Soft skills: the ultimate reality for corporate progress
Posted: Monday, December 19, 2005
by krp
krp
Soft skills: the ultimate reality for corporate progress By: Prof. K.R.Panda Faculty Member in English ICFAI National College Rourkela,Orissa I am depressed due to the non cooperation and indifferent attitude of the employees and the sub-ordinates. Please help me, how to solve?
I am threatened as I could not meet my target this month although I personally worked hard day and night. So I am in stress as I feel I am failure in my responsibility.
I don’t understand why people misinterpret my words and union starts fighting against me… I am helpless as everyone thinks and treats me mysteriously and always stares at my hands and eyes at the time of presentation and misunderstands me.
These are some of the serious questions that hunt and stab the corporate managers and employees and put them in heavy mental pressure .again the tension of the corporate affects the image and performance of the industry or business enterprise. So let us have a close observation and try to find out the solution.
Sometimes I get to sit in on far more than my fair share of corporate meetings. Time after time the same Shakespearean tragedy plays out in corporate wide mandatory meetings. One by one, senior management parade on stage delivering fine speeches on why a particular Change is necessary and what benefits they hope to reap. In the closing scene, a scapegoat manager is cut from the executive herd to nervously ask the final question... "Does anyone have any questions regarding the upcoming Change?" The response is a silence so thick you could cut it with a knife.
WWhy does this happen, and what are the consequences of this pregnant corporate pause? It's not that people don't have questions. As I've sat in these meetings I can hear the real concerns buzzing around me as the VIPs pontificate from the podium. Yet when that fateful question is asked, a conspiracy of silence immediately descends on the audience as if a scurry of cats had taken all their tongues.
What's going on? My guess, based on a large number of conversations with audience members over the years, is that everyone is reminding themselves of something along the lines of their Miranda rights (even if they're not American!) "I have the right to remain silent, anything I say, can and will be, used against me in my next performance review."
Audience members aren't stupid. They have assimilated corporate culture down to the marrow of their bones. While there might be some silent participants who just don't like speaking up in public, the majority of others have learned that asking questions is at the very least the mark of a non-team player and at worst, insubordination.
Corporate culture
Culture typically includes the totality of socially transmitted behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, human thoughts and creations. It affects every aspect of our lives -- the way we look at things, the way we act and react and how we express our feelings.
Culture also has a pervasive impact on business practices and organizational behaviors. Harrison and Huntington (2000) have provided compelling evidence that national cultures and values shape human progress and influence economic prosperity. For example, Asian values of personal relationships and family ties served East and Southeast Asia well for over three decades but hindered their economic development in the last few years. In spite of the pervasive influence of national culture, within each nation exist different types of organizational cultures, because the personality and philosophy of the founder/leader may also shape the culture of each corporation. According to Reh (2002), "It is the leader's job to provide the vision for the group. A good executive must have a dream and the ability to get the company to support that dream. But it is not enough to merely have the dream. The leader must also provide the framework by which the people in that organization can help achieve the dream. This is called company culture"...
Generally, corporate culture refers to the prevailing implicit values, attitudes and ways of doing things in a company. It often reflects the personality, philosophy and the ethnic-cultural background of the founder or the leader. Corporate culture dictates how the company is run and how people are promoted.
Leaders and managers need to understand how different types of corporate cultures may either facilitate or inhibit organizational efforts to improve performance and increase productivity. They also need to have the necessary competency to foster corporate cultural change. Cameron and Quinn (1998) pointed out the importance of transforming organizational culture in order to adapt to changing times. They have developed an assessment instrument to identify four types of cultures, namely, market culture, advocacy culture, clan culture, and hierarchy culture.
But the rapid growths of the economy with its highly sophisticated value transformation becomes a mismatch for the corporates in this cultural transformation era and are trapped by Alvin Toffler’s concept of cultural shock.
So, the corporate need to be judged and groomed in their needed field. So, let us have a glimpse on the concept of Cultural Transformation.
