Competency Matrix: Overdoing the Competencies

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Competency Matrix: Overdoing the Competencies

Excess of Everything Is Bad

In our earlier post on "Competency Matrix" (http://competency-matrix.blogspot.in/2009/01/competency-matrix.html), we had included a word of caution. It was about taking care of the pitfall of "overdoing the competencies". 

While developing various kinds of competencies, it is possible to fall into this trap of getting "obsessed" with those competencies. But then as you are aware excess of everything is bad. We had cited a few examples of this and it's negative impact. 

In this present post, we are giving a comprehensive list of indicators of this "obsession" or "overdoing" on a large number of competencies as given below.

Indicators of Overdoing the Competencies: Beware of Overdoing the Competencies

When you get obsessed with any competency or start overdoing it, possibilities of following tendencies exit and efforts should be made to overcome them.

1. Action Orientation: hopelessly workaholic, lopsided personal/family and social life, stressed out, setting unrealistic goals, setting very difficult dead lines, subordination of planning over actions, single track mind and action, inflexible.
2. Composure: uncaring attitude, hiding the emotions all the time, stressed because of bottled up feelings not shared or expressed, boring at times.
3. Communication: only gab and no worthwhile content, too much or too little preparedness before communicating, presentation style and effect more important, excessive salesmanship,  too much of a listener, listening giving impression of agreement or weakness, may err on time management due to over-indulgence in communication by self and others. 
4. Conflict Management: invariably insist on only the win-win solution though not necessary,  getting involved in every conflict resolution situation though not required, seeing every problem from an assumption that some conflict exists. 
5. Conviction: inappropriately sticking to certain ways of thinking, inflexible even where flexibility is necessary, blatant in expressions about self beliefs, too pushy in actions related to matters of  self convictions, perceiving flexibility as a sign of non-conviction, closed to feedback.
6. Creativity: disproportionate expenditure of resources on certain creative ideas of less importance, superficial ideas, only ideas and no implementation, possibility of becoming a loner  and poor team player, contempt for less creative people, being far ahead of people and time  in  terms of creativity to the extent that the ideas get shot down by others.
7. Customer Orientation: Giving in too easily to customers even when not warranted, twisting even well-tested company policies, plans and practices in view of customer demands, inordinate pressure on employees of the organization and overcommitting other resources to accommodate the customers.
8. Decision Making: may becoming overzealous in giving decisions rather than evolving the decisions,  burdening all the decision making situations on own shoulders, giving decision without sound analysis, short term decision overlooking any long term considerations, weakening  the decentralization.  
9. Developing People: lopsided expenditure of time and other resources on training and development of people, more of professor than an executive, employees spending more time and efforts in training rather than on the job thus affecting the time lines of the projects. 
10. Integrity: perceiving and making every situation an issue of integrity and ethics, act in a self-righteous manner, getting projected as a stubborn and inflexible person, making too much fuss of transparency and openness.
11. Interpersonal Skills: being goody goody with each and everyone at the cost of effectiveness and efficiency, acceptance and approval addict, tendency for groupthink, avoiding conflicts all the time, cannot handle rough weather, wasting time spend relationship building and networking, compromising and accommodative.
12. Leadership: mistaking leadership for dictatorship or patronage, more words less action, creating a crevice between followers and self leaving people behind, tendency to curb emergence of new leadership, insistence that only his vision be followed, share his vision, envisioning or deciding on only the big or strategic picture with little concern for details, get projected as more theoretical and less practical.
13. Problem Solving: tendency of analysis paralysis, burdening self with all the responsibilities of problem solving, curtailing delegation and the resultant empowerment of others, excessive avoidance of  risks.
14. Self Confidence: danger of turning overconfident, mine is always right posture, bordering on being arrogant, shun feedback and opinions of others, creating a sense of inferiority complex in others.
15. Self Development: obsessive with self-improvement through self-help literature and other self-help resources, self-centered and selfish, may become boring to on-lookers with self-improvement antics.
16. Result Orientation: overemphasis on results and no concern for processes, results by hook or by crook, inclination for short term results as these are immediately seen, inordinately high concern for tasks and results and no or very little concern for people, cannot form teams, meddling with subordinates'/colleagues' work to achieve results.
17. Team Building: excessively participative all the time and in all the situations, may miss the targets and time lines due to overemphasis on consensus building, always evolving decisions taking  people along with and not taking a definitive position i.e. not taking decisions on own when required, disproportionately greater inclination for concern for people as compared to concern for tasks/timely results, insistence on forming teams for every job even when not appropriate to do so.

