In the global village of today, skill proficiency is the greatest differentiator and the back bone of business. As per, Thomas Friedman every professional is up in the global market and has to be more advanced than his or her peers in the domain; to contribute effectively and thereby be an employer’s choice in the unpredictable economic times. The top talent is always the first choice for the industry leaders, thus, a challenge for every organisation in IT, ITES, KPO and BPO sectors is bringing other employees up to par so as to run a successful business. To address this paradigm shift, Human resource and training professionals are coming up with innovative methods to better manage the human capital erosion and development.
The hard and the soft skills are equally important in this Knowledge era. In fact, the higher one goes up the organizational pyramid, the more the need for softer aspects becomes imperative. Managing clients, reportees, vendors and also the various stakeholders necessitates high emotional and social quotient for every business leader. Thus to create skilled workforce the understanding of various dimensions of soft skills is very significant.
The ACE of Soft Skills can be referred as a manual for this need. It can play a humongous role in development of talent and also in constantly upgrading skill levels. This book authored by Gopalaswamy and Mahadevan Ramesh explores three crucial segments of soft skills namely Attitude, Communication and Etiquette.
Part I of the book elaborates on various aspects of Attitude, right from a personal grooming perspective to managing escalations when things go wrong at work. The linkage of every topic with vivid examples and how the same relates to the larger picture definitely supports the reader to relate things back to work environment.
Part II of the book showcases the most significant aspect of life whether personal or professional –Communication! How every method of communication can accomplish results is very important aspect of the book. This is one area where there is a global challenge in all walks of life… economic, political and business all can improve if we had denizens understand and use the techniques of communication appropriately. It’s never one size fits all, thus one needs to tweak the style in pertinence to the requirement or the need of the hour.
Part III of the book encapsulates Etiquette –where the cultural dynamics play havoc. Hopefully the important aspects of etiquette shared in this book would support professionals to navigate through some of the day to day challenges.
The book covers a wide range of topics—a gamut of nearly 40 essential soft skills—including personal accountability, listening skills, business proposals, and the role of small talk and humour at work. The numerous case studies, illustrations, figures, tables and quotations offer an insightful, practical and ready to emulate practices for young professionals. The book can be used as a tool for self paced learning for executives and first line mangers. Soft skill has often been dealt with ridicule by people who cannot fathom the importance of the same. However with increased emphasis on cultural sensitivity, working across global teams, project work, presence, poise, client dealings and so on; the need for soft skills has become mandatory.
The book could also serve as a repository of soft skills topics for learning professionals and institutions for their workshop content.
While the book addresses the challenges for executives, young professionals and also for the first line managers the mid and the senior levels would need more iterations on the same topics to develop finer social and emotional attributes and skills.
Though experience is the best teacher, following practices of some of the experienced preachers can also go a long way in accomplishing milestones in ones journey to success in life. Thus the lucid and candid language with lots of business scenarios cited by the authors in this book is surely exemplary and will give every reader an insight to the myth of soft skills and how it can be used to great advantage in day to day business or even personal life.
drsonaliduttabaanerjee 