KNOW YOURSELF

Have you ever been invited for an event and you arrive late? What goes on inside your head? Do you find you are tensed and could have managed your time? Two things count in your situation-handling of stress and time management. You wonder if it was possible to keep a cool head, attend the event, and enjoy yourself. You also want to know means and ways to keep yourself calm and relaxed at all times. You wish you had something 'extra' that would help you cope with different conditions. That something 'extra' is today so called "soft skills". Today it has become a fancy word. But what exactly soft skills are? let's explore.

Soft skills refers to personality traits, social grace, personal habits, etiquette and manners, body language and other skills required for marking people.

Soft skills are important for dealing with people. These skills cannot be taught but can be developed through training.

Attributes regarded as soft skills:

Interpersonal skills: It is the ability to lead, motivate and delegate. It is the ability to convince others that what you are doing is important.

Team work: Team is a concept of people working for a common objective. Team work is something like synergy where the whole is greater than the parts. Team work requires listening, persuasion, questioning, respecting others ideas and views and participating to make work easier with effective communication.

Negotiation skills: Negotiation means ability to get the desired results but still main tain successful relationship with others. This is possible if the relationship is based on openness, trust, understanding and mutual respect.

Communication skills: Ability to put forth ideas to others. As far as communication skills are concerned, seven C's are to be kept in mind-candid, complete, concise, correct, clear, concise, courteous

Time management. We can't add hours to a day but we can manage time effectively. This will help us to plan our work and meet deadlines. Time can be managed by setting specific goals, creating schedule for classes, decide on specific time for each work, make to-do list for each day.

Stress management: Stress is the emotional, physiological, psychological effect caused by internal and external mental pressure. Stress is a part of life and can be con trolled. A few ways to overcome stress-breathe easy, smile more often, do some puzzles, learn to say 'NO', take a walk, listen to music, exercise, adopt a pet, call a friend or the best remedy "let it sleep".

Soft skills are not replacements for hard skills. Both are complementary to each other and serve to unlock the potential of people blessed with the hard skills. Franklin D. Roosevelt said "Men and women are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds".  skills can help us make a difference in our attitude towards life.