(All the aspects of various soft competencies and competency matrix are now available in the book form titled "Competencies and Competency Matrix" by our eminents authors Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar. For more details of the book contact our email: prodcons@prodcons.com)

Soft Skill/Competency: Assertiveness

For Building Leadership and Management, read: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Also read “Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Musings” at http://shyam-bhatawdekar-musings.blogspot.com/)

Refer previous eighteen 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", "Decision Making", "Integrity", "Team Work and Team Building", "Developing People", "Conflict Management", "Leadership" and "Motivation", "Listening" and "Conviction".

Assertiveness (Also refer: http://assertiveness-skill.blogspot.in/)

Explanation of the Competency "Assertiveness"

• Possesses great clarity about the differences between various behavioral styles i.e. aggressive, submissive, passive-aggressive and assertive behaviors.
• Has full knowledge of his assertiveness rights. 
• Stands up for his own basic human rights without violating the basic rights of others. 
• Has overcome the fears and self-depreciation that keep one from exercising one's rights.
• Can initiate, carry on, change and terminate conversations comfortably.
• Can tactfully, justly and effectively express his preferences, needs, opinions and feelings.
• Can express and speak up, make requests and ask for favors without hesitation or fear if the situation calls for.
• Able to show positive emotions (joy, pride, liking some one, attraction, complimenting, accepting compliments with grace etc) as well as negative emotions (complaints, resentment, criticism, disagreement, intimidation, the desire to be left alone, refuse requests etc) with equal ease.
• Is willing and capable of questioning authority or tradition if it becomes necessary.
• Does not rebel but takes responsibility. Takes control of the situation to make things better.
• Maintains his dignity by being properly assertive even if hurts someone else, as long as his motive is assertive, not aggressive.
• Does not feel it necessary to offer reasons or excuses for justifying his assertive behavior.
• Believes that he has a right to change his mind when required.
• Keeps free of approval addiction (approval of others) and self-pity. Willing to accept even the negative outcomes of his decisions and actions.
• Seriously believes that you have the right to say “no” without feeling guilty. You also have the right to say "yes".
• Does not consider himself stupid to say "I don't know" or "I don't understand" and seek clarifications in case of doubts.
• Answers honestly when he is asked if he likes something when he doesn't.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• Runs the risk of being seen as arrogant by some people.
• People in authority and even others may feel offended occasionally.
• Runs the risk of being unpopular if he has to assert quite often.
• May take stands even on trivia where it may not be appropriate to be assertive.

Soft Skill/Competency: Listening

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Also read “Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Musings” at http://shyam-bhatawdekar-musings.blogspot.com/)

Refer previous sixteen 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", "Decision Making",
"Integrity", "Team Work and Team Building", "Developing People", "Conflict Management", "Leadership" and "Motivation".

Explanation of the Competency "Listening"

• Considers listening as one of the important human skills and an important subset of the communication skills.
• Believes that listening strengthens the quality of communication, interpersonal relations, human relations, emotional intelligence, conflict management and team management.
• Every interaction requires one to respond and since the quality of response depends on the quality of listening, tries to improve quality of his listening constantly.
• Listens more and more within the sphere of other’s HSoftware (overall mental frame consisting of values, knowledge, paradigms and will power) rather than within the sphere of his own HSoftware. (Refer for more details the book titled "HSoftware- Shyam Bhatawdekar's effectiveness Model":http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=hsoftware&x=16&y=21)
• Thus, listens to understand the other person and not just to react, reply, control or manipulate the other person. By understanding the other person properly, can respond or act in the best possible manner.
• Does not ignore the other person by showing indifference or by pretending to listen.
• Generally respects other people and demonstrates openness and trust through his body language and spoken words.
• Encourages two way communication.
• Focuses on what the other person is saying and pays attention and tries to understand what the other person is saying.
• Tries to understand what the other person is saying by being interactive with him by giving him the feedback of his understanding.
• He tends to be empathic in his listening the others. Puts himself in other person's shoes.
• In becoming an empathic listener, listens not only with his ears but also with his eyes and with his heart.
• Listens for feeling and meaning.
• Understands that every human being needs psychological survival- one wants to be understood and appreciated by others, one wants others' affirmation and validation. By being an empathic listener, satisfies this need of other human beings.
• Then, paves way to influencing the people in right directions by diagnosing the issues and concerns of others in a better way for effective problem solving.
• Promotes a more participative style of managing by involving people.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May spend disproportionately more time in listening at the cost of other equally important functions.
• In order to promote participation may tend to allow people to speak out whatever they wish to even when they are at tangent and thus mismanaging the time.
• May be seen by many people as person always available to offer shoulder to cry on.
• Being listened to intently may be construed by the speakers as if what they are speaking is being accepted by the listener as correct though in fact they may be wrong.

