and
rehearsing presentation before the day helps us to improve it. To make
your presentation successful and acceptable dressing, adhering to the
announced duration, eye contact and handling of visual aids are some of
things that are important. Thorough preparation and stress reduction
techniques can help to overcome the stage fright. Anxious speakers tend to
speed up, so try to pace yourself. Speak clearly with moderate tome and
slow down to emphasize key points.
I used to be incredibly afraid of public speaking. I started with five people;
then I’d speak to 10 people. I made it up to 75 people, up to 100 and now I
can speak to a very large group, and it feels similar to speaking to you
one-to-one.
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Soft Skills Development Lab - Robin S. Sharma

10. Job Interviews

Interview is the purposeful conversation where both the parties are equally
interested. It is a purposeful talk between two people – one who wants the
job and the other who wants to hire.
In other words, the purpose of an interview is to find the right candidate
for a job. Interviews have become very structured and companies
expectations from job aspirants have gone very high. These days job
aspirants face heavy pressure as they have to prove their strengths, their
caliber in just few minutes of interviewing. Companies are hiring people
who specially look after recruitment process.
Resume writing is the first step to be shortlisted for an interview. Knowing
the profile of a company to whom you have applied for a job is very
important. So get updated with the basic details about the company like its
turnover, the number of employees it has, its growth rate, its board
members, the profile of the advertised job role. Resume should be
precisely prepared and regularly updated.
There are different types of job interviews like screening, informational,
individual, behavioral, stress, case, analytic and technical. Each deals in a
different manner. Before facing the interview one must go through the
preparation of facing interview. Analyze your background, highlight your
achievements and analyze your skill-sets. Following tips about the pre-
interview stage preparations will make you confident:
 Do not forget to keep all your certificates and important documents in a
file.
 Plan appropriate dress code.
 Polish your shoes and have matching accessories.
 Scan newspaper headlines without fail.
 Get up early to reach the interview venue in time.
 Prepare and review the main topics and area.
 Cultivate the right attitude.
 Show relaxed expression.
During the interview maintain your composure and answer without
getting perturbed. The following tips will help you show decent
behavior during the interview.
 Control your nervousness.
 Seek permission to enter the room.
 Greet politely.
 Sit only when asked by the interviewer.

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 Carry yourself smartly. Soft Skills Introduction
 Remain cool and calm while answering the questions.
 Listen attentively.
 Take time to think.
 Accept if you don‘t know the answer.
 Don‘t grin, you can smile.
 Sit smart, don‘t slouch.
 Accept tea/coffee if offered.
 Maintain eye contact.
 Reflect zeal and enthusiasm.
 Create good impression by your pleasant disposition.
 If given a chance to ask anything about the company, you may ask
whatever you want politely.
 Keep your answers short between 1.5 to 2 minutes and to-the –point.
 Structure your answers with personal experience.
 Use positive tone.
 Use active verbs and power verbs to describe yourself.
Rehearse most commonly asked questions so that you are not taken by
surprise when face with such questions. Even if you know how to answer
some questions beforehand, it depends on your handling of the interview
how best you answer them. So, maintain your composure and answer with
a cool mind. Try to make the best of your abilities.

11. Capacity Building: Learn, Unlearn and Relearn

We live in an era where change is the only buzzword that reverberates in
every sphere of life. Today‘s competitive workplace demands that you
continuously upgrade your skills and knowledge to remaining relevant as a
professional. Successful professionals keep themselves abreast with new
techniques and skills in the fast changing business world. Capacity
building is a mechanism that helps a professional in the workplace to
acquire new knowledge and technical skills so that he or she can adapt to
change and deliver the best.
The productivity and efficiency of the organization go down miserably if
it does not care about capacity building. Capacity building strengthens the
organizations to set standards of excellence and innovation, which enable
it to provide unique products and services for making life better. And, in
return, the organization earns handsome profit. This exercise provides
organization an opportunity to use experienced and knowledgeable people
to create more talented workforce leading to a cohesive growth
environment at the workplace.

13
Soft Skills Development Lab Capacity building enhances the workmanship in a way that people bring
remarkable changes with their expertise and engagement. All these efforts
guide toward fruitful career.

1.7 Identifying and Exhibiting Soft Skills

Many of you have worked in team. But are you good at team work?
Should you highlight this skill, that you are good at a team work? Let‘s
talk about identifying your soft skills and showcase your soft skills.
Look within yourself to excel what soft skill you possess. Self-awareness
about strengths and weakness is important. It can help you to strengthen
and develop your blind spots. You can ask your friends or colleagues
which soft skills come into their mind when they think of you.
For example:
You think you are not good at doing work in team, but everyone you talk
to points to your teamwork skill which you excel. So this is the soft skill
that you might want to consider changing you perception and including it
in your resume.
The key to learning how to identify soft skills with behavioral questions is
to avoid leading questions that may elicit less-than-genuine responses. In
general, you want to ask questions that prompt self-reflection and candid
responses.

 Perseverance and dedication

Why do you want to work here?
Perseverance and dedication represent your work ethic. Highlight your
perseverance and dedication when talking about your accomplishments
and job responsibilities. You can also showcase your perseverance when
talking about problem solving, as these skills go hand in hand.

 Problem solving
Telling about conflict that you had with other employee at work and how
you resolved it.
While describing past accomplishment in interview you can highlight
your problem solving skills. Rather than just saying what you did, you can
describe how you did it. Outline the steps taken by you to reach the end
result. Talk about how you overcame obstacles along the way to success
or how you found a solution by addressing challenges as they came up.
Improve your problem-solving skills by focusing on the root cause of the
problem to better understand how to resolve the issue.

 Teamwork and collaboration.

How you responded when your views were not considered by teammate?
Showcase your teamwork and collaboration skills, avoid making too many
‘I’ statements and replace them with ‘we’. When you‘re talking about your
14
accomplishments, be sure to mention how you collaborated with your Soft Skills Introduction
colleagues or played a role as part of a team.

 Adaptability
Pitching in on a project, to taking over if a colleague quits unexpectedly.
Being able to adapt to different situations is a key skill in the workplace,
which makes adaptability one of the most frequently used soft skills. You
can describe a time that you went above and beyond your daily work or
how you stepped in to help when you noticed someone needed help.

 Creativity
Describe a time when you had to think “outside the box”?
Creativity is finding a unique solution to a problem. Showcase innovation
and diversity in thinking. It‘s a part of so many aspects of work, from
problem solving to communication, leadership, and so much more. Asking
lot of questions about processes or being curious about how things are
done fall you in a category of creative thinking. You can develop creative
thinking by reading, listening and watching content.

 Time management
How you created a timeline to keep a project on track?
To showcase your time management skills, talk about how you were able
to stay on track with a deadline. Never say outright that you‘re good at
time management, prove it instead. Good time management skills enable
you to organize your time to work smarter and more efficiently even under
high pressure. Scheduling priorities help you have a great time
management skill.

 Persuasion
Tell me about a time you persuaded others to accept your idea.
This is the easiest skill of all to demonstrate – your role in an interview is
to persuade the interviewer to hire you! Demonstrate your persuasion
skills by clearly stating and elaborating on your answers. Use persuasion
along with your communication skills to showcase why you‘re the right
candidate for the job.
All of these skills are actually related to each other, so you should find
yourself describing them multiple times throughout your interview, and
not always exclusively. Remember to clarify your answers with a ‘how’
statement, which allows you to talk about things in more detail.

1.8 Summary
This unit is equipped with necessary skills abstract. It has covered
personality development with emotional intelligence including Etiquette
and Mannerism. In today‘s contemporary world the importance of
15
Soft Skills Development Lab communication is explained. Soft skill relate to how you work. They are
among top skills employers seeks in the candidates to hire them.
Importance of possessing soft skills is clearly discussed to make one
aware about the qualities that one should own to be successful. Selling
your soft skill in an interview showcases to excel your positive approach
on interviewer. Incorporating components of soft skills within you
collaborates bridge between the academia and the industry building
knowledge economy.
1.9 List of References
 Soft Skills: an Integrated Approach to Maximise Personality, Gajendra
S. Chauhan, Sangeeta Sharma, Wiley India
 Soft Skills 1ST Edition ©2017 Manmohan Joshi &bookboon.bom.
1.10 Bibliography
 https://www.icims.com/company/newsroom/new-research-defines-the-
softskills-that-matter-most-to-employers/
1.11 Further Readings
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills#:~:text=Soft%20skills%2C%2
0also%20known%20as,career%20management%20and%20intercultural
%20fluency.
 Bailo, Paul J. The Essential Digital Interview Handbook: Lights,
Camera, Interview Tips fort Skype, Google Hangout, GoToMeeting,
and More, Career Press, Incorporate, 2013
 Marc. P. Cosentino. Case in Point-Complete case interview preparation
 https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/hard-skills-
vs-soft-skills
1.12 Model Questions
1. Define Soft Skills? What is significance of Soft Skills?
2. Explain in brief importance of Soft Skills.
3. Describe how Soft Skills vary from Hard Skills
4. Differentiate between Soft Skills and Hard Skills.
5. Explain with example selling Soft Skills.
6. Describe the components of Soft Skills
7. Explain how to identify and exhibit Soft Skill.
8. How you can identify and exhibit your Soft Skill in workplace?
9. Explain how Soft Skills play an important role during interview.


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 Module II

2
COMMUNICATION
1.0 Concepts and meaning of Communication
Introduction: Communication is an act of transferring information from
one place or one person or from a group of people to another. Each
communication involves one sender and one receiver and a message are
the major part of communication. The transmission message from sender
to the receiver has to be effective as it includes a huge range of
information which may include emotions, cultural situations, the model
used to communicate, and even the location for the same. Communication
is considered to be more desirable around the work profile, since accurate,
effective and unambiguous communication becomes too much difficult to
understand
Figure 1:

Source: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

Objectives
1. Methods of Communication
2. Verbal and non-verbal Communication
3. Techniques to improve Communication

1.1 Methods of Communication

1.1.1 Verbal communication
1.1.2 Non-verbal communication
1.1.3 Written communication
1.1.4 Listening
1.1.5 Visual communication
17
Soft Skills Development Lab 1.1.1 .Verbal Communication:
Verbal Communication is when we use a spoken word to communicate
with each other, it is considered to be informal communication. In this, the
communication can be face-to-face, group of people, radio, television or
other media, usage of mobile phones or video call for example Zoom, MS
teams or Skype and casually chatting with a friend. In Formal
communication process such as work meeting, conferences call,
interviews, lectures, etc...The effectiveness of oral communication will
depend upon the receptiveness of the receiver's volume, speed or pitch of
words, and clarity of speech.
In the case of business communication, it may include storytelling which
means generating a general understanding between employees of the
company so the employers can understand the key values of the company
and work effectively.

1.1.2.Non-Verbal Communication:
Non-verbal communication helps us to get a sense of how others are
feeling and what they may think about us. It includes facial expression,
eye contact, body language, hand movement, touch, tone of voice, and
posture. It is also called sign language. All non-verbal communications
help indirectly to communicate with people using various expressions and
sign languages. If you need to make a good impression like in your job
interviews or in a work meeting is very important to consider a non-verbal
communication style. As it’s a way of something being said so it is also
known as paralanguage for effective communication we should have a
proper ratio of facial expression and body language.

1.1.3 Written Communication

Written Communication might be a letter, email, a report, or a message
that needs to be shared using ant social media. In these, our message
should be very clear and crisp to understand the long-distance
communicator more easily. It is very effective communication as the
message is expressed in a more detailed manner. The effectiveness of
written communication depends on the grammar used, style of writing,
vocabulary, clarity of the sentences, etc...In written communication, the
sender's address and recipient's address are to be mapped properly for
avoiding confusion. It is an effective evidence tool used at a workplace for
proofing your work status. At workplaces, written communication plays a
vital role as it helps to make the best business plans for higher
management people at an organization.

1.1.4.Listening
Active Listening is the most important method of communication when
we do we can truly engage the person who is talking to us if we fail to do
so we can’t respond appropriately. To make the Listening communication
more effective we must talk up to the mark rather than enlarge the
discussion, which will lead to confusion among people. Sometimes, we
18
need to listen for a long period eg lectures so we have to make the session Communication
more interactive if we feel the interest is lost by the students.

1.1.5.Visual communication
Visual communication is said to be more effective compared to written
communication. As it is said images are more remembered as compared to
sentences. This type of communication includes drawing, Illustration,
Colour, Sign, Graphic design, and many more. It is said that visual
communication is more effective than verbal and non-verbal
communication as it includes much technology involved which results in
more creative visualization Eg. Advertisers use images to sell products
and create a message in the mind of the people about that product to be
purchased.
Hence, Compared to all the methods we can rate Visual communication as
being more effective as compared to other types of methods of
communication.
1.2 Communication in a business organization: Internal (Upward,
Downward, Horizontal, Grapevine)
Introduction: Communication at a business level is said to be a process of
sharing information between employees within and outside a company. It
is the heart of any company’s organization's success as it impacts
everything from employee happiness and customer relationship to brand
identity and net earnings. To reach a goal of any company effective
communication. To achieve the same we need to have a clear
understanding of business communication :

Four Main Types of business organization:

1.2.1 Upward Communication
1.2.2 Downward Communication
1.2.3 Horizontal Communication
1.2.4 Grapevine Communication

1.2.1 Upward Communication:-

Upward Communication is anything that comes from a subordinate to a
manager or an individual up to an organizational hierarchy. They keep an
eye or finger on the pulses of what’s happening on the ground level of an
employee. Communication flows upward have systematic forms, reports,
surveys, templates to provide employees with the necessary information.
For Eg . Sales Report only includes the number of products sold, it may
ask for feedback as in the summary of problems or success stories that
management looks like to track.

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Soft Skills Development Lab 1.2.2 Downward Communication
Downward communication comes from superiors to one or more
subordinates. The mode of communication can be the form of a letter,
memo, or verbal directive. They need to keep communication very
professional and clear. For eg: new operations may need new employees,
so it needs to be done neat and clear with a company memo.

1.2.3 Horizontal communication

Horizontal communication moves across departments and employees or
managers of equal status within an organization. The mode of
communication is through emails like coworkers participate in a team chat
to resolve an issue, managers are involved in a brainstorming session. A
written follow up more effective and it also avoids confusion.

1.2.4 Grapevine communication

It's a form of communication that is followed without a structure i.e
informal communication. Eg. Luch meetings to attend with our team
members. It leads to the betterment of interpersonal relationships with
leads to achieving organizational goals. The most important fact about
grapevine communication is team building and interpersonal
communication. It's basically of four types are single strand chain, gossip
chain, probability chain, and cluster chain.
a. Single strand chain: The information is passed from one person to
another until it is reached all the concerned people of that group. It's a very
simple way to communicate which results efficiently.
b. Gossip chain: In which one person is an epicenter of the
communication who seeks and shares the information with others. Eg.
Aisha has managers who got information about her friends and she has
shared the information with all.
c. Probability chain: In which the information is shared randomly. The
receiver again follows the random way to share the information.
d. cluster chain: Here almost every social media challenge follows the
clustering. A person relays information to a few people, who in turn share
the information with the selected person.
Source: https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/what-is-grapevine-
communication/

1.3 External communication:

External Communication is termed as the transmission of information
between two organizations. Communication occurs between a business
and another person on the exterior of the company. These people can be
dealers, customers, government officials. A customer’s feedback is also
external communication. Most of the money is invested to have effective
external communication. The effectiveness of external communication is
20
like promoting an organization, Advertise an organization, it also provides Communication
a favorable image of an organization.
Types of external communication can be:
1. press conference
2. Print media
3. Tender documents
4. Feedback.
5. Annual reports and letters.
1.4 7C’s of communication Source: It has been noted that 30% of the
time we are spending our work on emails for communication at any
organization, beyond that for meetings, conferences calls, etc. So, it
becomes more important to know about these 7C’s of communication
which is as follows:
Clear, Correct, Complete, Concise, Concrete, Coherent, Courteous.
1. Clear: Any message we want to communicate should be clear as the
recipient should not assume our message and get back to us for more
details information will lead to more wastage of time.

Example:
Dear John,
As you may know, we have signed up PS Pvt Ltd as our new client. I had
a meeting with the managers yesterday and had discussed the budget
requirements for this project. Jay Roy from your team had done a pretty
good job last time doing the social media campaign for XYZ and so I
would like him to work on our campaign too. Would you be available
sometime tomorrow to discuss this further?
Regards
Kavya
As the information of these is well structured and clear to understand by
the recipients.