Cultural transformation
Culture matters a great deal. Toxic cultures can kill a company loaded with money and talents. Positive cultures can make a less endowed company grow. Cultural transformation is necessary in order to turn a failing company into a profitable one.
Any experienced consultant should be able to identify the predominant corporate culture based on observations, interviews, climate-surveys and internal company communications. However, it would be better if managers and leaders are competent in assessing their own corporate culture and know how to transform it.
Generally, it is very difficult if not impossible to implement cultural transformation, until the senior administration is willing to undergo training and make drastic changes in how the company is run. Cultural transformation needs to start from the top.
Schein (1990): "the unique and essential function of management is manipulation of culture" (p.317). Unfortunately, most business schools do not provide training in cultural transformation. Such training should include
(a) Assessment and diagnosis of present corporate culture (b) Strategic planning and intervention with respect to organizational restructuring, leadership retraining or change of leadership,
(c) Management and implementation of cultural change,
(d) Developing and articulating the new vision,
(f) Adopting new standards, policies and practices across-the-board, and
(g) on-going dialogue and information sharing with the clear and unmistakable message that things will be done very differently.
When the culture remains toxic and the climate negative, talented employees, who are always in demand, will go elsewhere. Similarly, good workers will choose to work for a company with a healthy corporate culture. Consequently, organizations with a toxic culture gradually bleed to death.
One fundamental truth is that all components in any organization are organically connected, such that their optimal functioning depends on their relationship with each other and with the organization as a whole. Similarly, all organizations are organically connected with the community and larger society. In other words, managers need to have the CC competency to manage the delicate balances of a complex of relationships between different stakeholders.
Good managers need to be cultural architects, who are able to transform and shape organizational culture so that it will stay healthy in spite of turbulent social changes. Too many corporate managers are well trained in "hard", quantifiable, technical skills, but very poorly trained in "soft" skills, such as empathy, communication, validation, conflict management, and community building. Current interest in emotional intelligence is a good start, but competence in culture management requires a lot more than EQ.
Some of the burning cases are as follows: Lessons from latest corporate failures:
(i) In the early 1990s, the head of research at IBM, Jim Megroddy, came to visit one of the authors (Colin crook), who was then chief technology officer at Citicorp. Jim Megroddy faced a serious challenge. IBM was losing billions of dollars every year. How could the research program help turn this situation around?
Crook discussed the information technology value chain that was guiding IT development at city bank. And found that IBM Research had given all importance to other technical sphere but had neglected in the customer solutions and relationship. So he advised to carry on trainings to the employees on training for interpersonal relationship which is main part of soft skills. Then the IBM gave a hundred percent growth in the following years.
Lessons from the Enron Debacle: Corporate Culture Matters!
The recent Enron collapse has sent shockwaves all over the financial world and raised serious questions regarding corporate governance: How could America's seventh largest corporation suddenly descend to bankruptcy? What has contributed to its sudden implosion? Currently, there are more than 10 separate committees investigating possible wrong doings and illegal activities, such as fraud and insider trading.
However, Enron's failure indicates that the "ethical deficit" of corporate America remains a serious problem. In recent years, Mr. Richard Finlay, chairman of the Centre for Corporate and Public Governance, has warned about the danger of corporate corruption, but greed continues to dominate the boardrooms of corporations.
Why the ethical deficit? What has gone wrong? How could Enron executives tout the Enron stock to their employees, while enriching themselves by cashing in stock options? Why didn't they comply with Enron's Code of Ethics? What lessons can we learn from this colossal corporate failure?
He advises ,"I propose that the most important lesson is that corporate culture matters - it can either bring prosperity or disaster to the organization, depending on whether the corporate culture is toxic or healthy. The Enron executives created a culture of greed, corruption and deception eventually, their house of cards collapsed because of the inevitable correction by forces of the market place. So it needs a hardcore training of all the employees on attitude and interpersonal skills".