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

Soft Skill/Competency: Motivation

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Also read “Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Musings” at http://shyam-bhatawdekar-musings.blogspot.com/)

Refer previous fifteen 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", "Decision Making",
"Integrity", "Team Work and Team Building", "Developing People", "Conflict Management" and "Leadership".

Explanation of the Competency "Motivation"

• Appreciates the need for motivating self and others.
• Believes that by motivating the people they are in a position to give out their best i.e. they try their best to achieve their maximum potential for action, expression, growth, and achievement.
• Gives high degree of emphasis equally on "concern for people" as well as on "accomplishment of tasks".
• Analyzes the factors that motivate the people.
• Knows that different people are motivated by different factors and their weightages are not the same.
• Therefore, tries to analyze at each individual level what motivates each individual including self.
• Employs formal surveys and informal observations for understanding the motivational needs of the people.
• Is fully conversant with Maslow's need hierarchy theory, Herzberg's two-factor theory and other theories of motivation.
• Accordingly, incorporates the required challenges and responsibilities in the jobs of self and other individuals in addition to providing continually improving working relations and conditions.
• Provides appropriate freedom and autonomy on job as per individual's requirements.
• Helps in structuring and designing the various human resources and other policies of the organization keeping in mind the motivational requirement of its employees.
• Provides adequate and appropriate psychological strokes to the direct reports as well as all the other associates.
• On completion of projects and jobs by teams and individuals, celebrates the success and gives due recognition to them openly.
• Incorporates required combination of motivational factors so that people give their best as individuals as well as the teams.
• Generally respects all the people.
• Is a good listener.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May show a very softening or compromising attitude towards the people giving them a wrong impression of being a weak leader.
• May spend disproportionately more time in trying to sort out even those motivational aspects that are of very minor nature or which in fact are imaginary and not real.
• May tend to attribute failure of employees as their lack of motivation even when other factors may be primarily responsible for their failures.

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

Soft Skill/Competency: Leadership

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Also read “Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Musings” at http://shyam-bhatawdekar-musings.blogspot.com/)

Refer older fourteen 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”, “Decision Making”,
“Integrity”, “Team Work and Team Building”, “Developing People” and “Conflict Management”.

Explanation of the Competency “Leadership”

• Believes in and practices highest degrees of ethic, integrity and honesty.
• Can envision the advancement and growth opportunities.
• Possesses abilities for high degree of conceptualization, strategizing and analysis.
• Demonstrates high achievement orientation. Therefore, emphasizes commitment, accountability, action orientation and results.
• Is dynamism personified. Exudes energy and enthusiasm.
• Takes initiatives and is self starter.
• Adept at interpersonal relationships and puts emotional intelligence in action.
• Excellent communicator.
• Possesses high learning orientation and learns from all the quarters all the time. Quick in grasping new pieces of knowledge and practice.
• Is excellent in directing and controlling functions.
• Uses his excellent influencing skills for bringing out the desired consensus, decisions and actions.
• Very good at decision making processes and once decisions are reached, displays firmness and decisiveness in implementation.
• Displays required flexibility and adaptability in different situations and times.
• Demonstrates tremendous self-confidence as well as moral and physical courage.
• Can lead people from the front when necessary. Is capable of setting an example.
• Is great team builder and team player. Provides necessary support and cooperativeness.
• Motivates self and other people excellently well and people then give out their best in terms of their potentials and stretch.
• Balances his high concern for task accomplishment with high concern for the people.
• Possesses high business acumen.
• Is politically astute.
• Very good at general judgment and intuitions on issues and people.
• Develops many next line leaders.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May end up being a very strong leader leaving people looking up to him for any thing and every thing.
• May become indispensable thus posing a question of succession- after him who?
• High result and action orientation may create an imbalance between concern for task accomplishment and concern for people.