2. Correct
As in while writing hundreds of emails in a day we need to focus on the
spelling and we need to write the names of the people to whom it will be
mailed properly when we type the spelling wrong even sometimes the
spellchecker is not able to catch the words, it's important we pronounce
the words properly and correctly. we must ensure the reader has sufficient
knowledge about technical terms which are used in the communication.
For example, as mentioned in the above mail example, if the technical

21
Soft Skills Development Lab terms are not understood properly the entire communication, doesn’t have
any further effects of it.
3. Complete
A complete message has all the information the reader must know to
respond. If we need to make an urgent call of action we must mention the
same on the mail which we are forwarding to a recipient, as an incomplete
message leads to lots of confusion
Example:
Hi all,
Let us meet tomorrow at 10 am in Conference room 1 to discuss the
college event. We will have to decide on the keynote speakers and
complete the event invite draft tomorrow. Please be there on time.
Thanks
Clara.
4. Concise
We must try to write the message more concisely instead of increasing the
number of lines, where it can be communicated by using only 2 lines by
doing so the time is not wasted and work is done effectively carried out.
Always we must try to avoid fillers such as ‘I mean, ‘sort of’, ‘for
instance, ‘basically’, etc. Our message in writing mode must be precise
and crisp.
Example:
Hi Suraj,
I need to discuss the Vacation campaign with you. Let us take the kids out
this time to nearby tourist places. We’ll talk in detail tomorrow.
Regards
Jenni
5. Concrete
We must have full confidence in us what we are about to communicate,
example during marketing we must concrete what we speak with
customers. It must capture the attendance for them it must not bore them.
Example:
“Hilton Resort is the jewel of the western hills. Take a break from your
work. Relax and make yourself stress-free”. These statements give the
recipient a clear image of what you are about to concrete.
6. Coherent
The message that we are communicating must have a logical flow. What
we try to communicate through emails must have a link to previous email
connectivity.
Dear Ram,

22
Thanks for submitting the industry sales report. Fine will give you some Communication
feedback on it. You will be receiving an email from him with detailed
comments.
Regards
Shreeya
7. Courteous
It’s an important part of any corporate setting. As the colleagues working
with us are not actual friends so maintain courteously is very important to
us. Hidden insults cause trouble among individuals.
Example:
Hi Drew,
I understand that the finance team is swamped with work and gets requests
from every department in the organization. My team, however, is working
on a high-priority project and I would greatly appreciate it if you could ask
your team members to respond to my team’s queries promptly and help us
complete this project on time. Please do let me know if you need anything
from me.
Regards
Stanley
Hence, communication becomes an important skill in a place where we are
working as when we do effective communication we tend to receive
respect and maintain a healthy relationship.
1.5 Active Listening:
Fig2:

Source: shorturl.at/pstER
Fig 2 shows the key points that we need to follow for active listening, it’s
nothing but a practice of preparing to listen and observe when verbal and
nonverbal messages are been sent. Active listening has a major impact on
your job and maintaining a healthy relationship too. Listening can be
carried out in various ways to obtain some information, Listening to
understand, for enjoyment, and learning. Hence, Active Listening will
help to maintain a healthy environment and avoid confusion and make you

23
Soft Skills Development Lab more productive in your work which is a very important factor in the
workplace.

1.6 Differences between Listening and Hearing

Sr.no Hearing Listening

1 Hearing is simply the act of Listening is an action where
perceiving sound by ear you choose to actively
concentrate on what you hear
2 Hearing occurs with or without our Listening brain process the
consent information into knowledge
3 Hearing is passive Listening is active
4 Doesn’t require a conscious effort Requires a conscious effort
5 Involuntary Voluntary

1.7 Critical Listening

It is also called analytical listening wherein it evaluates a message to
accept or reject it, the goal is to understand and evaluate the meaning of
the logic of the arguments, the strength of the evidence, the validity of the
conclusion, the speaker's motives, and intentions.
The Strategies need to be adopted:
1. Find areas of interest
2. Recognize emotional biases.
3. Organize the information and find connectivity with what we already
know.
4. Note main ideas.
1.8 Barriers to Active Listening
Barriers to active listening could be because of different kinds of noise,
some of them like ringing phones, traffic noise, etc...Sometimes, the mode
of mind is also the reason for the same.
Five main types of noise which may prevent Active Listening are as
follows
1. External Distractions: It's a distraction in your work environment
that diverts our attention from listening.
2. Speaker’s Distractions:-A technical person who is very left-brained
may be difficult for a marketing person, it happens when a speaker's
distinctive characteristics get in the way of hearing the speaker’s
message.
3. Message Intent: any phrases which are used that can be
misinterpreted or have a different meaning on who is using them like
people refrain from saying the full story.

24
4. Emotional Language: The use of words like “you always”,” we are Communication
forever” make it difficult for people to listen to the speaker.
5. Personal Perspective: Personal baggage which people carry with
them affects the communication process. The compulsion to a solution
can make us stop listening.
1.9 Improving Listening: Listening skills can be improved by
maintaining the following parameters:
1. Maintaining an eye contact
2. Visualize what the speaker is saying
3. Limit judgments
4. Don’t interrupt
5. Wait for a pause to ask questions
6. Ask clarifying questions
2.0 Intercultural sensitivities
When operating with a culturally diverse workforce people from different
places communication and understanding the concepts between them
becomes more important. Maintaining an intercultural sensitivity becomes
too complex. Six Stages are as follows to maintain and manage
intercultural sensitivities.
1. Denial
2. Defense
3. Minimization
4. Acceptance
5. Adaptation
6. Integration
We can develop strategies for growing intercultural sensitivity they are as
follows:
1. Cultural awareness activities
2. Focus on what’s “good” about one’s culture
3. Ultize resource persons
2.1 Business etiquette when dealing with people from different
nationalities
As different cultures don’t see the world in the same way, American
managers may look perfect may. Building a strong team from a diverse
workforce take efforts from all sides, it's important to respect the
employees from other countries on the same ground they need to support
our job like a communications style saying “no” is a big insult, time as it is
said Americans are more concern about the time, In some cultures, they
feel superior to ask questions to power authority at workplace.

25
Soft Skills Development Lab We need to follow a few etiquettes like
1. Learn about other cultures
2. Learn Languages
3. Encourage employees to be open-minded
4. Treat people as individuals
Practical questions:
1. How can you identify the communication is effective or not?
2. Explain the steps involved in communication?
3. Which are the steps that need to be involved for Active Listening?
4. Differences between Hearing and Listening?
CASE STUDY 1:
David and Kim are having lunch at a local restaurant. Kim is blind and a
coworker of David. The server comes up to the table to take the order. She
makes eye contact and speaks only to David. As she takes the drink
orders, Kim notices that the server does not interact with her. She wants to
make sure that she is not reading too much into the situation. So she
decides to ask David what he notices when the server returns. When the
server returns to take lunch orders, she again only interacts with David.
She asks him, “What does she want for lunch?” David’s response was,
“Why don’t you ask Kim? She is a paying customer who is perfectly
capable of ordering her food.”
1. What is going on in the case study?
2. What does this bring up for you?
3. What is it about persons with disabilities that sometimes will cause us
to not see that person and make them invisible?

CASE STUDY 2:

Background: The digital payment company needed to address an

internal report that revealed not all their employees were not using
the PayPal app. The President, David Marcus, wrote a company-
wide memo to all staff regarding the problem.
Approach: David Marcus took a heavy-handed approach to the
matter. He told his staff to use the product or quit: “If you are one of
the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can’t
remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go find
something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere”.
A better policy would have been to find out why his employees
weren’t using the payment app, whether they felt competitor
products had better features, and ask for their suggestions.

26
Outcome: The memo was leaked to the press. It generated Communication
widespread coverage across the media and left customers wondering
what was wrong with an app that PayPal’s staff wouldn't use.
Internal communications best practice case studies demonstrate that
opening a two-way channel for feedback will improve both internal
and external communication.
Questions:
1. What the Passage is all about?
2. What is your view based on the mentioned case study?
3. Find the number resolved using technology in the above case study?
4. What kind of title can be framed based on the above case study?
7. Explain the different parameters that need to be considered for best
communication at the workplace?
8. What are the difficulties faced by employees in an organization due
to lack of communication?
9. Explain Four types of Business Organization?
10. Explain the 7 C’s of communication?
11. Explain the barriers to Active Listening?
12. Explain the live case study based on problems of different types of
communication?
13. Difference between Listening and Hearing?
14. Which types of etiquttes do we need to follow for good
communication?
15. What types of skills to learn for Listening actively?
References:
1.file:///C:/Users/admin/Downloads/Etiquette%20Case%20 Studies.pdf
2. shorturl.at/flD47
3. https://www.globalcognition.org/intercultural-sensitivity/
4.https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-
improve-listening-skills
5.https://www.invensislearning.com/blog/7-rules-of-effective-
communication-with-examples/

6.https://www.talkfreely.com/blog/internal-communication-case-studies



27
 Module III

3
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Objectives:
After going through this unit, you will be able to:

 You will be able to know how to write a business letter and which
styles need to be used

 How to write a CV and to know different etiquette required in jobs

 How to Write Minutes of meeting and its documentation

Introduction: Written communication means sending messages in the
form of letters, circulars, manuals, reports, telegrams, office memos,
etc…It’s a formal method of communication and less flexible. It’s said
that written documents preserved properly become a permanent document
for references. Written communication must be effective, clear, complete,
concise, and courteous.
Principles of Correspondence: To follow the principles and to make
effective written communication is a must we need to plan.
Plan: in which by planning we get an answer for a question “What do we
want to?. Planning provides the right direction and increases the chances
for a message and makes writing tasks much easier. Secondly for effective
communication in the planning stage, the writer must think upon what are
the goals of communication? Who is the audience? what the message of
the content must be?.
Once our planning stage is completed we can start implementing it?
In which we can use an approach of Plan-write-revise
Write: Once we have described the message we must be clear on different
types of questions like what? When? why and where and how?
For example: Why am I writing this correspondence? What all
background information do I need?
Revise: Revising means checking the objective of the message and
analyzing the message to strengthen it. The details analysis of the writing
process is only 25% and the rest 75% is spent on writing and analyzing the
message to increase its strength.

28
 Written communication

Figure1:

Source:https://www.businesscommunicationarticles.com/effective-written-
communication-and-principles-of-effective-writing/
The above figure shows the details analyzing of the writing process for
effective communication.

3.2.1.2 Principles
We must follow Five C’s while writing i.e Clear, Concise, Complete,
Correct, and Courteous

1. Clear Message
Our content of the message should be clear and up to the point then only
the recipients will understand the message, we want to communicate with
them.
Example: Our college has a suggestion program in which faculties are
paid based on their performance and suggestion. In these examples, the
message is clear, and the purpose for the same.

2. Concise:
When our content is based on Concise we avoid irrelevant and
unnecessary words, for business communication to be effective, it must be
concise.
Example: Have you decided to accept our appraisal offer?

29
Soft Skills Development Lab 3. Complete:
Complete writing indicates how much our reader’s purpose of
understanding the message. we must also consider the intent of the
message our reader must be aware of.
Example: We will have a meeting at 8 AM on April 20, in Conference
room no :3 at Alen Hall.

4. Correct:
Correct writing indicates whether we have factual data, is the message
grammatically correct, paying attention to the details, and checking of
proofreading whether the writer has practiced the same. We must refer to
the previous format of correspondence and verify the same.
Example: You Carrier will not be affected by this change.

5. Courteous:
Courteous convey an image of the writer’s to outside of the organization
and market. So it becomes most important we maintain to create and
maintain goodwill. our message must convey the same image of courtesy
that we would be expressing through face-to-face communication.
Example: At best, Maya would be courteous to him.

3.2.1.3 language and style in an official letter

Effective written communication in any organization is the most critical
skill are required in which we must know which form of language we are
using and style too.
Language of the formal letter: In this digital era we need to compose a
well-crafted letter for communication still the dependence on letters is
existed as earlier, wherein our letter expresses our point of view, the
concern of it, etc…. As in the basics phrases like Dear sir, Sincerely,
Thank you, Best wishes are usually found in Formal letters, by the use of
these phrases we can give a formal look and feel for our letter. the
Language for this must be formal, friendly, polite, and precise.
Formal style: Here we will express the exact meaning of formal style
which is completely different from the informal style of letter writing
below table 1conists of a few keywords that will help you get a clear
understanding of the same.

30
Sr.no The formal style of letter Informal Style of Letter Written communication
1 Convey Pass on
2 Please accept my apologies Sorry
3 Proceed Go on
4 Dear Hi
5 Gratitude Thanks

Informal Letter Example: using style in it

31
Soft Skills Development Lab Formal Letter Example: Using styles in it

From the above examples, we can get an idea about the format and style
that we should use for writing an Informal and formal letter.

Tailor your style to get relevant results

In a mostly formal letter, we limit our options about the kind of language
we use, but we need to vary our style depending on the purpose of the
letter. Sometimes to have an effective impact on the letter we adopt a
forceful style, sometimes passive style, sometimes for marketing personal
style, and for making a complaint we use impersonal style. For
congratulating and thanksgiving we are using adjectives. The right choice
of style for a letter depends completely on the purpose of the message and
the relationship with the reader.
First Step: We must think about getting the right tone for a formal letter
i.e thinking about the relationship of you with the reader. And as Formal
letters are not conversational they must be handled friendly way i.e we
show a consideration for the reader.
Second Step: Take time to consider the purpose of the letter.
Example: Ramesh, Maya's husband did when we received a wonderful
job offer from Tata as a sales manager. He wants to write a letter to a
company thanking them for selecting and giving him such a wonderful
offer. He is unsure how to write it, on questioning himself the things are
clear like i.e What do I want them to say? I want to inform them that I
have accepted their job offers. He wants to thank the company for an
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offer. So, Ramesh's tone of the letter shows that he is happy and content Written communication
for the same is clear.
Consider the circumstances particular styles are more effective than others
i.e
1. Personal and friendly style 2. Impersonal and unfriendly style.
Example1: Personal and friendly style:
Dear Customer,
At the State bank of India, we have understood the value of your time and
introduced a scheme that will be more effective for the online transaction
of loans process and LIC rather than visiting the bank.
I am looking forward to helping for the same purpose.
Warm regards
Maya Nair
General Manager
Example 2:Impersonal and unfriendly style:
Your application to our MBA College cannot be accepted. The refusal is
based that your Entrance Score doesn’t meet the criteria of the campus. As
the admission policy clearly states that if the student fails to achieve the
score for the same will not be accepted for the further admission process.
While writing a bad newsletter i.e refusing, permission, making
complaints we must always try to use Impersonal and unfriendly style.
Avoid Overused Phrases:
Many a time we try to use overused phrases like we acknowledge receipt
of ….. after careful consideration ….Enclosed herewith. I am writing this
letter to inform you…one of the common failings of such words are which
is unnecessarily used rather than using simple and shorter phrases.
Examples:… during the course …also it must be mentioned that many
people….
We must use words over time instead of during as we must make the
sentences must more simple to communicate more effectively.
Make Letters Gender Neutral:
Language and society reflect one another. It is important to pay attention
to communicators to recognize and respect what they need.
For example in older days most of the physicians were male and
secretaries are female the cultural habits of references were he and she
respectively.

33
Soft Skills Development Lab "Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor, who I hope is friendly."
"Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor; I hope the doctor is friendly."
"Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor; I hope he or she is friendly."
The pronouns like he, his, himself must be used only to refer to a male
person, It's always safe to use plural pronouns like their, they, etc...

3.2.2 Business letters

A business letter is a professional letter that is sent from one company to
another, these letters can be used by professional correspondence between
business clients, stakeholders as well as individuals. They will be multiple
scenarios where we need to tell our client about our products or convince
someone to attend the event or a thank you note for all mentioned a well-
structured business letter plays a vital role. writing a business letter
becomes a tedious job when we are unfamiliar with the concepts.
For example: if we don’t know how to address others and how to greet
them or close our notes? We need to follow below mentioned different
types of business letters.

Types of Business letters

1. Cover Letter:
It's a one-page document that a candidate must submit along with their
resumes, It's an important document that shows your skills, achievements
and you are fit for the post for which you are applying.
Tips :
1. Never try to fit your entire career in your cover letter
2. Never mention skills that you don’t have
3. Keep it short, concise, and to the point.

2. Business Invites:
It’s a formal invitation letter where we invite a company for an event of
ours, in case if we are organizing a causal event then it must be mentioned
in the tome of your invitation letter to them.

Tips:
1. mention time, date, and venue clearly
2. Set a friendly follow-up for a reminder for an event.
3. Letter must be written in such a way that it provides an anticipation of
an event.

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3. Complaint Letter Written communication
It’s a formal disappointment letter, we can report as a bad experience,
poor customer services, or in case the company products don’t reach our
expectations.
Tips:
1. Always be professional and cordial
2. Don’t get too much emotion to express your anger, instead of it state
your facts properly

4. Letter of Resignation
It's a document which notifies that you are leaving your job whether you
working on big shot companies or a normal coffee shop you must follow a
proper protocol to submit your registration before we leave.
Tips:
1. Don’t start complaining, stick to the facts and keep the letter tone
simple.
2. Thank your boss and company for the offer which they have provided
you.

5. Order Letters
It’s also known as purchase letters. It is a legal document between a seller
and buyers

Tips:
1. Be clear and concise to avoid misunderstanding
2. Include all the points that the seller needs to deliver the order and get
the payment.

6. Letter of Recommendation:
It’s a letter of recommendation for someone for a job, internships, etc…
Tips:
1. Include the points why you believe that candidate can excel in this role
2. Be honest and don’t write if you are not aware of that candidates.

3.2.2.1 Application Letter:

A job application letter is essentially a detailed pitch to convince a
prospective employer for the job position to which you are applying in
addition to an interest in your job, letters highlight qualification and skills
details. A well-structured application will present a creditable picture for

35
Soft Skills Development Lab you as an individual and professional which can make an excellent
impression on employers.
Steps involved in writing a Job Application Letter:

1. Read the job advertisement details:

Once read compare and make an exact note of requirements and compare
the same with your qualifications, skills, and work experience. Mark
keywords and key phrases about the job opening. It's a good approach to
research a company and mention your knowledge of the business.

2. Review professional Letter formats:

It will help to analyze different formats and to adapt one for the purpose.
For Example: Using left alignment with single spacing, one-two inch
margins, and font size of 10-12 and style in Times new roman.

3. Write a Clear heading:

If we are using paper copy as a job application letter to the employer we
need to include name, address, email, phone number, and date. if we need
we can mention the name of the recruiters, name of the company and its
address. If we are sending it by email, it is not necessary to mention it, if
we feel it has to be mentioned by the employer we can mention it.

