Soft Skill/Competency: Integrity

Refer previous ten posts to read the detailed explanations on competencies "Result Orientation", "Problem Solving", “Self Confidence”, “Self Development”, "Action Orientation", "Creativity", "Interpersonal Skills", "Communication Skills", "Composure or Coolness" and "Decision Making".

Explanation of the Competency "Integrity"

• Holds to a laudable value structure all the time and in all the situations.
• Is led by principles and values in all the walks of life- a real principle centered person.
• Even under pressure from anyone, does not yield to unscrupulous behavior.
• Practices integrity while dealing with everyone and therefore is regarded as trustworthy person.
• Demonstrates fairness consistently. Does not play favorites.
• Is never motivated by ulterior motives.
• Is always truthful, does not lie.
• Does not turn and twist the information to gain something or to score a point in an underhand manner.
• Uses confidential information confidentially. Does not divulge the confidential information even under any body's pressure.
• Behaves ethically personally and professionally.
• Does not indulge in any kind of corruption or corrupt practices.
• Lives personally and professionally following the legitimately formulated laws of the land- does not flout or circumvent them.
• Motivates others to practice integrity by being an example to others.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• Does not understand the difference between the core values and the day to day practical paradigms and may confuse paradigms for values. May, inappropriately, turn many issues into unwarranted ethical battles.
• And therefore may become unnecessarily difficult, stubborn and inflexible in personal and professional dealings with the people involved. May even get into a fight or a conflict in situations where there should be none.
• May pose as a self-righteous person.
• May become judgmental.
• May present his truthfulness and honesty impolitely and inappropriately to such an extent that the others may start avoiding him.

For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Soft Skill/Competency: Decision Making

Refer older nine posts to read the detailed explanations on competencies "Result Orientation", "Problem Solving", “Self Confidence”, “Self Development”, "Action Orientation", "Creativity", "Interpersonal Skills", "Communication Skills" and "Composure or Coolness").

Explanation of the Competency "Decision Making"

• Believes that decision making is an important soft skill or soft competency and one should learn to become more and more decisive.
• Takes better decisions.
• Asks questions and collects or arranges to collect data and information required to make a better decision and analyzes them to arrive at a better decision satisfying the various parameters related to decision making like overall cost, overall profitability, timeliness, implementability, human angles etc.
• Motivate and facilitates others to take better decisions.
• Take decisions by self or by involving all the concerned persons under day to day, difficult, complex and highly complex situations within the given authority impacting the domain under his control or the domains outside his control.
• Wherever and whenever necessary, thinks over the decisions that might impact his authority area or other areas but over which he does not have the formally given authority. Then, he puts forth them as his suggestions or recommendations to the concerned people or agencies.
• Creates many alternatives before deciding on one or few of them as his final decision(s).
• Is capable of sorting out the entangled issues, short term gains versus long term gains conflicts, and various other dilemmas and then steer clear of them to arrive at the decisions.
• Is adept at carrying out trade off analysis of the decision options.
• Is capable of taking decisions even under ambiguity, uncertainty and pressure.
• Has knowledge of utilizing various decision making models, systems, tools, techniques and technology and in real life does use them when appropriate.
• Uses his learnings from the previous experiences in order to take decisions and encourages others to do the same.
• Is courageous enough to take and implement decisions (even the tough ones) in situations where a weak person may not like to get involved despite the fact that decision making there is a great requirement or is an imperative.
• Uses his intuition and judgment where compete data and information are not available and is willing to take calculated risks under such conditions.
• Sticks to his decisions but is also flexible to change his decision if someone else brings forth a better alternative or he himself stumbles on it later.
• Takes responsibility for the outcomes of his decisions even in case of the adverse outcomes.
• Encourages participation of others in decision making process as appropriate.
• Implements the decisions or facilitates others in its implementation.
• Maintains a broad perspective or keeps a big picture at the back of decision making process.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May become overzealous in taking decisions and may step beyond his authority area or step on some one else’s authority area when not appropriate.
• Being strong in taking decisions may get into habit of giving out decisions rather than evolving the decisions with adequate participation of others concerned.
• May jump to conclusion without doing necessary analysis.
• May sacrifice one factor of decision making against the other factors in the enthusiasm of putting lopsided weightages to the involved factors.
• May tend to belittle the associates who may seem inferior in taking decisions thus hurting their self worth and confidence.
• May not delegate or empower others in decision making thus leaning towards centralized decision making.

For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/