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

Soft Skill/Competency: Conflict Management

Refer previous thirteen 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", "Decision Making",
"Integrity", "Team Work and Team Building" and "Developing People".

Explanation of the Competency "Conflict Management"

• Recognizes the fact that conflicts are quite natural in any organization and yet these need appropriate redressing to move on with apt solutions.
• Therefore, is willing to take up the responsibility of managing and resolving the conflict.
• He can think through clearly in a conflicting situation.
• In any conflicting situation, he keeps his eyes constantly on the desired goals and therefore, does not drift away from them despite conflicting arguments and points of views.
• Listens well and patiently all the conflicting arguments and presentations.
• Controls the people and their communication patterns in the discussions that takes place when resolving a conflict.
• Facilitates the innovative and creative thinking of the people caught up in the conflict.
• Does not take sides of any particular set of people or their thinking. Rather, tries to facilitate working out genuinely appropriate and optimal solutions.
• Amply demonstrates his positioning as a person with high objectivity in every conflicting situation.
• Most of the times aims at a win-win solution as opposed to win-lose, lose-win or lose-lose solutions or a compromised solution.
• Contributes his own inputs, ideas, creativity and analysis to supplement the missing or erroneous information and thus uncover the real issues and reasons that led to the conflict. Then proceeds to help find the answers.
• Gains agreements without leaving behind any bitter taste or disrupting the human relationships.
• Is proactive and as far as possible anticipates the conflicting situations and dissolves them well before they turn into conflicts.
• Is good at managing various types and complexities of conflicts involving insiders as well as outsiders.
• Is highly skilled in tackling the people who have a knack or habit of becoming unnecessarily difficult and nasty.
• Can use humor or any other intervention to diffuse even highly volatile conflict scenarios.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May perceive even the day-to-day routine issues as a conflict and start using his conflict management skills in an elaborate manner.
• Thus may get involved in every situation of small little conflict even the ones that might better get solved by delegation.
• May start contributing with out-of-proportional over-zealousness or intensity and rather than diffusing the conflict, may end up opening up Pandora's box and thus aggravating the conflict.
• May overemphasize on always realizing a win-win solution where a less than win-win solution may look more suitable as a starter.

SoftSkill/Competency: Team Work and Team Building

Refer previous eleven 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", "Decision Making" and "Integrity".

Explanation of the Competency "Team Work and Team Building" 

• Believes that working together with others or in teams gives higher synergies to self and the teams.
• Believes in win-win approach.
• Therefore, is positive and enthusiastic about team work and team building.
• Contributes significantly when working as a member of a team or when working as a team leader to build a strong team.
• Respects all the members of the team.
• Cooperates with every team member and the team leader.
• Provides help and support to those team members who are in need of help and support.
• Shares relevant knowledge and information with all the team members including the team leader.
• Maintains the required level of communication in terms of quality, quantity and timeliness with the team members and the team leader.
• When working as a team leader, facilitates developing team goals with team members' participation.
• Motivates the team members while working as a leader of the team or even when working as a member of the team.
• Helps to build up high team morale.
• Creates a sense or feeling of togetherness and cohesiveness among the fellow members.
• Understands the group processes involved in team working and implements these processes for the advantage of the team.
• Has knowledge of various systems, tools and techniques of team building and team work and uses them effectively as appropriate.
• Is good at resolving the conflicts that might arise due to diverse personalities of various team members.
• When the members seem to drift away from the shared mission, goals and priorities, brings them back on the desired focus.
• Seeks for each and every member's active and enthusiastic participation all the time and accordingly motivates the members who seem to be getting disinterested or tuned out from time to time.
• Makes every member feel that each one's work or contribution is equally important.
• Shares credit for success of team with all the others in the team.
• Celebrates the team's success together with all the others in the team.
• Makes sure that the various teams do not become islands in themselves and form unnecessary boundaries around them.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• Team work may get confused with excessively unnecessary participation of all the members on all the points or issues.
• Too much of participation may lead to delays. Time management and time lines may get screwed up.
• At times team working may end up being goody goody with each other all the time trying not to hurt each other emotionally or intellectually resulting in mediocre performance and results.
• Leader of the team may lose sight of being tough and firm in a team situation even when such a stance may be more appropriate in difficult or tough times.
• There is possibility of some members becoming inactive in a team since they may think that others in the team will take care of things even if they do not perform and their non-working may not even get noticed.