4. Address the letter to the right person:

We must know the recruiter and address of the same, we can write as
“Hello, Mr. Mrs/Ms” or “Dear Ms followed with their surname. If we
don’t have their names then we can use “ As Hiring Manager”.To make a
professional and courteous. Addressing the right person with their name
plays a vital role to gain their attention and make them read further.

5. Begin by expressing interest in the job:

At the start of the letter, we must mention our professional title, for the job
which we are applying for and from we have read the job advertisement.

6. Describe your eligibility for the job:

You can elaborate further on the skills and work experience of the job
which will help them to fulfill their job requirements. we can mention the
similar work projects that are successfully carried out. which will help the
hiring manager to access your capability related to your job position.

7. Highlights your attributes:

We can focus on our eligibility job position, we can mention certain
personal aspects which suit for the job, mention about your personality,
mention about your strong communication.

36
8. End the letter with a thank you: Written communication
We must end our letter on a good note and politely. We must end our letter
with an “I Look forward to hearing from you Followed by sincerely and
best regards.
Example:

Job Application letter template:

To: Email of the company
Subject: Application for ABC Job position at QPR Company

Message Body:
Salutation (Dear/Hello Madam/Mr/Mrs)
We must start like from you cam across about the job details and express
your interest and what qualification you hold.
Provide details of previous work profile and exceed the employer’s
expectation.
Thank the hiring manager for reading the letter
Sincerely/Best regards
Your name
Mobile Phone
Email

3.2.2.2 CV Writing
CV Stands for Curriculum vitae. It is considered that in the US, Canada,
and Australia, a CV is a document we use for academic purposes. I outline
our scholarly details.CV is termed a resume in America when is used for
applying for a job. It's not a cover letter
1. We need to select the best CV format(Proper order of sections)
CV header with contact information
● CV summary
● Work experience
● Education
● Skills
● Additional Sections
● While filing the details we need to follow the golden CV format rule

37
Soft Skills Development Lab 1. Choose clear and legible fonts.
Where you can choose Times new Roman using 11 to 12 pt font size and
single spacing, for name and section titles use 14 to 16 pt font size.

2. Be consistent with your CV format.

● We need to maintain a one-inch margin on all four sides
● Make sure your CV headings are uniform
● Use only single date format.
3. Don’t cram your CV with graphical images
As some white space is needed for recruiters to think and as in your CV
will be in black and white so no use of it.

4. Get photos off of your CV

If included try to maintain a professional photo for the same.
5. Make CV brief and relevant:
Make the CV more Precise and crisp to grasp more of your information.

38
Add the Contact information in the right way: Written communication
● Full name
● Professional title
● Email address
● Telephone number
● LinkedIn profile
● Home address
3.2.2.3 Email Etiquette:
Email Etiquette is a set of protocols for writing or answering email
socially or at a professional level. It differs from whom we are sending
from professional to a personal level.
Email Etiquette is important as it matters a lot our expression and what we
want to communicate in the email we don’t use any voice or expression so
we must convey the written content clearly and precisely.
Email Etiquette to follow:
It differs from purpose, who is the recipient, in which industry we are
working some basics level etiquette which need to be followed are:
Professional Email Address:
Email Address should be your first name or the combination of first or last
name we can use a combination of numbers with names to avoid
confusion.
Maintain a professional tone:
When writing a professional email we need to maintain polite and friendly
tone. we need to share the factual information rather than connect it
emotionally. Never use nicknames in the salutation of the email and we
should not use ALLCAPS it indicates aggressive behavior.
Mark the recipient's in the appropriate tags:
‘To’ is the place where you need to consider those people to take an
action. CC(Carbon Copy) where we want people not to take any actions
but be aware of the changes be made.BCC(Blind Carbon Copy) we the
entity but their IDs are kept secret. Never Email any confidential data as
even after deleting from inbox it remains in server.
Reply carefully:
We need to re-read it and review it before we send it across, we need to be
careful whether we are not hitting the reply-all icon, always check the
grammar before you mail.

39
Soft Skills Development Lab Keep the text clear and brief:
When we write we need to start with the main points than the next content,
we should be sending long emails.

3.2.3 Documents for the meeting:

A meeting can be defined as concurrence or coming together for at least a
quorum of members to transact either ordinary or special business of the
company.

Documents of the meeting can be divided into three parts:

1. Notice
2. Agenda
3. Minutes of Meeting
Notice: This is an invitation in writing to a concerned person for attending
a meeting. Preparation of the notice is an important part of any meeting. If
we fail to serve a notice anymore then conducting a meeting becomes
invalid. They are different types of meetings that are been conducted by
notice is required most essentially by i.e Regular, Special and Annual
meeting.

11 important components need to be included in the meeting:

1. Company Name
2. Type of Meeting
3. Meeting Participants
4. Date of the Meeting
5. Date of the Notice.
6. Time of Meeting
7. Purpose of Meeting
8. Location of Meeting
9. Video Conference attendance
10. Meeting Agenda
11. Name and Title of the sender of the Notice.
Agenda:
Agenda is a list of meeting activities in a specific order in which they are
to be taken up, It usually includes one or more specific items of business
to be acted upon. It gives attendees prior notice of what all will be

40
discussed, it acts as a time management tool and helps to keep the topic Written communication
focused.
For effective Agenda designing following points need to be considered:
1. Make the meeting objectives clear
2. List agenda topics as tasks
3. Clarify expectations and responsibilities
4. Estimate a realistic amount of time
5. Getting feedback from the team
Minutes of Meeting:
Meeting minutes are called meeting notes, it's a written records of
everything that has taken place during a meeting.
It mainly needs to capture the features like:
1. Name of the participants.
2. Date and Time of the meeting
3. Agenda items covered
4. Decisions made
5. Follow action need to be taken
Practicals:
1. Write a Sample CV for Applying for a Job Application in the IT
industry?
3. Explain the Points need to be considered for the written
communication?
3. Explain the structure of the Documentation of any meetings?
4. Write an Email to your hiring manager to drop an accepteance letter of
Job Offer from Tata Interactive systems by following an Email
Etiquette?
5. What are the style we need to maintain while writing a formal invitation
for XYZ company
References:
1.https://www.nuclino.com/articles/meeting-minutes-template-
example#:~:text=minutes%20templates%20%26%20examples-,
What%20are%20meeting%20minutes%3F,to%20accomplish%20durin
g%20their%20meeting.
2. https://www.zoho.com/blog/mail/15-email-etiquette-rules.html
3. https://www.nuclino.com/articles/team-meeting-agenda-examples
4. https://zety.com/blog/how-to-write-a-cv
41
Soft Skills Development Lab 5. https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/job-application-letter
6. https://blog.bit.ai/business-letters/
7. https://hmhub.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Unit-18-The-Language-
of-Formal-Letters.pdf
8. https://www.uwgb.edu/careers/resumes/writing-professional-letters/
9.https://www.businesscommunicationarticles.com/effective-written-
communication-and-principles-of-effective-writing/
10. https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-communication/written-
communication/written-communication-meaning-advantages-and-
limitations/70195



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 Module IV

4
PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES
4.0 Introduction:
Presentation means to covey a message from the speaker to the audience.
It can be lecture, demonstration, present new idea, etc...
9 effective techniques we can use at public speaking while presenting are
the following:
1. We must limit our presentation to a Core idea.
2. We have maintained an audience at our end.
3. Introduce people to your accents.
4. Use the language that the audience is more comfortable with.
5. Spark curiosity in your audience.
6. Present data visually to the audience.
7. We must be the center of attraction, not our slides.
8. Use technology if necessary
9. Practice it again and again
4.1 Planning the presentation:
Fig 1:

To make a good presentation requires a lot of planning,

Like maintaining proper planning followed by Identifying the aim of the
presentation, then knowing our audience which will, in short, helps us to
define the key message for the same and finally outline the scope of our
presentation.

43
Soft Skills Development Lab We need to follow the details for the presentation:
1. Brainstorm and outline what we want to deliver and want our audience
to know.
2. Research about the topic
3. We need to write an outline structure for the same.
4. We need to plan on Visual aids for our presentation.
5. Practice and Practice.
4.1.2 Structure of presentation
The structure of presentation plays a vital for any presenter as in we need
to follow the seven most important points
1. It must start with a Fact and story (i.e “what is”, “What could be”)
2. Explanation: With a purpose to understand
3. Pitch: Storytelling is used to connect to the situation
4. The Darma: Also called a hero’s journey which follows the main
character from the beginning of the story to the end.
5. Situation-Complication-Resolution: It is a 3 element linked line.
6. Situation-opportunity-Resolution: A Structure is perfect to show
something is not that hard to fix.
7. Hook, Meat, and Payoff: It's more like spoken word progression.

4.1.3: Presentation
Following steps shows the detail of how to create a presentation using Ms.
Power Point:

1. Create a presentation:

44
 Presentation techniques

2. Add slides:

3. Add and Format text

4. Add a picture, shape, and more

5. Save the file and extension is ppt or pptx

4.1.4:Evidence based research:
Is the use of prior research systematically and transparently to inform a
new study. It’s appraising the quality of the evidence which is an actual
part of evidence-based research. It’s represented as a pyramid shape in
which smaller, weaker, and more abundant research.

45
Soft Skills Development Lab Fig2: Steps involved in it:

We need to follow the steps like Assess, Ask, Acquire, Appraise, Apply
and Evaluate.

4.1.5 Delivery the Presentation

Following are the few tips which we need to note while delivering a
presentation to get access to the audience,
1. Focus on your non-verbal communication.
2. Take a while to think during your presentation.
3. Pay attention to your volume.
4. Try to speak clearly so that the audience can easily understand what we
say
5. Avoid taking lectures practicing some activities, asking questions, or
using visual tools.
4.1.6 Handling questions:
For handling questions we need to follow the below instructions.
1. We need to tell the audience about when we will be taking the
questions.
2. We need to anticipate questions in advance as we should know what
kind of question can be anticipated.
3. Realize the questions are the good things in which we need to
understand that they are interested in the content.
4. We need to make eye contact with a questioner.
5. We need to take a big pause before we launch our answer.
6. We need to understand what kind of questions they are asking and at
what point they are asking.
7. Acknowledgment how valuable questions they are asking.
8. We need to maintain the status as cool.
46
9. We need to be honest if we don’t know the answer. Presentation techniques
10. We need to divide it into sections if the questions are too long.
11. We need to cross-verify our questionnaire after we have answered.
4.2 Time Management
It’s all organizing, planning how we need to divide our task. A Person
who does good time management will be in lower stress and greater career
ahead.
Following are the benefits of Time management:
1. Stress Relief:
We need to always follow our task schedules as it helps us to maintain the
flow with less anxiety.
6. More time:
People who can manage their time will spend their time on hobbies and
other creative activities.

7. More opportunities:
Managing time well will lead to more opportunities by avoiding other
trivial activities, most organization looks for this kind of quality.
4. Ability to realize the goals:
Individuals who have a good practice of time management will be able to
achieve better time management and achievement of goals.

4.3 Visual aids:

Visual aids are a material that gives shapes and some forms to words,
some of the types are physical samples, pictures, videos, infographics,
etc…It includes visual aids like an Overhead projector, interactive boards,
presentations, etc…
We need to use different types of visual aids for enhances our audiences:

1. Videos:
Which gives an audience a clear picture it has been noted that27.14% of
people can understand the concepts much more using videos.

2. Demonstrations:
We need to demonstrate the concepts which are not imaginary to make the
concepts more clear example in a subject like physics and biology the
concepts can't be understood clearly until it is demonstrated.

47
Soft Skills Development Lab 3. Role Plays:
Comedy shows are always memorable as in they put themselves in
somebody else’s shoes or put themselves into an imaginary condition.

4. Props:
It helps people to understand abstract concepts like targets, milestones,
and vision, as it has been noted that 3D visualization is more effective than
2D which very less number of individuals use in today’s trend.
5. Slides:
Our slides must be more effective as it has been noted that 12.86% votes
that slides are at the number 5 in the list as in nowadays many well-known
software have come in which we can create an outstanding presentation.
6. Audio: It can make impactful on our presentation as it adds up to the
emotional connectivity of our presentation.
7. Handouts: It can be activated from which we distributed to our
audience and can be some content which they need to practice after the
session.
8. White board: It can be more effective for a limited audience and can
be a very effective tool used for visualization purposes and which make
the people understand the concepts more clearly.
9. Blackboard: It’s considered typically a classroom communication in
which chalk is made use for drawing visual diagrams.
10. Flipchart: It’s a pad with a large sheet of paper that is maintained at the
upper end of the whiteboard or canvas, Its does not require any kind of
software.

4.4 Personality:
When pursuing our career personality plays a vital role in which it
specifies our strengths and weakness, it helps us to understand how we
interact with others. As in our strengths helps us to achieve our career
path, wherein our weakness helps us to focus more on improvement.
Meaning: It can consider as a set of behavior, cognition, and emotional
patterns which has evolved from our environmental factors.
Personality Determinant: Basically on the concern of psychologists it
mainly is determined at four sectors like Physical(Biological),
Social(Community), Psychological (Emotional patterns), and intellectual
(our values and beliefs).
Traits: The best five Traits which can be considered for personality are
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and
neuroticism. Openness characterizes imagination and insightfulness.

48
Conscientiousness can be considered as high levels of control, Presentation techniques
thoughtfulness, good impulse, and goal-directed behaviors.
Extraversion: It can be characterized as excitability, sociability,
talkativeness, assertiveness, and high amounts of emotional
expressiveness.
Agreeableness: It captures terms such as trust, altruism, kindness,
affection, and other prosocial behaviors.
Neuroticism: It indicates parameters like sadness, moodiness, and
emotional instability.

Personality types and they are, impact on career growth:

It can be divided into five key sectors like
1. Rising Star: In which an individual gets the high-profile projects that
grant them with high profile projects and get a chance to show their
performance at the upper management level.
2. Worker Bee: an Individual may get a time-intensive, complex project
but not necessary to get a high profile project which can be showcased
to upper management people.
3. Tough Board: It is an intermediate state between RisingStar and
Worker bee, like her an individual is considered as a hammer.
4. Contentess: It can be referred to as “status Quo” they are more focused
on taking new opportunities at the workplace.
5. Pleaser: An individual who is always praised for their positively at
work which is recognized as her best trait.

4.5 Organization decision making:

It’s a process in which one or more units of an organization make the
decision.
Different levels of the decision can be made:
Strategic Decisions: typically Top Management Teams, CEOs, and
Boards of Directors make the decisions eg: should we need to downsize
our organization.
Tactical Decisions: This decision is taken by managers: Why type of new
product we should market now?
Operational Decisions: Employees throughout the organization takes the
decision eg: What should I need to say to our new customers?.
Additional to these different types of the Decision model is been used as
Rational, Bounded rationality, Intuitive, and creativity.

49
Soft Skills Development Lab 4.6 Attitude: Meaning, Components of Attitude, changing attitude
and its impact on career growth
Meaning: It can consider as the mental and emotional entity that inheres a
characteristic of a person.
Components of attitude: It can be classified as Cognitive, Affective, and
Conative which is as mentioned in below fig 3:Components of Attitude:

It’s on Carrer growth: It can be determined in 3 ways they are:

1. Allow Adversity to Work in Your Favor: we need to be focused on our
work
2. Encourage Peer Feedback to Define What Makes You Great: Tell your
peers to give you an honest feedback
3. Enable Yourself and Your Future: Need to be aware of our competitors
in the current market as we can only control our career.

4.7 Perception and values:

Perception: It’s a primary concern of an individual process as indifferent
people will have different perceptions of identical situations. People
behave on what they perceive is right rather than considering what is the
reality is.
Values: It can be considered as a judgmental element of what is right,
good, or desirable for an individual.

4.8 Motivation and Leadership: Concept, Importance.

Motivation: It can be considered as desires, needs, or wants of an
individual to get fulfilled, considered as a process that stimulates the
person to accomplish his goals.
We need to focus on the 3 most important motivation concepts i.e
extrinsic, intrinsic, and effectiveness.
The extrinsic task is performed as an activity to attain some outcome.
50
Intrinsic is an inherent satisfaction rather some separable consequences. Presentation techniques
Effectiveness if a person is neither feels Extrinsic nor intrinsic will be
motivated to do something.
Leadership: It's a core role that helps to direct an organization's resources
for improving efficiency and achievement of goals.
The specific importance of leadership are:
1. Initiates action: the starting point of our work
2. Motivation: As a leader, he/she must motivate the employees to achieve
the skills soon.
3. Providing guidance: He must only supervise but also need to guide
them.
4. Coordination: The synchronization needs to be achieved as they need to
be proper control between people and workers in an organization for a
smoother workaround.

4.9 Goal setting: SMART Goals, personal and professional goals.

Goals: It can be referred to as the aim or desire to achieve success in life.
Professional goals: It’s a goal to achieve with our education and career.
Personal goals: It is connected with our health, happiness, and wellbeing.
Smart Goals: We must be aware of our goals are clear and achievable
We must use SMART goals as in 1. Specific: Eg, Who is
involved,2.Measurable: Eg, How many? 3. Achievable:Eg: How we can
accomplish this goal? 4. Relevant Eg: Am I the right person to reach this
goal? 5. Time-bound Eg, When I do it?

4.10 Time and Self-Management.

Time is itself considered to be self-management as we need to proritize
our work and use some tools like calender or timer to schedule our daily
routine with a more effective day startup plan.

