Soft Skills , livre ebook

Soft Skills Personality Development for Life Success
by Prashant Sharma
SECOND EDITION 2019
Copyright © BPB Publications, INDIA
ISBN: 978-93-88511-41-4
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication can be stored in a retrieval system or reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers.
LIMITS OF LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
The Author and Publisher of this book have tried their best to ensure that the programmes, procedures and functions described in the book are correct. However, the author and the publishers make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these programmes or the documentation contained in the book. The author and publisher shall not be liable in any event of any damages, incidental or consequential, in connection with, or arising out of the furnishing, performance or use of these programmes, procedures and functions. Product name mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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Published by Manish Jain for BPB Publications, 20, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002 and Printed by Repro India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai
 
 
 
Dedicated To
My Parents
My Wife & Children
My Family & Friends
The clients, Team and students
For all the people from small twons, who have the talent but lack the exposure and self-beself. I hope this book can be the catalyst for change in your life and encourage you to realize your true potential. May you all achieve the dream life you have envisioned for yourself.
Preface
Living as we are in an intensely Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environment where ‘Performance = Power’, the ability of students from the current generation to communicate effectively and work cohesively has become a necessity. India has the world’s highest population of youth with over 50% of the population below the age of 25. With such a huge amount of young people competing for limited jobs, the need to rise above one’s peers is crucial. Competition is a way of life! Soft skills help you to beat the competition. Soft skills are the vital difference between success and failure.
According to Dale Carnegie in his book ‘The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Speaking’: “Business, social and personal satisfaction depends heavily upon a person’s ability to communicate effectively.’’ Despite leaps in information technology, there is no substitute for good soft skills. Despite their best efforts, due to lack of exposure and other constraints, students find that they lack these vital soft skills.
Students have a good theoretical knowledge base and learn from sound Academic books and Teachers. However, only selected few students are truly ‘employable’ and ‘job ready’ when they finish their education. While they have a lot of technical knowledge, when it comes to taking initiative or showing leadership, a majority of our students are found wanting. Lack of employability skills-specifically soft skills is the single biggest headache for recruiters today.
And the common factor in every situation? Lack of Soft skills!
Most individuals find out through bitter struggle and hardship that real world experiences are different from their academic experience. Students, especially those coming from vernacular or non-English backgrounds struggle in the absence of mentorship and guidance from Industry professionals.
This book aims to be the Professional Guide, Coach and Mentor to all those who want to upgrade their soft skills to get a head-start in their careers. The author wishes that the present generation should not wait to graduate and begin their professional journey to learn these skills. This book is designed to give all individuals the all-important personality development soft skills required by them to become successful and powerful personalities.
Written by an experienced Corporate &Industry professional and soft skills trainer who has been an executive, entrepreneur, coach and master facilitator for over 20 years, this book has been designed to be a bridge between Academic Curriculum education and the Industry. Effective Communication and Personal Development training concepts given in this book impart knowledge that is geared towards enhancing their soft skills and enabling them to develop a co-operative mindset. Through this book, anyone wishing to develop powerful personalities will be able to choose and attain a career of their choice. They will develop well-rounded personalities; attain self-confidence and an ability to successfully overcome any challenge that life throws at them.
About the Author

PRASHANT SHARMA
Life Coach, Master Soft Skills Facilitator and Behavioral Trainer, Ed-Tech Entrepreneur
Conducted his first training program in 1996 when he was invited by the New Delhi YMCA to lead a course in Public Speaking & Effective Communication. The Times of India too has recognized this achievement.
Prashant has extensive expertise in mentoring leaders, inspiring professionals and has helped thousands of students realize their true potential.
Prashant is a First Prize Diploma holder in Public Speaking from the Nazareth’s Speakers Academy, Mumbai and a B.Com from the Sydenham College, Mumbai. Upon completion of his Masters in Management from the University of Massachusetts, USA, he returned to India to be part of the Indian post-liberalization story.
His first job with the Taj Group of Hotels as Duty Manager made him realize the disparity between the soft skills of the average Indian vis-a-vis the people in the West. Prashant rightly predicted that this lack of soft skills would be a great hindrance to the employability of our Indian graduates and soon started personality development training. He has been an entrepreneur with international exposure to diverse verticals greatly adding to his knowledge and expertise. This entrepreneurial experience has helped him sharpen his sales and marketing instincts
Prashant develops and delivers his own content. His trainings are based entirely out of his extensive real world professional experience backed by solid management concepts. His programs are based on his in-house developed Learning-Internalization-Feedback-Evaluation (LIFE) Model.
He specializes in all kinds of soft skills & behavioral trainings. Prashant has conducted programs pan-India for professionals from Fortune 500 companies to SMEs to Public Sector Corporations. He is a visiting faculty at prestigious training institutions like HIPA (training IAS/IPS officers), INGAF-Min. Of Finance, SBI Gurukul, etc. Prashant has also been invited to educational institutions like Symbiosis SCHMRD, Ansals University, Subharti University, etc. as Visiting Faculty for speaking to students on the merits of Soft Skills.
Prashant is currently setting up a chain of soft skills training franchisee centers pan-India, the first of which opened in Faizabad-Ayodhya in July 2014.
A successful in-school program called SuperSkills is being rolled out pan-India. The focus is on creating employability skills and soft skills in children at the school stage itself.
Acknowledgment
This Book is the result of the support, constructive advice and good wishes of several individuals. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks here.
To my parents Wng. Cdr. O.D Sharma a self-made towering personality and Sudesh Sharma, the best reader and learner I know. For their unwavering and support in more ways that I can count. Their tremendous faith in me has been a constant in my life. They have given me the values that shaped my personality and in turn enabled me to influence others positively. They have allowed me to live the life that I chose, to carve my own path and making me safe in the assurance that I would always have their support.
To my wife Bhavna, who literally has been the wind beneath my wings. Her brilliant psychology related inputs and perspective on life have made a huge difference in the quality of my training and writing. Putting up with an entrepreneur’s timings and erratic lifestyle is not easy and for that I am grateful to her. She keeps egging me on, like a marathoner nearing the finishing line, and for her motivation, patience and perseverance and steady belief in my abilities. And for her finally understanding that the weekly off is not quite that!
To my children whose innocence has provided valuable insights into the potential of the human mind.
To Manoj Sharma & Nitika Sharma for their guidance and encouragement. A special mention to Gaurav Mishra, Asit Sait, S.M. Kulkarni and Ajay Kadyan and all my other friends and family for providing me with the rocket start to my training career.
For my clients and the participants of my trainings, all brilliant professionals and human beings, whose feedback and enthusiasm has been the fuel that powers my training wagon.
I also thank the Publisher and the whole staff at BPB Publications, especially Mr. Manish Jain for making sure the book took the shape that I had envisioned for it.
And finally to the Almighty for giving me the wisdom to share knowledge and ignite the spark.
Contents
Chapter 1: Soft Skills: An Overview
1.1 Importance of Soft skills
1.2 Personality Development and Soft Skills
1.3 Soft Skills v/s Hard Skills
1.4 Industry Need: From Campus to Corporate
1.4.1 Disruptive technologies and Soft Skills
1.5 The Most Important Soft skills required for Life Success
1.6 How to dev