For any corporation to be healthy and productive, it needs to be strong in four core areas: (a) financial capital in terms of investments and profits, (b) technological capital in terms of cutting-edge software and hardware, (c) human capital in terms of knowledge, expertise, and creativity and (d) social-spiritual capital in terms of ethics, relationships, meaning and purpose.
Enron's senior management failed to maintain a relationship of openness and trust with employees. Staff members who questioned the wisdom of some of Enron's decisions and practices were either ignored or silenced. Senior management cared more about self-enrichment than the needs of employees. They showed little regard for meaning and ethics beyond the bottom line. There is an absence of shared vision that transcends moneymaking. Enron's deficiency in social-spiritual capital proved to be fatal!
The social-spiritual capital is very difficult to manage because workers come from different cultures, with very different values, beliefs, habits and expectations. Yet, they all share the basic human needs for belonging connectedness, trust, meaning and purpose, and they also share the same human weaknesses, such as selfishness and greed. The biggest challenge for managers and leaders is how to enhance the social-spiritual capital of their organizations in the global market.
The development of social-spiritual capital is closely related to organizational culture and work climate. A toxic corporate culture of greed and corruption will harm the social-spiritual capital, resulting in negative work climate of suspicion and secrecy. A healthy corporate culture of caring for the workers, community and environment will strengthen the social-spiritual capital, leading to a positive work climate of empowered and supported workers. Wong (2002) provided compelling logic and evidence that corporate culture can influence work climate and productivity. Here, he gives emphasis upon the importance of soft skill in the corporate development process.
From the above cases we find that everywhere the big corporate elephants suffer and fail due to the lack of proper training in human and ethical values of life and especially due to lack of qualities of inner self development which is soft skills development. but the question is how to acquire it ?
Here are some of the tips for those corporate who feel helpless and discouraging and face problems
1. Hire the attitude and train the skill:
Your job roles should be clearly defined not just in terms of skills and knowledge needed but the essential attitude or personal traits for that specific job, you have to train your recruiters / HR officers on how to spot that right attitude or use a specialized consultant. Look out for candidates who are genuine, honest, creative, flexible and willing to learn, to participate and communicate. It takes a lifetime to acquire those soft skills and it takes a fairly short time to acquire other technical, vocational or industry specific skills. The choice is yours!
2. Treat people as individuals:
Avoid stereotyping and labelling people, and refrain from asking for a certain Nationality. We live in a global environment where knowledge and information have no boundaries. For example if you are a Chinese restaurant, looking for a Chinese National to work as a cook, you may or may not fulfil your requirement this way, but one's passport or culture is not an accreditation or proof that he or she possesses the right skills and attitude or that he or she can do the job better than anyone from a different place. But if you ask for someone who is friendly and creative who can cook Chinese food and is experienced with Chinese recipes etc… you will get a better result that may even surprise you!
3. Select and train your management team Carefully:
There is an old saying that goes: 'good employees do not actually leave organizations, they simply leave their managers' It is a waste of money and time if we train employees and not train their direct managers assuming that they should already know and do not need to be trained! Managers create the work environment and the organizational culture, we need to make sure everybody in the organization is following the same standards and is part of the same corporate culture this will ensure that your company is well placed on the target list of qualified job seekers many other companies will stay off that list even if they offer good benefits. Different people have different motivators, you must create a healthy environment where everyone feels valued and appreciated for whatever contribution they make to the business no matter how big or small.
4. Create and foster the Service culture:
Customer service should mean more to you than just a tag line printed for marketing purposes or a certain course that you send your people to. Training will definitely help but will not yield the desired results unless customer service becomes your internal culture and the only way to do business. Treat everybody as a customer including your colleagues your boss your subordinates and even your suppliers, customer service is affected by the internal supply chain, it is as simple as: 'I get good service, I give good service' and vice versa!