4.11. Learning in a group, Understanding Work Teams, Dynamics of

Group Behavior, Techniques for effective participation
We need to understand the skills which each member in the group excels
with as it will help us to do our work in more effective ways. Which will
help us to know about how each individual in our behaves.
Four things we must keep a note of for effectiveness in Group dynamics:

51
Soft Skills Development Lab 1. Strong leadership is important within a group

2. Recognize how personalities affect team dynamics

3. Understand the life cycle of a group

4. Communication

4.12 Etiquette- General & Business Etiquette, Body language

Etiquette: It’s a set of conventional rules of personal behavior in polite
society.
General Etiquette: It’s a basic rule like Listen before speaking, don’t
complain, say” Thank you”,” Be Puntcal”.
Business Etiquette: We need to follow a few tips like arriving on time,
dressing Approximately, Speaking kindly, Avoid Gossip, Showing interest
in others, watching our body language, etc...
Body Language:Its also one type of communication in which physical
behaviors are used to convey a message.it could be facial expressions,
gestures, eye movements, or touch.

4.13. Emotional intelligence of self and SWOC

Emotional Intelligence covers our personality and social skills it also
includes interpersonal behavior. Personal SWOC/SWOT is an analysis of
the person based on his/her Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
threats.

4.14 Threats v/s Challenges and Dos and Donts of a presentation/

meetings Online & offline. (presenter & members).
While doing the presentation/Meetings we need to face more challenges
and threats to overcome all parameters we need to follow following Do
and Don’ts of it.
1. Don’t use a lot of text on your slides.
2. Don’t use the same font size throughout your presentation slides.
3. Don’t use more bulletin points.
4. Do use few words for maintaining clear content
5. Do keep on switching for the font size throughout the presentation
6. Do use graphics and visual aids as much as possible.
7. Do maintain the content short and crisp.
4.15 Practicals:
1. Explain the process involved in making an effective presentation?
2.What all Parameters need to be involved in making your work
environment pleasant?

52
3. What all do and don’ts need to be considered for making presentation Presentation techniques
slides?
4. What is etiquette and how it can be achieved in the business era?
5. Design a presentation based on the topics like Conflict management and
Motivation by making use of all parameters of the presentation.
4.16 References:
1. https://ezcast-pro.com/stories/effective-presentation-techniques/
2. shorturl.at/nqAZ8
3. https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/presentations/planning
4. https://virtualspeech.com/blog/how-to-structure-your-presentation
5. https://visme.co/blog/presentation-structure/
6. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-presentation-in-
powerpoint-422250f8-5721-4cea-92cc-202fa7b89617
7. https://libguides.umsl.edu/ebp/process
8. https://algonquincollege.libguides.com/studyskills/delivering-
presentations#:~:text=Tips%20for%20Delivering%20a%20Good%20
Presentation&text=It%20will%20make%20you%20look,such%20as%
20rocking%2C%20or%20tapping.
9. https://www.secondnature.com.au/blog/how-to-handle-questions-
during-a-presentation/
10. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/time-
management-list-tips/
11. https://www.orai.com/blog/visual-aids-in-
presentation/#:~:text=A%20visual%20aid%20is%20any,PowerPoint%
20presentations%2C%20and%20interactive%20boards.
12. https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-
2795422
13. https://fairygodboss.com/articles/5-personality-traits-and-their-impact-
on-your-career-path
14. https://open.lib.umn.edu/organizationalbehavior/chapter/11-2-
understanding-decision-making/
15. shorturl.at/syI04
16. https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2011/11/28/3-ways-your-
attitude-will-determine-your-career/
17. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm



53
 Module V

5
EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SPEAKING
5.0 Introduction:
Public Speaking is considered an art of speaking face-to-face to a live
audience. It is also called oratory, as we explore one of the most important
human fears. As it is said that 77% of the population faces some kind of
anxiety when it comes to public speaking. We are using our voices to
present our public speaking skills. Public speaking can be considered to be
a small group or a huge audience.

5.1 What is Public Speaking:

It can be said to a presentation to performing live in front of an audience.
It’s important in both business, education, and public areas. Presentation is
different from public speaking, in which presentation is available every
time but public speaking is constrained based on the time. Few parameters
we try to gain when we do public speaking some of them like improves
confidence, stronger deductive skills, better research skills, etc…In
management degrees for salespeople and executives, public speaking is an
essential element for them.
To become an effective speaker we need to follow the following points
1. writing an effective speech.
2. Overcoming the fear of speaking
3. Practicing the speech again and again.
4. To prepare the presentation slides
5. To give the speech.

54
 Effective public speaking

Fig 1:

5.2 Differences between Public speaking and effective Public Speaking

Public Speaking: It's an oral presentation in which a speech is delivered to
a live audience. We need to follow a few tips on public speaking

55
Soft Skills Development Lab 1. Nervousness is Normal: The best way to overcome anxiety is to
prepare.
2. Need to be aware of the audience: our focus should be on the audience,
not us.
3. We need to organize the material more effectively: The need to
achieve our purpose.
4. Use of Humor, tell some stories: We need to create a few jokes in
between and maintain the session quite interesting.
5. Grabbing attention at the beginning and closing with a dynamic
ending.
Effective Public Speaking: It’s also a form of oral presentation in which a
speech is delivered to a live audience but there is a layer difference
between public and effective public speaking.
Effective Speaking can be achieved by using the following pointers:
1. Very High confidence level
2. Practicing not memorizing
3. Speak with a natural voice.
4. Keep it short and sweet
5. Paint the picture with storytelling
Fig 2:

5.3 Selecting the topic for public speaking

Selecting a topic sometimes can become more problematic than providing
the actual speech. Basically when we choose based on the content in
which we know more about it. We need to ask 3 important questions to us
before we select the topic name.

56
1. How much do I know about the topic: Our audience should get the Effective public speaking
consideration that a speaker is an excellent person with good
knowledge.
2. Am I am passionate about the topic: Our passion for the topic will grab
our attention based on eye contact, body language, etc...
3. Will the audience is interested in the topic: If they don’t feel like
learning new concepts from your end they will never turn up.
Generally, they are a few audience characteristics that will have an
impact on your topic selection criteria.
1. Average Age
2. Gender
3. Ethnic
4. Types of career

Fig1 :

The above show the 8 segments which need to be considered they are as
follows:
Segment 1:Great Speech topics:
Segment2:Excellent content but lack of enthusiasm
Segment 3:Excellent Speech topics for a different audience.
Segment 4:Interesting topic we know nothing about
Segment 5:Speech topic someone else should deliver.
Segment 6:Topic we are but do not interest us

57
Soft Skills Development Lab Segment7: Personal hobbies, not speech topics.
Segment 8:Topics neither we care nor our audience care about.

5.4 Understanding the audience:

Audience analysis becomes an important concept as it deals with their
interest, level of understanding, attitudes, and beliefs. when we understand
the audience we know that they will respond to us based on the queries of
the session. When it comes to students at a different level, we try to
understand the perspective of the level of understanding so it becomes
very easy for the speaker to explore the contents.
Our speech must be an Audience-Centered Approach as it will help us
to understand the clear need and wants of our session.
Finding common ground by Taking Perspective: As during a speech we
need to create a link between the speaker and the audience.
Gathering and Interpreting the information: Collecting the
demographic information will give us a clear idea about the crowd area.
Practical benefits for the speaker: It will basically help the audience to
understand the things that interest them.
Look inward to Uncover Blinders:We need to ourselves into the shoes
of the audience wherein this will help us to know about them in more
detail.
Fig 5:

58
5.5 Organizing the main ideas Effective public speaking
Organizing the main ideas could be effective to flow with the strategy
fixed by our end.
It systematically helps with clarity of thought, it will also increase the
likelihood that our speech will be effective.
We can organize the main idea as follows:
Chronological: Maintain all the content in a sequence.
Compare and contrast: We need to be in a proper flow on how we
connect and what is exactly the conceptual differences between the two.
Cause and effect: We can explore the cause of the problem if it is
unnoticed what kind of effect can be faced.
The structutre : Introduction: Body :conclusion
Examples we can see in Fig 2 shows a clear image of organizing the
ideas

59
Soft Skills Development Lab

5.6 Language and style choice in the speech

For any type of speaking, we need a source called language, and we have
different styles to read and write each language. Language can be
60
considered as gestures, sounds, and symbols to convey a message or to Effective public speaking
make a communication. For any word to represent we need to specify the
need for the usage of that word. For example, we have Denotative and
Connotative Meanings of words. Denotative refers to dictionary words and
connotative means like a word blue can indicate the state of depression or
whether the sky is blue etc….
Basically, in 12 ways the oral and written language differs Oral language
has a smaller variety of words. which is taken from reference no 7.
1. Oral language has words with fewer syllables.
2. Oral language has shorter sentences.
3. Oral language has more self-reference words (I, me, mine).
4. Oral language has fewer quantifying terms or precise numerical
words.
5. Oral language has more pseudo quantifying terms
(many, few, some).
6. Oral language has more extreme and superlative words
(none, all, every, always, never).
7. Oral language has more qualifying statements (clauses beginning
with unless and except).
8. Oral language has more repetition of words and syllables.
9. The oral language uses more contractions.
10. Oral language has more interjections (“Wow!,” “Really?,” “No!,”
“You’re kidding!”).
11. Oral language has more colloquial and nonstandard words
(McCroskey, et al., 2003).
Below mentioned Fig 3 and 4 show the clear differences between style and
Language means.

61
Soft Skills Development Lab Fig 3:

Fig 4:

5.7 Delivering the speech

Delivering a Speech requires real good skills we need to follow the below
tips for an effective speech
1. We need to deliver our performance rather just than a speech.
2. We need to have excellent eye contact throughout the speech.
3. Posture made for the speech matters a lot.
4. We need to speak about what we know and care about.

62
Fig 5: Effective public speaking

While delivering a speech our face,eyes and body must be in proper

delivery.
5.8 Voice Clarity: Very important when it comes to speech or public
speaking our noise need to be clear and simple to avoid confusion during
the session.

Fig 6:

We need to follow the concepts like

1. Improve our Diction(Try Tongue twisters, Read aloud, Always
practice speaking with a cork in your mouth, Pay attention to tone,
Avoid up talk. )

63
Soft Skills Development Lab 2. Taking Your Time While Speaking(Don't rush when speaking,
Control your breath, Swallow excess saliva, Know what you are
going to say, Walk it out, Repeat words that are hard to say. )
3. Exercising Your Muscles(Practice jaw exercises to enhance the
clarity of speech, Watch your posture, Warm your vocal chords,
Avoid speaking with clenched teeth, Stay hydrated.
Practical’s:
CASE STUDY: Veronica is an experienced screenwriter working on a
pitch about a zombie thriller she wants to target to agents and executives.
She has a great project she's excited about, but no one has bitten yet.In the
assessment, Veronica reveals that she loves talking about her project, so
much so that she doesn't finish every sentence. She also tends to leave the
audience behind with her references to other shows and dramatic devices.
Veronica needs help paring her ideas down into small sentences that pop
with imagery, and both start and end strongly. Because this is a pitch to
executives she needs a 30-second “elevator” speech, along with a longer
2-to-3-minute version. Veronica needs to be able to pitch this in a very
personal “one on one” style and also be able to do it in a bigger room with
a larger audience. We can probably get Veronica up to speed in three
sessions.
Questions:
1. What does the above case study say?
2. What kind of problems can be interpreted?
3. Specify the title for the above case?
CASE STUDY: Barbara is an experienced manager in her company. She
has recently been promoted. One of her new responsibilities includes
making a quarterly progress report to her division of 100 employees.
Barbara indicated in the answers to her questionnaire that this is the
biggest meeting she's ever led and the stakes are high.She also indicated
that she is very nervous speaking in front of people.
During the assessment, Barbara performs her speech. We notice that
Barbara tends to look at the floor, avoiding eye contact with the audience,
and trailing off at the ends of her sentences. She sounds apologetic, even
though the report is largely good news. She also has far too many slides in
her deck and far too much information on each slide. And, while she is
providing a lot of information, it's not clear what the big takeaways are
supposed to be.
Barbara needs help with both her delivery and her content. Her over-
reliance on overloaded slides is probably a defense mechanism as if to say,
“the more information I can cram onto each slide, the better I will look.”
Questions:
1. What does the case talk about?
2. What kind of problems the case is focusing on?
64
3. Specify the suitable title for the same? Effective public speaking
4. Can ordinary people do much public speaking?
5. What are the tips need to noted for public speaking?
6. Differences between Public Speaking and Effective Public Speaking?
CASE STUDY:
The study reported in this paper investigates the frequency and distribution
of speech errors, as well as the influence of the task type on their rate. The
participants of the study were 101 engineering students in Croatia. A
recorded speech sample in the English language (L2) lasting for
approximately ten hours was transcribed, whereby more than three and a
half thousand speech errors were recorded. Morphological errors were
dominant due to a significantly frequent omission of articles. The
distribution of different subcategories of lexical errors pointed to a
relatively low frequency of unintended L1 switches, indicating that the
participants were able to separate the two languages during lexical access.
Statistical testings of the influence of the task type on speech errors
displayed that the retelling of a chronological order of events resulted in a
significantly higher rate of syntactic errors if compared to other tasks. Due
to limited attentional resources and insufficient knowledge, the speaker
cannot process the message within the time constraints. The rate of lexical
and phonological errors depended on the frequency of use, that is, less
frequently used words were more susceptible to lexical errors than high-
frequency words. The retelling of a chronological order of events is a
demanding task, for this reason, this task type should be more practiced in
foreign language teaching.

Questions:
1.Based on the case mentioned above identify the type of language and
speech been used?
2.What all problems are been mentioned for the same?
3.Why we need to consider the problem of language at athe highest?
References:
1. https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-is-public-speaking--cms-
31255.
2. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-
businesscommunicationmgrs/chapter/effective-public-speaking/
3. https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/10-tips-for-improving-your-
public-speaking-skills/
4. https://virtualspeech.com/blog/guide-choosing-successful-speech-topic
5. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
communications/chapter/the-importance-of-audience-analysis/
65
Soft Skills Development Lab 6. https://uark.pressbooks.pub/speaking/chapter/organizing-a-speech/
7. https://uwm.pressbooks.pub/uwmpublicspeaking/chapter/the-
importance-of-language-and-style/
8. https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-
insights/articles/7-tips-for-giving-a-killer-speech/
9. https://www.google.com/search?q=voice+clarity&tbm=isch&ved=2ah
UKEwiVmvzc9u32AhUBNLcAHaceBlAQ2-
cCegQIABAA&oq=voice+cla&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMgUIABC
ABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQg
AEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDoG
CAAQBxAeOgYIABAIEB46BAgAEBg6BwgjEO8DECc6CAgAELE
DEIMBOggIABCABBCxAzoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6CggAELED
EIMBEEM6BAgAEEM6BwgAELEDEENQnQxYmhZgrSFoAHAAe
AGAAZsDiAGRC5IBBzAuOS40LTGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6L
WltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=TFlEYpXEPIHo3LUPp72YgAU&bih
=657&biw=1366&rlz=1C1SQJL_enIN993IN993#imgrc=UHeOJ4qbw
s6XBM
10. https://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Your-Clarity-of-Speech
11. https://musepublicspeaking.com/case-studies-1
12. shorturl.at/qINU0
13. shorturl.at/aqFPV
14. https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ells/article/view/10718



66
 Module VI

6
GROUP DISCUSSION
6. Aim: To learn Group Discussion Skills, Evaluation components, Do’s
and Don’ts of GD
6.1.1 Objectives:
1. To expose students to positive attitudes and behaviours and to help
them develop them through activities
2. To allow students to learn thoroughly prior to the group discussion and
perform in such a way that you bring the selectors' attention.
3. group exercises are used to develop and strengthen students’ soft
skills.
4. To expose students to positive attitudes and behaviours and to help
them develop them through activities.
6.1.2 Theory:
6.2.2.1 What is a Group Discussion?
"Group" is the term refers to a group of people who have regular contact
and interaction and who work together to attain a common set of goals.
"Discussion" refers to the process by which two or more people discuss
information or ideas face to face in order to achieve a goal. The purpose,
or end product, could be expanded knowledge, agreement leading to
action, disagreement leading to competition or settlement, or simply
clearing the air or maintaining a system.
A group discussion, sometimes known as a GD, is a sort of discussion in
which participants share ideas or activities. The participants in the group
discussion are connected by a single fundamental vision. Based on that
idea, each member of the group represents his or her point of view.

Fig1: Pictorial representation of GD Source [1]

67
Soft Skills Development Lab Group discussions are essential in the academic, business, and
administrative realms. It is a methodical and deliberate interactive oral
approach. Oral communication is used to exchange ideas, thoughts, and
feelings here. The exchange of ideas occurs in a systematic and structured
manner. The participants sit almost in a semi-circle, facing each other, and
share their opinions on the assigned topic/issue/problem.

6.1.2.2 WHY GROUP DISCUSSIONS (GD)?

Group Discussion (GD) as a selection tool is becoming increasingly
popular for various reasons. GDs are typically held following the written
test to shortlist applicants for the next stage of the selection process. The
GD also assists the selection panel in rejecting candidates complete due to
low performance in the GD. This technique is increasingly being utilised
to pick professionals by professional educational institutions, particularly
business schools, and corporate houses. GD enables the selection panel to
watch, compare, and form views on a large number of applicants in a short
period. GD provides the assessment of certain traits and skills (such as
those listed below) in candidates that are not visible in a résumé or written
examination.