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

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/

Soft Skill/Competency: Communication Skills

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com)

Refer older seven posts to read the detailed explanations on competencies "Result Orientation", "Problem Solving", “Self Confidence”, “Self Development”, "Action Orientation", "Creativity" and "Interpersonal skills").

 Explanation of the Competency "Communication Skills"

• Likes to communicate with others.
• Selects the right target groups or individuals for his communication.
• Can organize his ideas, thoughts and messages and structure or format them appropriately and makes sure that they match the requirements of his target groups or individuals.
• Is capable of correctly, precisely, concisely and effectively sending the desired messages or ideas to the receiver at the right pace.
• In doing so, he chooses appropriate language and style for delivery of his messages.
• Ensures that his message has reached the receiver the way he wanted it to be.
• Furthermore, he puts his best efforts in communicating with others such that it elicits the desired response from the audience on most of the occasions.
• Is good at making effective and confident presentations to an individual, small groups and large groups whether internal or external to the organization.
• Can make effective presentation even to a mixed or diverse audience with different backgrounds, interests and sophistication. Also is capable of communicating well with difficult audience.
• Can clearly explain to the audience even a more complex subject matter making it easier for them to understand.
• Encourages two way communication, feedback and sorts out questions and doubts of the receiver of communication.
• Therefore, he is an effective, active and empathetic listener.
• Employs right kind of time management while communicating.
• Makes sure that his actions are commensurate with what he communicates. 

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May spend too much time polishing and honing his communication.
• May not like to put much of efforts in planning and delivering his communication believing that he is already good at it.
• May fall prey to excessive emphasis on presentation styles and use of sophisticated technology while giving a second degree treatment to the objectives and contents of communication.
• Actions may not necessarily be demonstrative of his communication if he believes that gift of gab is all that matters. 

Read the "Management Case Studies" from Shyam Bhatawdekar's book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

For "Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers", read at: http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

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

Soft Skill/Competency: Interpersonal Skills

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and
management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com)

Refer previous six posts to read the detailed explanations on competencies "Result Orientation", "Problem Solving", “Self Confidence”, “Self Development”, "Action Orientation" and "Creativity").

Explanation of the Competency "Interpersonal Skills"

• Likes to interact with others.
• Can interact with others with ease and naturally.
• Can relate well with diverse personalities.
• Is in a position to establish rapport with others.
• Recognizes that every individual is unique and appreciates such uniqueness
  in others.
• Can foresee how others will think and behave under different situations.
• Can adjust own behavior to suit the behavior styles of
  others.
  
• Treats others with respect and politeness.
• Therefore can maintain a very congenial and conducive communication.
• Takes initiative to build up short term and long term relationships.
• Is adept at making personal and professional networks.
• Can create and promote an organizational climate of good interpersonal
  relations.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• A strong desire to be liked by everyone all the time might seep in and therefore may fall into a tendency of avoiding difficult or unpleasant dealings.
• May spend unnecessarily too much wasteful time networking with others.  
• May not be able to sort out the deeper conflicts.
• May be seen as a person with smooth exterior but no substance. 

Read the "Management Case Studies" from Shyam Bhatawdekar's book "Sensitive Stories of
Corporate World" at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

For "Management Games, Exercises, Energizers
and Icebreakers", read at: http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/
or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

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

Soft Skill/Competency: Creativity

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com)

 

Refer previous five posts to read the detailed explanations on competencies "Result Orientation", "Problem Solving", “Self Confidence”, “Self Development” and "Action Orientation").