5. Experience is not a plus point by default:
We all value our experience, it is part of who we are and we have taken a long time to accumulate it, but it should not become a hindrance or the reason behind not being flexible, not learning or becoming too resistant to change. Experience has to be coupled with the right attitude or it will turn into a negative point.
6. Create the 'Learning Organization':
There are no more absolutes in our changing world everything is relative, and there is no excuse for not learning and evolving. We have to constantly learn and share the knowledge, there is no need to re-invent the wheel or suffer from organizational amnesia every time a good employee or manager leaves, some existing employees may already have the knowledge, the attitude and the skills needed for a new job role but we will never find out unless we have a way to effectively share and re-use that knowledge.
7. Be realistic:
For every job role that you have, there must be a defined value that this role brings-in as a contribution to your business you need to strike a balance between Behaviour & Attitude + Skills and Knowledge from one side and employee's benefits on the other side. You will sometimes succeed to squeeze some candidates and get them to work for less but they will cost you more one way or another, you will simply be shifting this cost to another cost centre such as training, marketing , service recovery etc… some employees may even take the job as a step towards the next one. And if you pay someone more than the value you are getting from him or her, you will be unnecessarily wasting your money. Think long term and do not look only under your feet, ask yourself these questions: 'How long would this candidate provide me with the required value if I take him or her on board? Would he or she be able to develop and do something different for the business in the future? Is he or she willing to learn and acquire new skills?'
8. Your main key to success is to 'treat everyone as an individual'.
9. People management is a key part of the development of the job of a treasurer and applies at many levels – not just staff management but managing upwards, politics and diplomacy, one off projects etc. It is often an area that many professionals –including treasurers – are thrown into rather than trained for in advance and for many it is a sink or swim environment.
The progress of the corporate world depends on the personality traits as emotional maturity, eagerness to learn, eagerness to share knowledge with others, flexibility to new ideas, keenness to collaborate with the peers, empathy, futuristic thinking, decision making, self management, negotiation, persuasion, personal effectiveness, creativity/innovation, leadership, problem solving and diplomacy etc. ,that mostly constitute the soft skills .
The importance of soft skills turns out to be crucial so the corporate most emphasize on these following points:
STAFF MANAGEMENT
People by their nature can vary on a day to day basis. Different external factors can affect both you and your staff’s mood – a bad journey, sleepless night with children, stress, etc. We cannot mind read, but a few basic principles can be applied. Most people like to be treated with respect and given a reasonable amount of autonomy.
You need to get to know your staff in order to assess what makes them tick. Social evenings or team events can help in achieving this. Trust is a key element if you are really going to get people to open up to you.
Encouragement, support and honesty are highly valued attributes in a manager. Think about how you like to be managed. Personality is a key influencer in this. People leave people – your management of staff has
a major influence on their esteem and feeling about the group. 360° feedbacks are a way of finding out what your staff are really thinking. Develop your staff through training and coaching. This will not only benefit the individual but also you by being able to delegate more to them and free up your time for other roles or projects. It also demonstrates your ability to develop people. Ensure that you thank your staff. Praise them and reward them for effort as much as achievement. Even some failures can be appositive in terms of the learning acquired. On poor performance, it is best to try and address the behavior early on. Find out what the underlying issues are, as these will determine how the poor performance should be managed and dealt with. Liaise with HR to ensure you follow the correct procedures. It is, however, also important to recognize your own traits. If you do not enjoy people management then find roles that play to your strengths. Enjoying your job is often about recognizing what you are good at and then playing to those strengths.
PEER MANAGEMENT
How you work alongside your peers can have a great influence on your career. How do they see
you? Do they see you as a future leader, are you someone they can approach with issues or seek your views? The ability to work well alongside your staff and, where appropriate, to help motivate or support them to achieve common goals does aid in developing your management skills – but be sure that it
doesn’t appear to be patronizing. Obviously politics and competition can play a role here, so one needs to be sure of each individual’s agenda. The questions raised are equally relevant when considering your peers. Are you a ‘doer’, supporter, ideas person – where do you/they add most value as part of a team?