Fig 2 Various Aspects of GD Source[1]

▪ leadership qualities
▪ quality of participation
▪ analytical skills
▪ problem solving skills
▪ oral communication skills
▪ ability to handle people
▪ team spirit
▪ non-verbal behaviour
▪ conformation to norms
68
▪ decision-making ability Group Discussion
▪ inter-personal behaviour
▪ behaviour in a group
▪ body language
▪ how much importance do you give to the group objective as well as
your own?
▪ how well do you listen to viewpoints of others and how open-minded
are you in accepting views?
6.1.2.3 CONDUCT OF GROUP DISCUSSIONS (Process)

Fig 3: Stages to carry out GD Source[1]

1. A Group Discussion is often a formal discussion in which an invited
group of members participates. The procedure of a Group Discussion
begins with the topic being announced. The subject matter could be
technical, factual, or case studies.
2. The average number of participants is eight, but there is no guarantee
there will not be fifteen! They will be assigned a topic, which will
most likely be current and contentious.
3. Before beginning the GD, Participants will be given a few minutes,
approximately 3-5 minutes, to understand the issue and organise their
thoughts. In the case of a lengthy case statement, by evaluator can
potentially extend the time.

69
Soft Skills Development Lab 4. Any member of the group can start the topic. After the lead participant,
the subject can be continued by anyone in the group. Similarly,
everyone is allowed to speak. Participants in the group expressed their
opinions on the provided topic one after the other.
5. They will then be given 20 to 25 minutes to discuss the topic. The
time allotted for the discussion will be communicated to the
participants in advance by the evaluator/ panellist.
6. It concludes when the panellist terminates the discussion or when one
or more participants summarise the GD. Remember to cover the
discussed points if you are requested to provide a summary.
Participants present during the conversation are usually asked to
summarise it, which is an excellent opportunity for them to offer their
points. However, this does not suggest that everyone should be silent.
The summary should incorporate the main topics of the discussion as
well as the conclusion.
7. The final results are computed. The panellist assigns ratings based on
each participant's performance. Typically, four to five panellists are
used to evaluate the performance of candidates.
8. Keep few important things into mind. No one is designated as the
leader or coordinator of such GDs. The selection panel treats everyone
equally, but it is fairly uncommon for someone to take the initiative
and assume a leadership role. A GD is not generally governed by the
same procedural procedures that govern a formal discussion.
Candidates are free to speak whatever they want, whenever they want,
about the topic at hand. A candidate may speak in support of the
subject, in opposition to the subject, or a neutral manner. Everything is
dependent on each group member's interest and skill. As a result, the
applicants can discuss the subject without intervention from the
screening panel.

6.1.2.4 Here's how most group discussions work:

Typically, 8-10 candidates are formed into a leaderless group and given a
specific situation to examine and discuss within a time restriction.
Teacher, Group Leader may give a case study to the group, and they may
be asked to solve an issue. The group may be assigned a topic and asked to
discuss it. A panel will monitor the events and evaluate the group's
members.

6.1.2.5 How does Group Discussion differ from a Debate?

Group discussion is a cooperative group activity, whereas debate is a
competitive group process. In a debate, a speaker can only talk "for" or
"against" the topic, however in a GD, the speaker can express both. In a
debate, the final decision or conclusion is determined by voting, whereas
in a GD, the group reaches a group consensus.

70
6.1.2.6 Why is a group discussion an important activity at college Group Discussion
level?
The panel, usually made up of the company's technical and HR (Human
Resource) professionals, will monitor and evaluate the team members. The
rules of the GD - the time limit, the panel's expectations, and so on – are
stated soon after the group members are given the topic or case to debate.
The panel does not intervene in the discussion; instead, it simply observes.
The panel may, at its discretion, give them some time to think about the
matter before proceeding, or it may urge them to begin immediately. Each
candidate is expected to voice their support or opposition to the topic.
As a student, it teaches you how to debate and discuss the topic at hand
and how to articulate oneself on serious subjects and in formal settings. It
enhances your thinking, listening, and speaking abilities. It also boosts
your self-esteem. It is a useful tool for problem solving, decision making,
and personality evaluation. Academic success, popularity, and a
favourable entrance or job offer may all be ensured by GD talents. As a
result, it is critical to participate in a GD effectively and confidently.
Participants should talk confidently, demonstrate leadership abilities, and
motivate the group to attain its objectives.

6.1.3 Required Skills For Gd

6.1.3.1 Subject Knowledge:
Participants must possess a thorough understanding of the topic they are
supposed to speak. You must prepare yourself to talk on a wide range of
subjects. Be up-to-date with current events, national and international
affairs, burning social and economic topics, scientific and environmental
issues, key newspapers’ controversial topics, and any experience expected
of an educated person. As a group member, you are expected to contribute
substantially to the discussion. The originality of your ideas, knowledge,
initiative, and approach to the topic or case contribute to your success in
the group discussion. The best way to equip yourself is to read daily
newspapers, good magazines, national and international journals and also
watch new bulletins and informative programmes on the television.
Internet is the greatest boon which provides you with everything you are
looking for. The World Wide Web is a vast database of current authentic
materials that present multimedia information and react instantly to a
user’s input.
The more knowledgeable you are about the issue, the more eager and
confident you will be during the debate. Once you've grasped the topic or
issue, you should be able to produce and arrange thoughts so that you can
convey them effectively. You will be able to analyse facts or information
in a systematic manner. An individual who proposes new ideas that may
work will be viewed as the group's natural leader. The panel will evaluate
the ideas presented, their originality, depth of analysis, and relevance to
the issue. Problem-solving abilities are required, and solutions should be
provided without hesitation. The examiners will pay close attention to
your approach to the case study.
71
Soft Skills Development Lab 6.1.3.2 Oral Communication Skills:
If topic knowledge is crucial, communication skills are even more
important because knowledge is useless without expression. Because ideas
are exchanged in a group discussion through speech, one of the
prerequisites for success in a GD is the ability to talk effectively and
eloquently. Active listening, clarity of thought and expression, appropriate
language, and appropriate nonverbal cues are all examples of good
communication skills.

6.1.3.3 Listening Skills:

One of most people's flaws is that we prefer to listen to our own voices
rather than those of others. Listening is just as crucial as speaking in a GD;
if you don't listen, you won't be able to contribute to the stated goal of
communication. It is critical to listen closely; only then will you be able to
pick up the thread of debate and continue. Only active participation in a
group as a listener qualifies a person as a good leader. The panel
nominates a leader.

6.1.3.4 Clarity of thought and expression:

The art of making yourself obvious to the audience is known as clarity.
You can only persuade your colleagues and the panel if your expressions
are clear. More than the words themselves, the tone they are conveyed
delivers the meaning. You should not be overly loud or overly gentle. The
audience will be drawn in by a bright and happy voice with appropriate
modulations. Proper word articulation, accomplished through phonetic
accuracy, is critical in slang, and false accents should be avoided.

6.1.3.5 Proper nonverbal clues:

Eye contact, bodily movements, gestures, and facial emotions are
nonverbal cues. The panel pays close attention to the team's nonverbal
actions. They often assess the team's body language cues to determine
personality traits such as uneasiness, cooperation, impatience, weakness,
insecurity, self-confidence, defensiveness, etc. A professional-looking
candidate is more likely to get noticed by the panel. A good expression is
created by a confident stance, suitable facial expressions, and meaningful
eye contact with the team.

6.1.3.6 Team behaviour:

Your capacity to interact with other group members reflects your group
behaviour. You must be mature enough not to lose your cool even if
proven incorrect. You must be patient as well as balanced.
Your ability to perform the roles of initiator, information seeker,
information giver, procedure facilitator, opinion seeker, opinion giver,
clarifier, summarizer, social-supporter, tension reliever, compromiser,
attacker, humourist, and dominator will determine your success in a GD.

72
The selecting panel observes the members' varying levels of participation. Group Discussion
They notice the silent observers, the ever-dominant but little-contributing
member, the active participant displaying his knowledge, and the
moderate ones. Your skill consists in thoroughly examining the situation
and persuading others to agree with you.

6.1.3.7 Leadership Skills:

The success of every team is mostly determined by its leader. The panel
assesses a candidate's skills, which enable him to demonstrate himself as a
natural leader during the GD. Even though there is no appointed leader in
a GD, a leader arises. Some of the leadership attributes that are beneficial
in demonstrating oneself as a natural leader in GD include assertiveness,
emotional stability, objectivity, self-confidence, decision making,
discretion, initiative, good communication skills, patience, persuasiveness,
and flexibility. A good leader should be democratic rather than
authoritative or servile.

6.1.3.8 Welcome counterarguments

Other members of the group may argue against your arguments in a group
discussion. Someone may completely disagree with you, or they may
agree with you but not with your evidence. It is advisable to approach
these encounters by being polite in your counterarguments and properly
appreciating the opposite viewpoint. You can examine the
counterargument for a moment and then provide details or statistics, if
necessary, to reject it.

6.1.4 Points to Be Remember During Gd

6.1.4.1 Pay attention to the other participants:
Hearing other people's viewpoints and knowledge, as well as creating a
conversation from shared ideas, are all part of group conversations. Paying
close attention to what others say can help you learn or comprehend a
subject better. It also demonstrates respect for the other members because
they can see you value what they're expressing.

6.1.4.2 Maintain eye contact with the rest of the group:

Make eye contact with the members of the group when speaking in a
group discussion. Make each person feel important by giving them a few
seconds of your attention before moving on to the next. This can make
your conversation feel more intimate. You are making eye contact while
speaking shows them that you want their attention.

6.1.4.3 Allow others to speak:

Allowing people to participate in a discussion is crucial because it allows
them to voice their opinions, including what they agree or disagrees with
regarding the topic. Set mental speaking limitations for yourself, such as
aiming to speak for 30-40 seconds before allowing someone else to speak.

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Soft Skills Development Lab Furthermore, if you observe someone who hasn't yet spoken, encourage
them by asking for their thoughts on the matter.
6.1.4.4 Maintain civility in potential arguments.
Politely disagreeing with someone demonstrates maturity, which is vital in
a group debate since it allows you to acknowledge your differences while
continuing the conversation. Here are some phrases to use when gently
disagreeing with someone in a conversation.
• I understand what you're saying, even if I don't agree with you.
• I understand why you believe that, but I disagree.
• Your point is well taken. I, on the other hand, disagree.
• Please accept my apologies, but I disagree with you.
6.1. 4.5 Present yourself professionally.
In a group conversation, what you wear can have a beneficial impact on
your performance and be a perception by your peers. Wearing professional
attire can signal that you are serious about the talk because you have put
effort into your look. It can also make you feel more empowered, which
may boost your performance.

6.1.4.6 Back up your claims

If you know the topic of a group discussion before the meeting, do some
research to back up your claims. Supporting your statements adds
legitimacy to your argument and can assist build trust between you and
your group members. Knowing you've done your homework can help
them feel more confident that what you are saying is accurate.

6.1.4.7 Be open to counterarguments.

Other members of the group may argue against your arguments in a group
discussion. Someone may completely disagree with you, or they may
agree with you but not with your evidence. It is advisable to approach
these encounters by being polite in your counterarguments and properly
appreciating the opposite viewpoint. You can pause for a time to evaluate
the counterargument before providing specifics or statistics, if applicable.
6.1.4.8 Make preparations for the discussion.
Even if you don't know what the topic of a group discussion will be, there
are certain things you may do to prepare for it. In preparation for the
discussion on sone typically given topics.

6.1.4.9 Before speaking, acknowledge others.

When it's your turn to speak after someone else, it's polite to acknowledge
what they've said before explaining your own. This can demonstrate to the

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other person that you listened to their thoughts. Here are some examples Group Discussion
of statements that can be used to recognise another speaker:
• I agree with what you expressed regarding that concept. You made an
excellent point with the evidence you provided; thank you for doing so.
I'd want to elaborate on that.
• Based on what they said, I'd like to elaborate on that notion.

6.1.4.10 Begin the conversation

Depending on your role in a group discussion, you may be able to help
start the discourse. Providing direction to the group may help you relax.

6.1.5 What Do Selectors Look For?

What does the panel of selectors look for in a GD? They will be looking
for a range of qualities in you that they could not analyse just on your
resume.
Among these will be the following:
▪ Were you able to make any useful contributions?
▪ What was your level of expertise on the subject?
▪ Were you able to communicate effectively?
▪ Were you an attentive listener?
▪ Did you interrupt people unnecessarily?
▪ Was your body language favourable or negative?
▪ Did you demonstrate any analytical abilities?
▪ Did you serve as the group's leader?
▪ How good were you as a team player?
▪ Did you come across as "selfish"?
▪ Did you do anything to direct the group's attention away from other
things?
The participants of Group Discussions are evaluated by a panel of experts.
Here are most of the areas on which they would mark you on their
evaluation sheets. It would be extremely helpful to keep these in mind
when you participate in Group Discussions.
▪ Command over spoken English – it should be logical, coherent,
correct, appropriate.
▪ Knowledge base – authentic information – genuine facts and figures.
▪ Convincing power – cogent, decent and constructively forceful
attitude.
▪ Discourse management – coping with twists and turns of arguments.
▪ Body Language – eye contact, body posture, attentiveness.
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Soft Skills Development Lab ▪ Maturity – candidate must not ‘bully’ others or take undue advantage
to prove herself/ himself a ‘leader’.
▪ Listening – intelligent and analytical.
▪ Supplementing – responding and adding to what another has said
before initiating a fresh turn.
▪ Initiative and Assertiveness
6.1.5.1 The objective of a selection in GD
The purpose of GD is primarily to assess your team's ability to play
together. You must grasp the other person's point of view while making
your own, and you must guarantee that your team as a whole comes to a
solution or agreement that is both viable and accepted by all team
members. Subject knowledge, oral communication abilities, leadership
skills, and team management are the four key areas of evaluation in
selection GDs.
1. The first implication is that the panel should notice you. Making a
meaningful contribution and assisting the group in reaching a
consensus is insufficient.
2. The evaluating panel must perceive you as having made a significant
contribution. In practise, what does this mean?
3. You must ensure that the group hears what you are saying.
4. The evaluator will hear you if the group does.
5. You must be forceful. If you are not naturally assertive, you will just
have to learn to be assertive for those 15 minutes.
6. Remember that assertiveness does not imply being conceited or
arrogant.

6.1.6 DO’S AND DON’TS IN A GROUP DISCUSSION

6.1.6.1 Do’s in a Group Discussion
1. Make sure your first entry is well thought out. Your first impression is
critical in establishing your credentials. Instead of an arbitrary input,
enter the discussion with a plan.
2. If you are the initiator of GD, understand the difference between
starting and initiating a topic. Organizing a GD require giving it a
primary direction and developing a schedule for the group. Starting is
simply speaking for the sake of talking.
3. Maintain eye contact with the essential participants while remaining
aware of the other participants. While active participants should be
praised more frequently, inactive gamers should not be overlooked
entirely. You can use Pareto's 80-20 rule here, paying 80 percent of
your attention to the major participants and the remaining 20 percent
to everything else.
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4. Use a commanding tone of voice, good diction, and proper language. Group Discussion
In terms of operations, this gives you a competitive advantage.
5. Try to get as many likes as possible. The argument ultimately boils
down to group dynamics and collaboration. Increasing your likeability
may assist you in dealing with the subject more effectively. This does
not, however, imply a lack of constructive arguments where they are
required.
6. Accept counter-arguments gently and display good listening skills to
project yourself as a good student.
7. Please acknowledge the previous speaker before presenting your point
of view.
8. The discussion implies an action-reaction interface. Failure to respond
to the preceding input may indicate that you are unable to do so.
9. Please include examples and facts to back up your point of view.
These will bolster your argument and support your perspective.
10. Demonstrate your ability to look at a topic from various angles. This
exhibits your ability to think in new directions and approach the
subject in a more mature and healthy manner.
11. Make an attempt to understand the proper exit points. Please keep in
mind that the purpose is not to monopolize the main stage at all times
but to add value at appropriate points in the discussion. Your exit
strategy is just as critical as your admittance strategy.
12. Reiterate the main points of the talk if needed. This allows you to
reduce the flow of the discussion at critical points while also
exhibiting your ability to understand the perspectives of others.

6.1.6.2 Don’ts in a Group Discussion

1. Don't start only for the sake of creating. This may represent you as
irresponsible, weak in planning and organization skills, and may
disqualify you from a management program.
2. Don't say anything hastily or without a plan. This may give the panel
the impression that you are simply speaking and not offering anything
to the discussion.
3. Don't be arrogant, rude, overbearing, or vain. This could suggest a
negative attitude as well as poor interpersonal skills.
4. Don't show a lack of concentration or energy. This could imply that
you are disinterested in the task at hand. Please remember that energy
is the ability to execute a job, and any compromise of inadequate
energy levels will portray you as unfocused on the task.
5. Don't show a lack of concentration or energy. This could imply that
you are disinterested in the task at hand. Please bear in mind that
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Soft Skills Development Lab energy is the ability to execute the job, and any compromise
inadequate energy levels will portray you as unfocused on the task at
hand.
6. Don't only listen to the main speakers in the discussion. It is your
responsibility to treat all group members with dignity. The large
speakers should, without a doubt, be given more attention, but this
does not mean that the passive speakers should be completely
neglected.
7. Don't belittle or harshly condemn anyone's viewpoint. Everyone has
the right to express themselves. Some members of the group may
become antagonistic when expressing themselves, but they must be
managed.
8. It is not a good idea to form cartels to control the subject. This is
considered a violation of the essence of a free and spontaneous
discussion. This also presents you as someone who seeks excessive
control/power.
9. Don't feel angry or nervous when someone refutes your point. It is
natural for your point of view to be rejected during a discussion. In
your response, you must include facts/examples/illustrations/logic.
10. Avoid unnecessary disputes or fights with other speakers. This only
raises the opportunity cost.
11. When making a point, avoid looking at the panel. This could present
you as an attention seeker and insecure person.
12. It is a formal event, and you should not wear or act in an
informal/casual manner. Avoid scratching your legs or folding your
arms in a too casual attitude.
13. Do not enter your neighbour’s private space when creating a point.
14. This is a violation of his/her personal space as well as a violation of a
behavioural strategy.
15. Don't go overboard with the gesticulation. This could give the
impression that you are impulsive.
16. Screaming and shouting to make a point diminishes the significance of
remaining cool and composed.

