MARCH 202019I will Highlight two examples of my Work Experience. After my MBA, I worked with the Tata Group for 14 years in various, diverse roles, culminating with a role as Chief Strategy Officer of Tata Communications. During this time, I had the fortune of working in the office of the Tata group Chairman, with Ratan Tata, for a while. Through various interactions that took place at work every day, I witnessed Mr. Tata's tremendous humility and feeling for others. It was clear that his down-to-earth na-ture, warm and patient listening skills, and ability to re-member names, is what endeared him to almost everyone who worked with him.Conversely, I can cite the example of a young profes-sional, a CA from a reputed institute; with about five years' experience but limited people skills. He was above average in his functional domain, but poor at communicating with peers, rigid about work demarcations and never stretched himself to help juniors. He put in his papers at his current job on being pulled up for poor collaborative skills. While serving notice, he dodged handover formalities and did not complete pending work. This caused difficulties for his replacement. He was also rude in his exit interview. Later, when he needed help with exit formalities, nobody in the organization was eager to assist him. Senior man-agement will always spot such a candidate and be hesitant to give him/her a leadership role.`People Skills' Vital for the WorkplaceI can think of three key skills which I believe are vital for any employee, irrespective of the industry or stage of career. Persuasion: Persuasion in the workplace means con-vincing others to agree to your point of view or action plan. Persuasion is a valuable trait for any organization as it can boost productivity by getting various stakehold-ers (such as co-workers, clients, business partners, etc.) to work towards a common goal. To be persuasive, it is essential that you are genuine in your interactions and also explain to all parties how your proposal could meet the work objective. Additionally, it's important to address any concerns or objections respectfully and without any biases.Collaboration: This is the second important skill after persuasion. Collaboration in the workplace means work-ing with two or more people or groups (par for the course) to achieve a common objective. Simply put, collaboration is teamwork on a higher scale, to accomplish a strong meaningful purpose. For collaborating well, it's important for all members involved to be able to share ideas freely and also be agreeable to different perspectives. Empathy: This is perhaps one of the most needed skills, not just at the workplace but in all aspects of life. Empathy is the ability to understand other's thoughts, emotions, and experiences. In the workplace, empathy would mean having respect and care for co-workers, as opposed to demonstrating authority and power. An em-pathetic leader or co-worker makes everyone feel part of the team and boosts positive feelings of loyalty and trust.More and more companies are recognizing the need for the above soft skills and adopting learning and devel-opment programs to make employees aware of their pre-conceived notions and hidden biases.As per the LinkedIn Global Talent 2019 report, 92 per cent of talent professionals and hiring managers agree that strong soft skills are getting increasingly important and impacting the future of recruiting across the world. The challenge for every employee now is to become a professional that employers want in their organization, and every team leader wants in his or her team. Persuasion is a valuable trait for any organization as it can boost productivity by getting various stakeholders to work towards a common goalSrinivasa Addepalli
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