Soft Skills: Skill set to

navigate the 21th century

Dr. Jindagi Kumari

Outline of the Presentation

• What is Soft skill ?

 Synonyms
 Binary of Soft Skills VsHard skills
 Features &components
• Why Soft skill?
Significance
What of Soft Skills

• Soft Skills: People’s skills, Interpersonal skills,

Employability, Life skills
• Components:
Ability to connect;
 clear and sensitive communication,
 work under pressure; resilience, integrity,
 innovativeness, optimism,
 leadership, empathy,
 assertiveness (confidence) respectfully, positive
/Aggressiveness violent, negative
Features of Soft Skills

Attribute of personality
present in everyone (in different measures)
can be inculcated
measurable/immeasurable un/teachable,
transferable, foundational, transitional
 Soft Skills Vs Hard Skills

• Personal, attitudinal, • Technical

skills(Programming, web
behavioral designing, android
development software
• Not measurable the development for a
same way as training professional in Computer
and domain Science and Engineering)
Subject Knowledge ,
expertise training: (Training to inject
• Subtle and intangible medicine, operate, to drive
a truck or to type)
• Measured in structured and
tangible fashion, exams,
certification, grades
Deceptive Stand off!!

• Soft skills and hard skills

• Go hand in hand
• Complement one another
• Binary is useful for understanding
the concept but has a false sense
of opposition between the two
terms
Bricks of Soft Skills
Clear communication:

• Listen
• Give / ask for Feedback
• be empathetic
• Understand the context and
mood
• Decipher the non-verbal cues
• Weight the context
• Spend time to understand your
audience
• Be mindful of language use;
expressions, context, format,
spelling, slips, style etc.
Communicating
Sensitively

Avoid using;
Ageist
Racist
Casteist
Gender biased
And other discriminatory
expressions
 Readiness, enthusiasm,
optimism

• Tune in to time,
• treat time well
• Do what needs to be done now
• There no no better moment
Time Management

• Valuable resource
• Non- retrievable
• Know what is important for
you
• Plan
• Act on plans
• Have a balanced life
Emotional Intelligence

• Respect your emotions and

those of others
• Know when and how you react
and why
• Know why others misbehave or
get angry
• Try to develop empathy
• Embrace yourself and others as
they are
• Communicate your expectations
clearly and respectfully
• Remember, To err is human,
and no one is perfect
Team Building

• respect opinion
• Recognize
talent
• Acknowledge
worth of others
Leadership; helping everyone
grow and excel
Leaders; Visionary and crisis
managers

• Ratan Tata, Indian Industrialist, Investor,

Philanthropist
• Alan Mulally, former CEO, Ford Motor
Company
• Steve Jobs, co-founder & CEO Apple Inc.
Why Soft skills?

• Modern work culture more service based than

ever
• Professionals more likely to switch to several
different professions
• Complex and fast paced communication
networks
• Short product cycle
• Best trained persons are not always the best
persons
• To grow sustainably in unison
• Relationship building
• Customer base
• productivity, efficiency, and overall wellbeing
.
• Training and orientation in soft skills being
incorporated at several levels,
 School; Life skills (etiquettes, table manners,
way to greet)
 Undergraduates; for seeking and finding job
 Employees with years of experiences;
conducive work environment, better
productivity, self analysis and motivation
Lack of soft skills

• In organizations it may lead to leadership

Crisis
(Example: Infosys)
Affects the image of the organization
 Diminishes confidence of stakeholders and
employees,
 Affects investment and share prices
Soft Skills enhance quality of
life!
• Lack of Soft skills affect quality of life:
Example: Whiplash (The Movie)
An ambitious Jazz student, Andrew, aspiring to be like the
famous drummer Buddy Rich, has vision, works hard,
passionate, practices intensively
 Overcomes his aggressive and abusive instructor Fletcher
Achieves the desired feat and impresses everyone with his
talent
But is isolated without friends or social circle to cheer for him
Over-ambition transforms him into a “foul mouthed person
who belittles and insults” others
References

• Wible, Andy “Strenthening Soft Skills”TedxMus

kegon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkLsn4ddm
Ts
• http://steadysteps.in/blog/soft-skills-you-nee
d-for-a-successful-it-career/
• http://bookboon.com/blog/2016/12/soft-skill-
mentoring-how-to-help-junior-employees/

• https://www.quora.com/Do-companies-really-
value-soft-skills-over-hard-skills
References

• Dandapani, “Unwavering Focus”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O2JK_94g3Y Accessed 6 Dec 2017. January
19, 2016.
• Bowden, Mark. “The Importance of Being Inauthentic.” TedxToronto. 22 Oct.
2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpf8H_Dd40 
• “ Whiplash: a film analysis on the key elements of the movie.” April 14, 2015. 12
December2017
https://themarcofeed.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/whiplash-a-film-analysis-on-th
e-key-elements-of-the-film/
• Infosys has had a leadership crisis for a decade; this one’s the worst. Live mint;e
paper.
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/yL8mf00oIYpl071pEm4hjK/Infosys-has-had-a-l
eadership-crisis-for-a-decade-this-ones.html. August 29
, 2017 
• https://www.ted.com/talks/shashi_tharoor. november 2009, TedIndia2009

• https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/yL8mf00oIYpl071pEm4hjK/Infosys-has-had-a-l
eadership-crisis-for-a-decade-this-ones.html
(Aug.2017)
Gratitude!

Thank you!