6.1.7 Conclusion
After completing this LAB students will able to understand How to
perform in GD. Students can improve Communication skills, Presentation
skills, subject knowledge etc How to maintain confidence, Attitude and
problem-solving ability. Once the GD is finished and you have calmed
down, you should try to evaluate your performance objectively. Decide,
either independently or with the subordinates' team members, what was
the least successful component of your expression and delivery. If it is a
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problem with your preparation, address it there; if it is a problem with Group Discussion
your delivery, write yourself a reminder note and keep it in front of you at
the next talk.

6.1.8 Outcome
1. An extempore delivered by every student in the batch and a document
for the same, Increase in Confidence related to expressing views and
speaking in public.
2. A document on any one of the given GD topics, know how’s of a GD,
increase in confidence with respect to the group discussions and
confidence.

References
[1] https://www.javatpoint.com/group-discussion
[2] https://gdpi.hitbullseye.com/Group-Discussion.php
[3] https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/dos-and- donts-
of-group-discussion

Topics for GD for Practice

a. Morals & Values among Indians is Degenerating
b. With Media Publishing and Telecasting Trivia, Censorship is the Need
of the Hour
c. We are not serious about saving Wildlife/Environment
d. The education system needs serious reforms
e. The Internet is an exercise in hype
f. Is our Political System Reason for our Backwardness?
g. Politics is run by the Barrel of Gun
h. Corruption is the Price we pay for Democracy
i. What India needs is a Dictatorship?
j. Nuclear War cannot be won and should not be fought Should Research
on Human Cloning be banned?
k. Brain-Drain has to be stopped
l. Should Animals be used for Testing New Drugs & Medical
Procedures?
m. Do NGOs in India Really Work for Others OR Work for their Own
Vested Interests?
n. Security Cameras & Privacy
o. Advertisements Cheat People, Hence Should Be Banned
p. What is the Difference between People who do Things Rightly and
People who do Right Things?
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Soft Skills Development Lab q. Are Peace and Non-Violence Outdated Concepts?
r. Capital Punishment should be Banned or Allowed?
s. Is Dependence on Computers a Good Thing?
t. Every Cloud has a Silver Lining
u. Nice Guys Finish Last
v. Privatization of Higher Education
w. How effective are Indian B-schools?
x. E-Learning: A Substitute for Classroom Learning?
y. Cricket as a National Obsession is a Detriment to Other Sports.
z. Religion should not be mixed with politics



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 Module VII

7.1
PERSONAL INTERVIEW
7.1.1 AIM: To learn Personal Interview Skills

7.1.2 Objectives:
1. To expose students to positive attitudes and behaviours and to help
them develop them through activities
2. To allow students to learn thoroughly prior to the group discussion and
perform in such a way that you bring the selectors' attention.
3. group exercises are used to develop and strengthen students’ soft
skills.
4. To expose students to positive attitudes and behaviours and to help
them develop them through activities.

7.1.3 Theory:
❖ Interview Techniques, Pre-Interview Preparation, Conduct during
interview, Verbal and non-verbal communication, common mistakes.
Preparation of CV.
❖ Types of Interviews

a. Panel Interview/Board Interview

Two or more people interview the candidates. Governments and major
companies frequently employ this procedure. Maintain eye contact with
the person asking the question and respond with an example to back it up.
Always make eye contact with the other interviewers while answering to
recognize their presence.
Questions are rotated. Pay close attention to the start and finish of your
response the individual who posed the question to you. The interview
questions are frequently predetermined. The board may have already
selected which answers they will provide ahead of time. Accept/prefer in
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Soft Skills Development Lab response to the questions Ignore board members who take notes. Obtain
the names and contact information for potential employers.

b. One-On-One Interviews
A single person interviews candidate. These interviews are typically more
informal; however, this is always dependent on the employer's style. The
interviewer will frequently have a series of prepared questions, but they
may have considerable leeway in their selections. It is difficult to maintain
eye contact with the individual conducting the interview.

c. Impromptu Interviews
This interview is typically conducted when employers are approached
directly and are highly informal and unstructured. Applicants should
always be prepared for on-the-spot interviews, especially if they attend a
job fair or make a cold call. It is a good moment for companies to ask the
candidate some basic questions to see if he or she is interested in a formal
interview.

d. Telephone Interviews
Have a copy of your resume and any points you want to remember to say
nearby. If you are on your home telephone, make sure that all roommates
or family members are aware of the interview (avoids loud stereos, etc.).
Speak a bit slower than usual. It is crucial that you convey your
enthusiasm verbally, since the interviewer cannot see your face. If there
are pauses, don't worry, the interviewer is likely just making some notes.

e. Second Interviews or Follow-Up Interviews

Employers invite those applicants they are seriously considering as an
employee following a screening or initial interview. These interviews are
generally conducted by middle or senior management, together or
separately. Applicants can expect more in depth questions, and the
employer will be expecting a greater level of preparation on the part of the
candidate. Applicants should continue to research the employer following
the first interview, and be prepared to use any information gained through
the previous interview to their advantage.

f. SUB Project Interview

Employers invite those applicants who are part of the big project, and
sometimes inter-project switching may make it possible. For that
candidate has to give interviews. The first step is to understand the vital
information to the team and help them understand their progress. Describe
the tools that you use for your project coordination. You must be very
thorough with those tools and have hands-on experience. Do not mention
any tools/skills just for showing your knowledge unless you have used
them practically.

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7.1.4 Group Interviews Personal Interview
Employers bringing several candidates together in a group situation to
solve a problem are testing your ability to work in a team environment.
They want to know how you will present information to other people,
offer suggestions, relate to other ideas, and work to solve a problem. In
short, they are testing your interpersonal skills. It is difficult to prepare for
this type of interview except to remember what is being testing and to use
the skills you have to be the best team player and/or leader you can be.
Some employers will take you to meet the staff who would be your co-
workers if hired. This is a very casual type of interview, but leaving a
positive and friendly impression is no less critical.

Fig1: Pictorial representation of GD Source [1]

7.1.5 Interview Techniques
Steps To a Successful Interview Before an Interview
● Research: Before you begin, learn as much as you can about the
position and the firm. Be familiar with the company's products and
services. Your Career Services Center, the Library, and the Internet are
good places to start.
● Practice: Practice interviews in front of a mirror with a career
counsellor, a friend, or a family member.
● Be on time and well-prepared: Arrive 10 to 15 minutes early with
extra copies of your CV, references, a pen and paper, and a list of
questions for the interviewer.
● Prepare to discuss your strengths and weaknesses: Make a list of
your essential skills and mastery. Then, think back on previous
jobs/experiences and identify one or two occasions when you
successfully applied those talents. When discussing your deficiencies,
83
Soft Skills Development Lab be prepared to discuss how you addressed these weaknesses to turn
them into strengths.

7.1.6 Pre-Interview Preparation

At The Time of a Personal Interview
1. Politely introduce yourself.
2. Maintain a firm handshake.
3. Professionalism: Dress for the occasion! First impressions are
essential!
4. Keep your replies short and to the point.
5. Pose questions
6. Maintain a smooth conversational flow.
7. Smiling, nodding, and providing nonverbal input to the interviewer
8. Be energized: maintain a positive outlook
9. Inquire about the next stage in the procedure.
10. Thank you for the interview.
Preparing for an interview requires extensive research. It will be clear if
you haven't done your homework. Spend time reading and thinking about
yourself, your job, your organization, and any questions you might have at
the end of the interview.
a. Step 1: Get to Know Yourself The first stage in preparing for an
interview is conducting an in-depth self-evaluation to know what you have
to offer an employer. It is critical to creating a comprehensive list of
abilities, experience, and personal characteristics that you can use to pitch
yourself to employers at any point during the interview process. It is best
to begin with, experience while constructing this inventory.
It is pretty straightforward to identify your skills once you have a complete
list of activities that you have done (previous jobs, extra-curricular
involvements, volunteer work, school projects, etc.). When conducting
self-research, it is critical to identify your experience and skills.
b. Step 2: Research the Occupation. The second step in interview
preparation is researching the job. This is crucial because you must first
understand those needs and obligations to offer a persuasive argument that
you have the requisite experience and talents for that employment. With
this information, you can next match your skills (using the whole
skills/experience inventory you just created) with the skills you know
others in that occupational field require. The "shortlist" those results will
be the one you should emphasize during the interview. It's also an
excellent method to meet individuals in the industry. Read articles about

84
people who work in the occupation and pieces produced by people who Personal Interview
work in the profession. Newspapers, periodicals, and the internet are
examples of sources.
c. Step 3: Understand the Organization The more you understand about a
company, the more prepared you will be to discuss how you can meet its
requirements. The majority of medium- to large-sized businesses disclose
information about themselves. Many businesses have online home sites
that can be found by searching by industry and company name. If the
organisation is tiny or new, there may not be much information available.
In this instance, an information interview will be required. Contact
someone within the organisation, introduce yourself, explain that you are
interested in working in the industry, and ask if you can meet with him/her
to learn more about the company/organization and what the position
entails.
d. Step 4: Prepare your questions. You are now ready to ask queries to
the interviewer after you have completed your background investigation.
Consider questions that do not have a simple response in the company's
literature. Intelligent, well-thought-out inquiries will show that you are
interested in the position. However, be cautious about how many questions
you ask, as too many may signal that you believe the interview did not go
well. Choose your questions carefully - this is your opportunity to learn, so
ask about what you want to know. Avoid sounding critical by bringing up
any unfavourable information you've learned. This is one of the adequate
ways to compare different employers, so use this method for areas that are
very important to you (for example, whether they promote staff
advancement).
Immediately After an Interview
● Demand/ Request a business card from the interviewer and follow up
with a thank-you note as soon as possible.
● Keep thank-you note succinct, but emphasize your interest in the
position.
● Examine your performance and the interview process.
● Examine your interview
7.1.7 Conduct During Interview
Both men and women
● a conservative two-piece business suit with a traditional long-sleeved
shirt/blouse
● Make sure that your shoes are clean and shined.
● Comb your hair in a conventional and out-of-the-way style.
● Make sure your fingernails are clean and trimmed.
● Use only a small amount of cologne or perfume.
● Take a notepad or a portfolio case with you.

85
Soft Skills Development Lab Men
● Wear a silk tie with a subtle pattern that complements your outfit.
● Dark-colored shoes
● Hair on the face should be well-groomed.
Women
o should not wear jewellery other than a wedding ring or a college
ring.
o Wear a suit with a jacket at all times.
o Wear low heels or pumps.
o Conservative hosiery that matches or is close to the colour of the
skin
o Do not bring a purse to the interview.
o If you want to wear nail polish, go for a clear or conservative hue.
o Wear only a little makeup.
a. Etiquette that you should have
Remember that you are selling a full package, and the packaging is just as
important as the goods within. Finally, you're introducing yourself as a
valuable professional to a new work setting. And you can't accomplish
that until you follow basic interview etiquette to get ahead of the
competition. An interview is made up of several different sections. It is not
just what you say, but also how you say it, that is important. When you
walk in for an interview, it's a good idea to brush up on more than just
your training skills.

b. Entrance and Introduction

The ideal method to enter an interview is to knock, ask for permission to
enter, and then wait a few moments before sitting down. Few candidates
are aware of this, but the interview panel need some quiet time to discuss
the prior candidate before moving on to the next. So, your silence until
you are seated will be really beneficial. Try to maintain a bag with you for
all of your paperwork and certificates; this bag should be as discreet as
possible.

c. Attitude and Response

Most interview applicants are in the dark about this. Developing the
correct mindset as an interviewee necessitates a great deal of patience and
the ability to read between the lines. Most interviewers want to give the
applicant a lead in the way they phrase the question, therefore it's up to
you to take note of facial expressions and the tone of the words. Do you
display your certificates to the interview panel right away? You won't
know unless you're asked. You may have already submitted your resume,
so don't try to offload all of your accomplishments and skills onto the
panel until a turn in the interview leads to such a situation.
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7.1.8 Types of Interview Questions Personal Interview
Interviewers ask five categories of questions: directive, non-directive,
hypothetical, behaviour description, and stress inquiries. Knowing the
various categories can aid you in the preparation stage as you develop
your talent inventory. It may also help you focus on what is asked and
what the employer is looking for in specific questions. It may also help
you focus on what is asked and what the employer is looking for in
specific questions.

a. Directive
Concerns The focus of your response is determined by the interviewer.
The information that the interviewer seeks is unmistakable. This type of
question should be straightforward to answer if you have done your study
on yourself. "What talents do you have that are relevant to this position?"
for example.

b. Non-Directive Questions
You choose the focus of your response. The interviewer offers a general
inquiry without seeking detailed information. "Tell me about yourself" is
the most typical non-directive query. When responding to the question,
keep in mind that the company wants to discover how your past and
personality qualify you for the position. In your response, you should
address four points: your education, related experience, skills and abilities,
and personal characteristics. As you discuss these topics, make sure to
connect them to the position you're looking for. Decide on your response
before you begin speaking; this helps to keep answers concise.

c. Hypothetical or Scenario Questions

When an interviewer asks a hypothetical question, he or she outlines a
situation that you may face in the position and asks how you would react
in a comparable situation. This is a good method to put your problem-
solving skills to the test. When answering this type of question, try using a
simple problem-solving model: acquire information, analyse the
information, prioritise the information, seek assistance, consider the
alternatives, make a decision, communicate the decision, monitor the
consequences, and make changes as needed. As an example: "Assume you
are working your first day at our laboratory when a fire breaks out at a
nearby work station. What would your reaction be?"

What exactly is a behavioural interview?

Behavioural interviews are predicated on the assumption that your past
behaviour is the most dependable predictor of your future behaviour in a
similar situation. This interview method is employed by employers to
assess a candidate's likelihood for success at their business or within their
industry. A certain position to elicit information, interviewers often create
open-ended questions and comments. replies that are specific enough to
define desirable abilities and traits, for instance, "What is the usual method

87
Soft Skills Development Lab of resolving conflict? Please provide an example. Alternatively, "Describe
a situation in which others on a project with whom you were working
disagreed with your suggestions. "What exactly did you do?" There is no
correct answer to a behavioural inquiry. Such queries are not intended to
extract information about your specific skill set; instead, interviewers aim
to discover your disposition. Most organizations have a strong sense of
their organizational culture and the kind of people who will thrive in a
specific job type in that setting. They will ask behavioural questions to see
whether you are a suitable fit. A rating system and specified criteria are
devised and reviewed during the interview. You should be prepared to
thoroughly answer the questions and statements as a candidate.
Example: "Give me an example of a work situation in which you were
proud of your performance." When preparing for this type of questioning,
it is crucial that you review the skills and qualities that the position would
require and identify specific examples from your past which demonstrated
those traits. e. Stress Questions Some questions will surprise you and
possibly make you feel uncomfortable during an interview. For Example:”
Which do you prefer, fruits or vegetables?" There are many reasons why
an interviewer might ask such questions. They may want to see how you
react in difficult situations, or they may simply be trying to test your sense
of humour. Such questions may directly challenge an opinion that you
have just stated or say something negative about you or a reference The
best way to deal with this type of question is to recognize what is
happening. The interviewer is trying to elicit a reaction from you. Stay
calm, and do not become defensive. If humour comes naturally to you,
you might try using it in your response, but it is important to respond to
the question. What you say is not nearly as important as maintaining your
composure.

Situation or Job
Recall and describe a problematic scenario you were in or a task you
needed to complete.
You must describe a specific event or circumstance rather than provide a
generalized summary of what you have done previously. Make sure to
give enough information so that the interviewer understands the unique
scenario. This recalled experience could be from a former career,
volunteer work, or another relevant event.

Your accomplishments
What transpired? What happened at the end of the event? What did you
achieve? What did you discover?
Behavioural Interviewing Suggestions
-For each question, use one incident or narrative with clear examples.

88
-Because you may not have a huge repertoire of experiences from which Personal Interview
to draw, using the same event to demonstrate more than one point is
permissible.
-Organize your storey in accordance with SPARE. That is to say, describe
the:

S - Situation P - Problem A - Action R - Result E – Experience

7.1.9 Practical:
1. Role plays
Role-playing occurs when two or more people act out roles to investigate a
specific scenario.
It is especially beneficial when assisting you or your team in preparing for
unknown or challenging scenarios. You can use it to rehearse sales
meetings, interviews, presentations, or emotionally tricky talks, such as
conflict resolution.

Step 1: Assess the Situation

Gather people together to begin the process, introduce the problem, and
promote an open discussion to unearth relevant concerns. This will allow
individuals to start thinking about the issue before the role-play begins. If
you're in a group with people who don't know each other, think about
completing some icebreaker exercises beforehand.
Step 2: Include Specifics
Next, create a situation that is detailed enough to feel "real." Make sure
everyone understands the problem you're attempting to solve and what
you hope to accomplish by the conclusion of the session.

Step 3: Delegate Roles

After you've established the setting, identify the many fictitious people
who are participating in the scenario. Some of these may be people who
are forced to cope with the problem when it occurs (for example,
salespeople). Depending on the situation, others will depict supportive or
antagonistic (for example, an angry client).
Once you've selected these roles, assign them to the participants in your
activity; they should use their imagination to put themselves in the shoes
of the people they're representing. When people enter the situation, try to
comprehend their viewpoints, aims, motives, and sentiments. (The
Perceptual Positions approach may be practical here.)