 

Explanation of the Competency “Creativity”

• Continually challenges the status quo and yearns to bring about improvement and newness in everything.
• Motivates others to challenge the status quo and to bring about improvement and newness in everything.
• Facilitates to bring out creativity in self and others.
• Contributes new concepts, processes and products.
• Does out of box thinking or lateral thinking. Thinks beyond the obvious by exploring wide ranging possibilities even outside the given parameters.
• Participates enthusiastically and contributes significantly in brainstorming sessions to generate creativity.
• Has the facility and talent to connect the seemingly unrelated issues and information to bring out freshness in approaches and solutions. Can grasp the nuances of cross functional working.
• Does the right brain as well as left brain thinking quite actively.
• Looks at the problems and solutions from all the possible angles.
• Is highly inquisitive and questions everything by raising a question, "why"?

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• May not be able to relate to the people who seem to be less creative and also may not appreciate them and their work.
• May get immersed deeply in an idea that may not be quite productive. May lose perspective with reference to business and organizational requirements.
• May shift from a to b and then to c and may get excited in working with many things at a time.
• May focus too much on right brain working and lose sight of hard core analysis and details.
• May lean more on being a loner as against being a team player.
• His idea generation and playing with them may affect a running assignment that he is handling.

 

Read the "Management Case Studies" from Shyam Bhatawdekar's book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

For "Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers", read at: http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

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

Soft Skills/Competencies: Self Confidence

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Refer previous two posts to read the detailed explanations on competencies "Result Orientation" and "Problem solving".

Explanation of the Competency “Self Confidence”

• Displays a confident disposition. Instills confidence in others.
• Has confidence in his own abilities.
• Has no doubts and hesitation in his abilities.
• Uses his abilities confidently to tackle the day-to-day and also difficult situations and problems.
• Likely to lead in solving the issues.
• Will take responsibility and accountability with no fuss.
• Speaks out his mind. Therefore, makes his thinking and opinions heard and understood by other related persons.
• Does not feel threatened in sharing his knowledge and skills with others.
• Does not get cowed down by aggressive behavior of others.
• Can take criticism in his own stride.
• Does not become defensive; cannot be pushed to corner.
• Does not easily complain or grumble or blame about others or about situations.
• Does not hesitate in sharing his success and limelight with others.

Pitfall to be Avoided

• Arrogance.
• Know-all type behavior.
• Poor listener.
• Therefore, devaluing others’ feedback, opinions and suggestions.
• May instill inferiority complex in others.

Read the "Management Case Studies" from Shyam Bhatawdekar's book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

For "Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers", read at: http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

Soft Skills/Competencies: Problem Solving

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

From the previous post onwards, we have started giving here a detailed treatment of some of the major soft skills/competencies. This will help you to understand these soft skills/competencies in quite clear ways so that you can actually implement these competencies for your overall success.

We gave a comprehensive list of all the possible soft skills/competencies in our blog at http://soft-skills-competencies.blogspot.com/, you may refer this URL.

We also recommend that you should have a good idea of what a competency matrix is while you are reading all the posts under our present blog. For this you may refer our blog on competency matrix at: http://competency-matrix.blogspot.com/

Explanation of Competency “Problem Solving”

• Defines the problem correctly. Makes a good problem statement.
• Decides on what data and information to collect to find out the causes of the problem.
• Sets up the cause and effect relationship accurately.
• Observes the underlying patterns in the problem.
• Defines the type and extent of information that must be collected to work out alternative solutions.
• Looks beyond obvious solutions. Uses creativity to find out better solutions.
• Decides on the most appropriate solution. Applies trade off analysis properly.
• Anticipates the hindrances to problem solving and takes care of them proactively, well in advance.
• Contributes his best when a group is working on solving the problem.
• Infuses critical thinking in solving a problem.
• Knows and further keeps learning where to look out for or whom to contact in the process of problem solving. Tries to become more and more resourceful.
• Escalates the problem to an appropriate person or level when it appears beyond his scope of cracking due to several reasons.
• Makes sure that the problem is tackled at the root level so that it does not surface again.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

• Slowing down on taking (calculated) risk.
• Too much of unnecessary analysis what is generally known as analysis paralysis.
• Stealing the show from the other members of the group when the problem is being solved by a group.
• Taking up too much in case of escalation of the problem.
• Losing sight of time lines in order to find the best solution.

Read the "Management Case Studies" from Shyam Bhatawdekar's book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

Also read “Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers” at http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/