The importance of your ability to work in a team environment to achieve common goals must not be underestimated.
UPWARD MANAGEMENT
Managing the relationship with your seniors is also an important part of learning management skills.
Firstly, try to ensure you are managed in the way you wish to be managed, but also ensure that you make the most of your relationship in order for it to develop. Ensure that you have regular meetings with your boss, both on and off site. Get to know your boss’s type – do they prefer to leave you to get on with work and just approach them when there is an issue to which you have a potential solution? Do they need a lot of information to be provided to them, are they good at sharing information with you? If your boss is detail orientated, the more you are able to give to them the more comfortable they will feel and over time will be less demanding. However, for any presentation or meeting that you have you must remember to
prepare well and have the detailed information that may be required. On the other hand, if your boss is more focussed on bigger picture scenarios, you need to ensure that you are keeping him/her informed of
what is happening in your domain. As always, it's a case of ‘no surprises’ being foisted upon them.Whatever the management style, can you work with it? If you do not get on with your boss, it can make it very difficult to progress internally. Management style at any level can be a huge motivator and/or demotivator, both personally and for those working around you. Some people are natural managers, but the majority of us learn as we go. Making the effort to develop these skills will stand you in good stead for life. Improve on your existing skills. It is never too late to learn. Look to develop your softer skill set in conjunction with your technical experience. Treating people with respect and honesty goes a long way to winning in management. All of our actions have consequences and thinking ahead can have a significant impact on everyone concerned.
Soft Skills in Software Project Management
Software project management probably is a sector that has witnessed the highest rate of project
failure in the world. This is not the case with project management concerned with other disciplines due to better management of their inherent strengths and weaknesses.
Hard skills, often described as a science and comprising processes, tools and techniques applied to projects are the main focus of many project management methodologies. Extensive research has been carried out in the project management domain with greater focus on hard skills. Soft skills described as an art, are very often ignored during software project management. Such skills, acquired through experience, are concerned with managing and working with people, ensuring customer satisfaction and creating a conducive environment for the project team to deliver high quality products within budget and on time and exceeding stakeholder expectations.
This paper summarizes the soft skills that can possibly improve the success rate of software projects. These projects, if not managed properly can lead to escalation of budget and time schedules beyond expectations. Deterioration of quality may be inevitable while deploying efforts to deal with cost overrun and schedule extension.
Research in the field of soft skills required has been carried out at the University of Arkansas.
The results show that IT organizations are conscious of the need for soft skills. Furthermore, a
number of organizations, like Polaris, Sun Microsystems and Mastek have found it necessary to
include soft skills in their training agenda.
Conclusion
If the above points are taken care then the corporate shall not face the situation like IBM & ENRON faced and the individual managers will not utter the painful feelings as expressed in the introduction of the article as they can better understand the real significance of self and its strength as is described self as:
“Nainam chindanti sastrani
Nainam dahati pavakah
Na caiman kledayanty apo
Na sosayati marutah"
From:Shrimad Bhagbat Gita
The self can not be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. But, how far one realizes this depends on the training on self which is the main theme of soft skills. If one is trained in soft skills he will never be moved by any disturbance and lead a happy life and make a healthy society by following the sloka,
“Sukha-duhkhe same krtva
Labhalabhau jayajayau
Tato yuddhaya yujyasva
Naivam papam avapsyasi"
From: Shrimad Bhagbat Gita
The above is the need of the corporate society which is trained and learned from the soft skills otherwise none can prevent those from the situation faced by the owner of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm".
From:
K.R.PANDA
FACULTY MEMBER IN ENGLISH
ICFAI NAIONAL COLLEGE
AT: GAFOOR COLONY, UDIT NAGAR
ROURKELA
DIST: SUNDERGARH
ORISSA
PHONE: 09937376409(MOB)
OFFICE:
Email:panda_kumudaranjan@yahoo.com
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