Step 4: Play the Scenario

Each individual can then assume their position and act out the problem,
experimenting with different techniques as needed.

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Soft Skills Development Lab It can be handy if the scenarios become more intense. If the goal of your
role-play is to practice a sales meeting, for example, the individual playing
the character of the potential client could begin as an ideal client and
progress through a series of scenarios to become progressively hostile and
challenging. You might then test and rehearse several techniques to deal
with circumstances, giving participants hands-on experience.

2. mock interviews
A mock interview is a practice interview given by an experienced career
counsellor. It teaches the interviewee how to deal with difficult questions,
improves communication skills, and makes them feel more secure before
the actual job interview.
Choose the order of your interview questions.
Record yourself asking these questions
Transfer the footage to a computer and use it as a virtual interviewer.
Make a video or audio recordings of yourself answering the questions
Replay it and evaluate your performance.
3. Telephonic Interviews
A phone interview is a candidate pre-screening conducted over the phone
prior to a face-to-face interview. This screening enables an employer to
determine whether a candidate's talents meet the requirements for the open
position as well as the company's culture. It will also determine whether a
candidate's compensation request is in line with what the organization is
willing and able to pay. A phone interview can save significant managerial
time by assisting in the selection of candidates for in-person interviews
who best fit what the organisation is looking for and reducing those
candidates who would be better suited to an other position.
Prepare your questions in advance.
To make scheduling easier, use tools such as Calendly.
Make a brief, courteous introduction.
Ask each candidate the same questions.
Take notes on their responses.
Inquire about any follow-up questions.
Arrange the following interview with the best applicants.
4. Body Language
Body language during an interview is essential in determining whether or
not you will advance in your profession. The manner in which you present
yourself has a significant impact on your interviewer.
Everything from your clothes to your haircut, accessories, and whatever
else you may be carrying is scrutinized! Different individuals perceive you
differently from the time you walk through the company's front door.
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The following are some helpful hints to guarantee you have flawless body Personal Interview
language to make a favourable impression.
❖ Negative Body language Examples
If someone exhibits one or more of the negative behaviours listed below,
they are likely to be disengaged, indifferent, or unhappy.

 Folded arms in front of the body

 Facial expressions that are either minimal or tight.
 The body shifted away from you.
 Downcast eyes, making minimal eye contact.
Other examples of negative body language include:
 Nail-biting — a sign of insecurity or stress.
 Ankles that are locked - this is also related with anxious thoughts.
 Blinking quickly - this could signal confusion or fear.
 Finger tapping/drumming — a sign of irritation or boredom.
 Fidgeting is another sign that someone is disinterested or distracted.
❖ Positive Body language Examples
Here are some strategies for seeming trustworthy, engaged, confident, and
calm:

 Maintain an open posture.

 Be at ease, but don't slouch.
 Place your hands by your sides and sit or stand erect.
 Standing with your hands on your hips might convey anger or a desire
to dominate.
 Use a strong handshake.
 But don't get too far ahead of yourself!
 You don't want the other person to feel awkward, aggressive, or
painful.
 Maintain constant eye contact.
 Try to keep the other person's eyes on you for a few seconds at a time.
 This will demonstrate to them that you are serious and committed.
 But don't make it a staring contest!
 Try not to touch your face.
5. Facial Expression
Using facial expressions, psychologists have attempted to discern basic
emotions. The most well-known of these researchers is psychologist Paul
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Soft Skills Development Lab Ekman, who has investigated whether facial expressions communicate
actual emotions.
One issue is that some emotions are too complicated to be depicted in our
expressions. Many people consider that love is the most universal of all
feelings, but it isn't easy to communicate it with merely a facial
expression.
Emotion researchers are fascinated by facial expressions as a doorway into
people's inner worlds.
Students can perform the following activities in group
1. Pick someone at random to be the team organiser. Make this person
write "T" for truth and "L" for liar on a piece of paper. If there are six
persons in the group (excluding the organiser), three will get a slip
with a "T" and three will get a label with a "L." All team members
must keep what is written on their paper a secret.
2. Each team member holding a T slip must make a true statement, while
each team member bearing an L label must make a false statement.
Try not to make the assertion so unbelievable that no one believes it
(for example, "I have flown to the moon").
3. The organiser will ask each member to make a statement. Members of
the group should next attentively analyse the person giving the remark
to decide whether he or she is telling the truth or lying. Once everyone
has finished speaking, the organiser will ask for a vote and keep track
of the results.
4. Now, each participant should declare whether the statement was true or
false. 5. How successful was your group in catching the liars? Were
some people excellent liars? What did you look for to see if someone
was telling the truth?

7.1.10 Conclusion
With an ever-rising demand of recruitment in various sectors, interview
rounds have become extremely crucial. This is a medium through which
the panellists judge the better candidate, for the desired position. The
different formats of interviews are exercised, in order to prepare students
for job interviews or as extended speaking practice to improve one’s
communication skill. It is important to take into consideration the different
sub-skills that are involved in a interview, understand their usage and
ensure that, they are all addressed. Additionally, students should be given
feedback by their tutor or teaching faculty in charge, which should be
framed in a manner that will help the students, to identify the areas which
require further improvement and work towards the same to attain success
in an interview.

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7.1.11 Outcome Personal Interview
1. An extempore delivered by every student in the batch and a document
for the same, Increase in Confidence related to expressing views and
speaking in public.
2. A document on any one of the given GD topics, know how’s of a GD,
increase in confidence with respect to the group discussions and
confidence.

Activity
Explanation - How to write a better resume Activity – study 5 sample
resumes of different categories in work profile, education etc.
o The basic data of discussions are the actual words spoken by the
interviewee. The interviewer's task is to collect raw data.
o Keep track of both the questions and the responses. When conducting
interviews, a tape recorder is essential. Make careful to ask the
interviewee if the interview can be taped. If an interviewer attempts to
write comments down word for word, the discussion will virtually
come to a halt while the interviewer takes notes.
o Before beginning the interview, double-check that your tape recorder
is operational (and that the batteries are not dead).
o Immediately after the interview, record observations about the
interview itself.
o Transcribing notes is very important. It is also extremely time
consuming. To save some time, listen to the entire tape, noting
irrelevant discussion. When transcription is done, only transcribe
relevant comments.
o If you discover inconsistencies or vagueness when transcribing
interview notes, check back with the interviewee for clarification. This
can often be done by phone.

References
[1] Stephen Robbins & Judge Timothy: Organization Behaviour, Pearson
Education
[2] K. Aswathappa Organizational Behavior: Text, cases & games,
Himalaya Publishing House.
8. Employers May Ask Potential Questions
Employer questions are aimed to determine whether or not you are
capable of performing the job and whether or not you will fit in with the
office atmosphere. Expect some questions to be rephrased inquiries of a
prior

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Soft Skills Development Lab 1. Tell me a bit about yourself.
2. What makes you think you're qualified for this position?
3. What about yourself makes you believe you could do a good and
effective job in the role we're talking about?
4. How would you characterize yourself?
5. What credentials do you possess to enable you to succeed in your
field?
6. Which college subjects did you enjoy the most and least? Why?
7. Do you believe your qualities accurately reflect your academic
achievements?
8. How much time and effort did you devote to your coursework?
9. Would you change your academic study plan if you could? How?
10. Do you intend to continue your education? A master's degree? Why?
11. How has your college experience helped you prepare for a career?
12. What have you learned from your involvement in extracurricular
activities?
13. What are your strengths (leadership, organisational, interpersonal,
etc.)?
14. How would you describe your supervisory and/or managerial style?
15. Do you have prior experience supervising a team or other
individuals?
16. Describe the relationship that a supervisor and an employee should
have.
17. Why did you choose the profession for which you are training? How
did you decide on it?
18. What are the most significant advantages you anticipate in your
career?
19. What components of your current or previous position did you enjoy
the most/least?
20. How would a previous employer, professor or friend describe you?
21. What would a former employer, professor, or friend say about you?
22. What type of work atmosphere do you feel most at ease?
23. What are the most significant aspects of your employment to you?
24. Why did you decide to apply for a position with this company?
25. What do you know about our organization/company?
26. How do you define or assess success?
27. What do you believe it takes to succeed in a company like ours?
28. What can you do to help our organisation?
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29. What do you estimate your greatest strengths and weaknesses to be? Personal Interview
30. What is your proudest achievement?
31. Which of your achievements has brought you the most satisfaction?
Why?
32. What drives you to exert your maximum effort?
33. What have you learned as a result of your mistakes?
34. How do you handle pressure at work?
35. How do you deal with criticism?
36. Describe an instance in which you had to persuade someone to see
your point of view.
37. Describe an instance in which you had to cope with a tough person.
38. Tell me about when you had a serious argument with your boss and
how you handled it.
39. How would you handle it if you and another co-worker worked
together and ended up accomplishing the majority of the tasks and
receiving half of the credit?
40. What are your long-term and short-term personal and professional
goals?
41. Where do you envision yourself in five/ten years?
42. What characteristics would you look for in a candidate for this role if
you were hiring?
43. What do you see as your priority if you accept this position?
44. How much do you believe this position should pay?
45. How would you rate us in comparison to our competitors?
46. Do you have any questions concerning the firm, the role, or anything
else? 48. What do you do (hobbies, interests) in your spare time?
47. What more information can you provide that we haven't already
discussed that would qualify you for this position?
48. What makes you the best candidate for the job?



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 Module VII

7.2
VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL
COMMUNICATION
7.2.1 AIM: To learn Verbal and non-verbal communication, common
mistakes. Preparation of CV.

7.2.2 Objectives:
1. To become familiar with the numerous formal modes of verbal
(spoken, one-on-one, group, and speech) as well as nonverbal
(gestures, email, chat, letters, ppts, and SMS) communication.
2. To develop and nurture the soft skills of the students through
individual and group activities group exercises are used to develop and
strengthen students’ Verbal and non-verbal communication.
3. To learn how to write a good Resume
4. To expose students to positive attitudes and behaviours and to help
them develop them through activities.
7.2.3 Theory Verbal and Non-Verba Communication:
1. Why Presentation?
It is required for engineers/presenters to be able to effectively convey their
thoughts and ideas utilising a range of tools and mediums. You will need
to develop and apply this talent during your academic years, as well as
when you attend job interviews and, most importantly, when you begin
working in the great wide world. However, it is sometimes stated that
engineers lack the capacity to communicate effectively due to insufficient
teaching and practice. Management is the art of completing tasks. A
presentation is a quick and possibly productive way of getting things done
with the help of other people. Presentations are used as a formal technique
of bringing people together to plan, monitor, and review the progress of
any project.

2. What Can?
What Can a Presentation Do for You? For starters, it puts you on show.
Your employees must see signs of determined planning and leadership in
order to have faith in you as their manager. They must be motivated and
inspired to do the tasks that you give. Other section project leaders must
be persuaded of the virtues of their initiative and must provide any
necessary support. Senior management should be impressed by your
competence and abilities, and they should provide the resources necessary
for you and your team to complete the task. Second, it enables you to ask
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questions and start a dialogue. It may not be appropriate within your Personal Interview
company's presentation forms to hold a conversation during itself, but it
does allow you to raise the issues, show the challenges, and at the very
least determine who in the audience could contribute valuable feedback to
your decision making. Finally, presentations can be enjoyable. They are
your opportunity to express yourself and tell the world how you actually
feel. The audience is obligated by good manners to sit motionlessly and
watch the performance while you hold the stage.

3. The Objectives of Communication

An essential remark is that the goal of communication is not transmission
but receiving. The presenter must target the entire planning, presentation,
and content of a speech toward the audience rather than the speaker. A
perfect project plan presentation fails if the audience does not understand
or is not persuaded of its virtues. A customer visit is a waste of time if
they leave without fully understanding the value of your product. The goal
of communication is for your message to be comprehended and
remembered. Of course, the biggest issue with this goal is the individuals
to whom you are speaking. The ordinary person has a very limited
attention span and a million other things on their mind.

4. The Plan
Getting ready for a presentation It is difficult to exaggerate the value of
proper planning. Five minutes on the floor in front of senior management
could determine the manager's and the team's approval of a plan that will
last several months. With so much at risk, the presenter must focus not
only on the facts but also on the manner, speed, tone, and, ultimately,
tactics that should be deployed. As a general guideline, no less than 1 hour
should be spent preparing for 5 minutes of speaking for an average
presentation.

a. Formulate your Objectives

The first step in planning any speech is to define a specific goal. This
should be in the form of a short, basic statement of intent. For example,
the goal of your speech could be to secure funding, analyse a proposal, or
motivate your staff. No two objectives will be serviced equally well by the
same presentation, and if you are not convinced of what you are
endeavouring to do from the start, your approach is unlikely to succeed.
One question is, "How many diverse objectives can you accomplish in,
say, 30 minutes?" The answer is not many. In the end, achieving one goal
is significantly more fruitful than stumbling over others. The best strategy
is to identify the most important goal and list at most two others that can
be addressed as long as they do not detract from the main one.
Concentration is essential. It is doubtful that the audience will focus on
your goal if you do not.

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Soft Skills Development Lab b. Identify the Audience
The next step is to consider the audience in order to identify how to
effectively achieve your goals in the context of these people. This is
accomplished primarily by establishing their goals and objectives while
attending your presentation. You will have a helpful and responsive
audience if you can persuade them that they are attaining those goals while
also reaching yours. For example, if you are seeking approval from senior
management for a new product strategy, it is beneficial to recognise and
grasp their major objectives. If they are concerned that their product line is
out of date and outdated, you would emphasise the innovative parts of
your new product. If they are concerned about product diversification, you
would emphasise how well your new product fits within the existing
catalogue. This principle of matching the audience's goals, on the other
hand, goes beyond the simple notion of salesmanship - it is the easiest and
most effective way of capturing their attention in the beginning. They will
be delighted if your introductory remarks hint that you understand their
problem and offer a solution.

5. Structure
All speeches should have a clear framework or format; a discourse without
one is a jumbled mess. The audience will be unable to follow you if you
do not organise your thoughts in a structured manner. After you've
determined the goal of your presentation, you should select the best
structure to achieve it. The structure, however, must not get in the way of
the core message. The audience will be distracted if it is excessively
intricate, convoluted, or simply too noticeable. Remove any sections that
are not important for the attainment of your primary goals.

a. Sequential Argument
One of the most basic forms is a sequential argument, consisting of a
succession of linked claims that eventually lead to a conclusion. This
simplicity, however, can only be achieved by thorough and deliberate
delineation between each area. One strategy is to remind the audience of
the major idea that has come before them on a regular basis and explain
explicitly how the next issue will follow on from this.

b. Hierarchical Decomposition
In hierarchical decomposition, the primary topic is divided into sub-
themes, and each sub-topic is divided into more minor issues until
everything is reduced to very few essential pieces. This is a powerful
strategy in written communication because it allows the compilation to re-
order the presentation at will and to return to skipped topics at a later date.
The audience is limited to the order of the presenter in verbal
communication, and the hierarchy should be kept simple and enforced. As
with sequential argument, it's a good idea to recap each section at the end
and to introduce each critical new unit with a statement about where it fits
in the hierarchy.

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c. Question Orientated Personal Interview
The goal of many management presentations is to either explain a
previous decision or to gain permission for a plan of action. In certain
instances, the format can be question-oriented. The approach is to
introduce the problem and any important background information,
followed by an outline of the different solutions to that problem, outlining
the benefits and drawbacks of each solution in turn. Finally, all feasible
solutions are described in terms of their pros and cons, and either the
preferable solution is given for audience approval or a discussion leading
to the conclusion is launched. One method for achieving the intended
outcome is to set the criteria by which the various options will be judged
throughout the presentation; this alone should suffice.
d. Pyramid
The entire article is introduced in a captivating first paragraph in a
newspaper. The next portion repeats the whole story but develops specific
themes inside each sub-point and adds extra material. This process is
continued until the reporter runs out of material. The Editor then decides
whether or not the report is newsworthy and cuts from the bottom to the
proper amount of column inches. There are two significant advantages to
using this presenting style. The advantage is that Editor may readily
change the length of the presentation by cutting it in the same manner that
a newspaper editor might have trimmed a news piece. This level of
adaptability may be advantageous if the same display is utilized in various
contexts.

e. The Meaty Sandwich

The simplest and most direct format remains the meaty sandwich. This is
the simple beginning-middle-end format in which the main meat of the
exposition is contained in the middle and is preceded by an introduction
and followed by a summary and conclusion. This is really the appropriate
format for all small sub-sections in all the previous structures. If the talk is
short enough, or the topic simple enough, it can indeed form the entirety
of the presentation.
6. The Beginning It is imperative to plan your beginning carefully;
there are five main elements:
a. Get their attention
The meaty sandwich is still the simplest and most basic format. This is the
basic beginning-middle-end format, in which the primary meat of the
exposition is in the middle, preceded by an introduction, and followed by a
summary and conclusion. This is the best format for all little sub-sections
in the previous structures. If the lecture is brief enough and the topic is
straightforward enough, it can serve as the totality of the presentation.

99
Soft Skills Development Lab b. Establish a theme
The entire article is introduced in a captivating first paragraph in a
newspaper. The next portion repeats the whole story but develops specific
themes inside each sub-point and adds extra material. This process is
continued until the reporter runs out of material. The Editor then decides
whether or not the report is newsworthy and cuts from the bottom to the
proper amount of column inches. There are two significant advantages to
using this presenting style. The advantage is that Editor may readily
change the length of the presentation by cutting it in the same manner that
a newspaper editor might have trimmed a news piece. This level of
adaptability may be advantageous if the same display is utilized in various
contexts.

c. Present a structure
If you describe how you intend to proceed at the start of a discussion, the
audience will know what to expect. This can assist in establishing the
topic while also providing something concrete to keep their attention.
Finally, the assurance that this speech, too, will come to an end brings a
sense of security.

d. Establish a rapport
If you can win over the audience in the first minute, you will keep them
for the rest of the presentation. You should think about how you want to
seem to them and use the first meeting to develop that relationship. You
may position yourself as a friend, an expert, or even a judge, but whatever
character you pick, you must establish it from the start.

7. The Ending
The audience will remember the last impression you create on them. As a
result, it is critical to carefully consider your final few phrases. As in the
beginning, it is required to first refocus their attention, which will have
strayed. This necessitates a change of tempo, a new visual aid, or the
introduction of a single final concluding notion. In some formats, the
conclusion will be a recap of the critical points of the discussion. One of
the most common blunders is informing the audience that this will be a
summary since they will simply switch off at that point. Indeed, the climax
should come as a surprise, with that final crucial sentence hanging in the
air and ringing round and round.

8. Visual Aids
The majority of individuals anticipate visual reinforcement for any verbal
communication conveyed. While it would be unjust to blame television
wholly for this, understanding what the audience is accustomed to is
essential for two reasons: First, you can match their expectations by using
an aloft projector, a slide show, or even a video presentation; Second, if
you break from the framework of a square picture flashed in front of their
eyes and utilise a different format, that novelty will be most arresting.

100
Traditional visual aids, on the other hand, have a few ground principles Personal Interview
that must be followed in order to be successful. The majority are plain
sense, and the majority are frequently ignored. As with all aspects of a
speech, each separate point of view foil should serve a specific goal - and
if it does not, it should be removed. With that goal in mind, you should
build the view foil accordingly. Some view foils are used to support the
verbal message and so aid in remembering; others are used to clarify
information that is more easily displayed than talked, and yet others are
used merely for enjoyment and thus to pace the presentation. If your view
foil is dirty, your audience will notice that rather than what is written on it.
If you clog a view foil, it will confuse rather than help. If information is
available, do not simply photocopy it.

9. The Delivery:
Features both verbal and nonverbal Whatever you say and whatever you
present, you will stay the centre of the audience's attention. Nobody will
remember what you say if you only swagger and fret for an hour on stage
and then leave. The presenter has the ability to both kill the message and
enhance it a hundred times its worth. As a manager, it is your
responsibility to use the presentation's potential to guarantee that the
audience is motivated and inspired rather than disconcerted or distracted.
The eyes, voice, expression, look, and how you stand are the five
important elements of the human body that demand consideration in
presentation abilities.
a. The Eyes
During the presentation, you should maintain eye contact with every
audience member as often as possible. This is doable in small groups, but
presenter can also accomplish it in huge auditoriums since the further the
audience is from the presenter, the more difficult it is to discern precisely
where they are looking. Thus, merely staring at a group of people in the
rear of a lecture theatre can persuade every one of them that he or she is
the object of your attention. During presentations, attempt to fix your eyes
in one spot for five or six seconds at a time. A modest smile shortly after
each change in position will persuade each person in that direction that
you have seen and acknowledged them.
b. The Voice
After the eyes comes the voice, and the two most important aspects of the
voice for the public speaker are projection and variation. The main
difference comes in the degree of feedback which you can expect from the
person to whom you are talking. In ordinary conversation you can see
from the expression, perhaps a subtle movement of the eye, when a word
or phrase has been missed or misunderstood. In front of an audience, you
have to make sure that this never happens. The simple advice is to slow
down and to take your time. Remember the audience is constrained by
good manners not to interrupt you so there is no need to maintain a
constant flow of sound. A safe style is to be slightly louder and slightly
slower. As you get used to the sound, you can adjust it by watching the
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Soft Skills Development Lab audience. A monotone speech is both boring and soporific, so it is
important to try to vary the pitch and speed of your presentation. At the
very least, each new sub-section should be preceded by a pause and a
change in tone to emphasize the delineation. If tonal variation does not
come to you naturally try making use of rhetorical questions throughout
your speech, since most British accents rise naturally at the end of a
question.

c. Expression
The audience is paying attention to your expression. If you appear
unenergetic or distracted, the audience will appear listless or distracted; if
you smile, audience will wonder why and listen to find out. In typical
discussion, your message is reinforced by your facial expressions. Thus,
throughout a speech, you must account for both stage jitters and the
distance between you and the audience. The lesson is straightforward:
make sure your facial expressions are natural, if not more so.

d. Appearance
Several management and presentation style manuals place a strong focus
on how you dress, but in the end, this is a matter of personal preference.
That choice, though, should be purposeful. When giving a presentation,
dress for the audience, not for yourself; if they believe you're out of place,
you probably are. As an aside, I believe that a code of conduct among
engineers stresses the uneven appearance. This tends to put the individual
apart in many firms, particularly from management. It sends the
subconscious message that the engineer and management are not in the
same group, which impedes communication.

e. Stance
When an actor first learns a new character part, he or she will adopt a
specific posture or stance to express that character. As a result, while on
stage, your stance and posture will reveal a great deal about you. The very
most negligible you can do is guarantee that your posture does not suggest
disinterest; at best, you may use your entire body as a dynamic tool to
build your rapport with the audience. The age-old conundrum is what to
do with your hands. These must not mindlessly wave through the air, play
with a pen all the while, or (worst of all, visually) juggle change in your
pants pockets. Except when used in tandem, the secret is to maintain your
hands immobile.

10. The Techniques of Speech

Every speaker has a set of "tricks of the trade" that he or she treasures; the
following is a sampling of such guidance gleaned from various sources.

a. Make an impression
The average audience is incredibly busy: they have husbands and wives,
schedules and slippages, automobiles and mortgages, and their minds will
eventually drift despite their best efforts to concentrate on your lecture.
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Your objective is to do something, anything that catches their attention Personal Interview
and leaves an impact on them. Once you've planned your speech and
reduced it down to a few key points, isolate the most critical one and
design a strategy for making it stay.

b. Repeat, Repeat
The ordinary audience is quite busy: they have spouses or wives, and so
on - yet repetition gets them to listen. The average audience is easily
distracted, and their attention will wander during your most critical
message, so repeat it. You don't have to employ the resonant tonal sounds
of the repeated phrase but simply reiterate the concept with alternative
explanations and in varied ways. "First you tell them what you're going to
tell them, then you tell them, then you tell them what you told them!" is
classic Sergeant Major instruction.

c. Draw a Sign
Research into teaching has yielded the following observation: "We found
that students who failed to get the point did so because they were not
looking for it". If the audience knows when to listen, they will. So, tell
them: the important point is...

d. Draw a Picture
The human brain is accustomed to dealing with visuals, and this skill can
be leveraged to enhance message recall. This entails employing metaphors
or analogies to convey your message. Thus, "we need to improve market
penetration before there will be enough revenues for a pay-related
incentive" becomes "we need a bigger slice of the cake before the feast."

e. Jokes
The set-piece joke can be incredibly practical, but it can also be disastrous.
You must select a joke that is appropriate and will not insult any members
of the audience. This guideline tends to rule out all racist, sexist, or
otherwise offensive jokes. If this appears to rule out all possible jokes,
then you should avoid using jokes in a speech. Amusing asides are also
effective for keeping the audience's attention and alleviating the stress of
the address. If this comes naturally to you, it is a valuable technique for
pacing your delivery and allowing times of relaxation in between your big
points.

f. Short and Sweet

Consider it in this way if you want to improve the presentation of your
primary point in your speech. The day before your presentation, you are
summoned to the divisional vice-president’s office and introduced to the
MD (managing director) and a spokesperson of the company's major
shareholder; "O.K.," says the vice president, "we hear you have something
to say, we'll give you 30 seconds, GO." Can you pull it off? If you can
crystallise your thoughts and integrate your core point with a memorable

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Soft Skills Development Lab phrase or imagery in 30 seconds, you have either the perfect finish or the
foundation for a good presentation.

g. The Narrative
Everyone enjoys a good story, and stories may both instruct and transmit a
message: Zen Philosophy is documented in its stories, while Christianity
was originally taught through parables.
If you can weave your message into a story or a personal anecdote, they
will want to hear every word you say - even if you have to make it up.

11. Rehearsal
There is no substitute for rehearsal. You can do it in front of a mirror, or
to an empty theatre. In both cases, you should accentuate your gestures
and vocal projection so that you get used to the sound and sight of
yourself. Do not be put off by the mirror - remember: you see a lot less of
yourself than your friends do.

12. Relaxation
If you start feeling worried right before the show, either focus on
managing your breathing or embrace the extra adrenaline. The good news
is that your nerves will not be noticed by the audience nearly as much as
you believe. Similarly, if you become dry in the middle of your speech,
smile, look at your notes, and take your time. The silence will feel long to
you, but it will be brief for the audience. Once the speech is finished and
you have calmed down, you should try to evaluate your performance
objectively. Decide, either alone or with the assistance of an audience
member, what was the least successful component of your presentation,
and pledge to focus on that issue in the next lecture you deliver. If it is a
problem with your preparation, address it there; if it is a problem with
your delivery, write yourself a reminder note and keep it in front of you at
the next talk.

7.2.4 Common Mistakes in Communication

When communicating, there are numerous ways to make blunders. This is
not a complete list. It includes many of the most prevalent errors in regular
scenarios.

1. Adopting a one-size-fits-all strategy

It's easy to believe that you've 'have' communication skills. You know how
to listen and how to communicate effectively. What could go wrong?
The solution is that communication is a two-way street.
In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You must adapt your
communication style to the individual or group in front of you—and when
talking with a group, you may need to explore numerous techniques to
ensure that all receive your message.

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2. Allowing your emotions to take over Personal Interview
Communication is, of course, partially emotional—and it is critical to
communicate your emotions.
However, it is equally crucial to avoid allowing your emotions to govern
your conversation.
Put another way, don't just react emotionally to what you're hearing. Take
a minute to contemplate and respond both thoughtfully and emotionally. It
is especially significant when your primary emotion is anger. Even if
forgiven, words said in hatred are hardly forgotten.

3. Not paying attention to tone

There are two sides to this story. First, consider your voice's tone.
Your nonverbal communication, which includes your voice, can reveal a
lot about your emotions. A harsh tone, for example, often reveals
frustration and can seem condescending. You can avoid this by taking a
long breath before speaking to give yourself time to react more
thoughtfully.
Second, we may come across someone referred to as 'tone-deaf.' In music,
this has a specific significance. However, in more broad communication,
they say the incorrect thing at the wrong moment or in the wrong way.
This can occur in writing, speech, or even text messaging.
4. Avoiding unpleasant discussions
Nobody enjoys having uncomfortable discussions. Nobody wants to tell
somebody that they have been laid off, that their performance is bad, or
that their hygiene needs to be addressed.
However, it is nearly always preferable to have these talks—and here the
meaning is conversations, not emailing or texting someone.
Nothing like this is ever improved by leaving it for longer periods or
without communicating face-to-face.

5. Being unwilling to express your desires and requirements.

It is critical to be considerate of the needs of others. However, it is equally
essential to be prepared to express your desires and needs. If you don't do
this, no one will be aware of your needs, which will be extremely difficult
to meet.

6. Having a closed mind

Unfortunately, it is all too simple to shut out others.
The 'echo chamber effect of social media means that we often hear our
own opinions amplified and echoed back to us. This also occurs inside

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Soft Skills Development Lab groups of friends because individuals with opposing viewpoints tend to
disperse.
However, it is critical to keep an open mind when it comes to diversity.
Everyone is unique, and various benefits both teams and workplaces. It
also improves everyone's quality of life.

7.2.5 Preparation of CV.

▪ What is curriculum Vitae?
Full form of CV is A curriculum vitae. It is a Latin terminology that
means "course of life." A curriculum vitae (CV) is a lengthy professional
document that highlights a person's experience and accomplishments.
When reviewing applications, employers frequently want a CV. In this
experiment we will study an overview of your professional background,
education, applicable awards and honours, scholarships, grants, research,
projects, and publications.
A CV may also consist of professional references, coursework, fieldwork,
hobbies and interests related to your profession, and so on. You may also
want to include a personal profile that outlines your abilities and positive
traits to provide companies with a complete picture of your personality
and accomplishments.
▪ Your CV should include the following:
1. Contact information is provided.
2. Include your entire name, mailing address, phone number, and email
address.
3. History of higher education.
4. List all of your education, from high school through postdoctoral (if
applicable). Include the title of your degree, the year you graduated,
and the name of your school.
5. Experience in the field.
6. Include the company where you worked, your job title, the dates you
worked there, and a summary of your experience and
accomplishments.
7. Qualifications and abilities
8. List a mix of hard and soft skills you've acquired throughout the
course of your career.
9. Honours and awards
10. Add the name, year awarded, the organization that gave you the honor,
and other relevant data (such as how frequently it is presented) for
each award.
11. Professional organisations. Include the name of the organisation, its
location or chapter, and the dates of active membership.

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12. Grants and scholarships are available. Give the name of the grant or Personal Interview
scholarship, the date it was awarded, and the name of the institution
that provided the award.
13. Certifications and licences Include the name of the licence or
certificate, the date you received it.
▪ There are three different CV formats.
here the information listed above in all three types of CVs. The
fundamental distinction between formats is the arrangement of these parts.

1. The chronological order

This is the most popular CV kind. Prepare your academic history and
professional experience first in a chronological CV, followed by your
contact details. This sort of CV is heavily focused on your academic and
professional experience.
1. Getting in Touch
2. History of education
3. Professional background
4. Qualifications and abilities
5. Honours and awards
6. Presentations and publications
7. Scholarships and grants
8. Certifications and licenses
9. Professional organisations
If you have constant employment in the same business and your job
history demonstrates growth in your expertise, a chronological CV is
optimal.

2. Functional
This CV format emphasizes your skills, awards, and honours. You should
set your relevant skills near the top under your contact information if you
write a functional CV. You will allocate more space to your qualifications,
skills, awards, and honours in an available CV and less space to your
professional experience. Here are the sections you should include:
1. Qualifications and abilities
2. Honours and awards
3. Academic background Professional experience
4. Presentations and publications
5. Scholarships and grants
6. Certifications and licenses
7. Professional organisations
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Soft Skills Development Lab 3. Combination
This CV format is a combination of chronological and functional designs.
Mention the information about your career and educational past, as well as
your talents and accomplishments. The things you prioritize based on your
expertise, career goals, and what you believe is most relevant to the
opportunities you're looking for. For example, if you're applying for a
teaching post at a university and have spent the last ten years as an
educator, you should prioritize your professional experience.

▪ How to write a CV
1. Layout
When it comes to CV layout, there are four more variables to consider.
Select the appropriate font type and size.
It is vital that your CV is readable and easy to read. Make sure to use
the appropriate font type and size to improve readability.
Serif fonts and sans-serif fonts are the two main types of fonts. Serif
fonts (Times New Roman, Courier, Georgia) include ornate flourishes,
but sans-serif fonts (Helvetica, Arial, Geneva) have not. It's advisable
to pick a sans-serif font because they're easier to read in most
circumstances.
Additionally, keep your text between 10 and 12 points in size. While it
may be tempting to reduce font size in order to minimize the number
of pages, you should never sacrifice readability in order to save space.

2. Define the Margins

Check the size of your CV margins. Margins that are too wide will leave
too much white space on each page, but margins that are too narrow will
make the page appear cluttered. A reasonable rule of thumb is to maintain
your margins between 1 and 1.5 inches. Define the space effectively. CVs
can get lengthy, especially if you've been in your field for a long time and
have a lot of experience. Consider the following tactics to guarantee you're
making good use of space and your CV is easy to read:
Bulleted lists: Add little bullets to lists (such as your collection of
abilities or accolades) to make them easier to absorb.
Section headings: Make section headers stand out from the rest of your
CV by making them bolder, more prominent, or underlined.
Bolded terms: In addition to section headings, consider bolding
essential words like your name and work titles to draw attention to
them.

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3. Proofread Personal Interview
Always double-check your spelling, grammar, and syntax before sending
your CV to potential employers. A well-written, error-free CV improves
readability and indicates professionalism. A well-written CV contains all
of the most critical information businesses require when assessing you for
career prospects. You'll be one step closer to getting the job you desire if
your CV is thorough, properly formatted, and easy to read.

V. Conclusion
Once the speech is finished and you have calmed down, you should try to
evaluate your performance objectively. Decide, either individually or in
group member, what was the least successful component of your
presentation, and pledge to focus on that issue in the next lecture you
deliver. If it is a problem with your preparation, address it there; if it is a
problem with your delivery, write yourself a reminder note and keep it in
front of you at the next talk.
VI. Outcome:
An extempore delivered by every student in the batch and a document for
the same, Increase in Confidence related to expressing views and speaking
in public.

VII. Activity For Practice

▪ Explanation - How to speak/present one self and basics of verbal as
well as nonverbal communication skills, email etiquettes etc. Activity
– Extempore on current national/international
social/sports/political/other issues. (Duration: 5 min each)
▪ Explanation - How to speak/present oneself, as well as the
fundamentals of verbal and nonverbal communication skills, email
etiquettes, and so on.
▪ Extempore discussion on current national/international
social/sports/political/other issues. (Each segment lasts 5 minutes)

References
[1] Stephen Robbins & Judge Timothy: Organization Behaviour, Pearson
Education
[2] K. Aswathappa – Organizational Behavior: Text, cases & games,
Himalaya Publishing House.

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