Category: Bangalore University B.com Notes

Communication is an essential skill in business and in life. It’s important for employees to be able to clearly send and receive messages with one another to work efficiently, reduce misunderstandings and meet business goals. Businesses should diagnose communication problems, reduce the barriers to effective communication and create an environment where open communication is valued.

Identify the Barrier to Effective Communication

If your employees are having issues communicating with one another, it’s important to figure out the root cause of the problem. By doing so, you will be better equipped to outline the solution and prevent such miscommunication from taking place.

There are several different kinds of barriers that lead to a communication gap in an organization:

• Physical barriers. Cubicle walls, closed doors and geographic distance can make it difficult for employees to communicate.
• Perceptual barriers. People’s experiences frame the way they perceive the world, which means employees may perceive certain elements differently. This can lead to misunderstandings.
• Emotional barriers. Employees may be fearful, nervous or distrusting of other employees, and as a result may not communicate clearly.
• Language barriers. Language applies to both the language spoken in the workplace, as well as to the terminology used by certain groups of people. Technical terminology may sound like jargon to someone who is not familiar with that industry.
• Cultural barriers. Cultural norms of behavior affect the way people speak, both verbally and with body language. Employees may not be familiar with other cultural norms.
• Interpersonal barriers. The way an employee feels about herself may affect how she interacts and communicates with colleagues.

Set Employees Up to Communicate Successfully

After identifying the cause of the communication breakdown between your employees, it’s important to set up infrastructure within your organization that enables them to succeed. In many organizations, communication training can help employees to work better with each other and with customers. If the marketing department and the product development department are having communication issues because of the use of jargon, for example, communication training can show employees how to use words that both groups will understand.

A communication gap in the organization may exist because employees don’t know which communication method is right for the task at hand. An employee might set up a face-to-face meeting when the message could be sent via email, for example. Or an employee may send an instant message when a phone call would have been a better choice. It’s critical for the organization to coach employees to use the right communication method for the messages they want to send. This way, employees can reduce miscommunication and increase productivity.

Prevent the Communication Gap in Your Organization

To reduce the number of communication gaps in the organization, it’s important for employers to create and enforce communication policies. These guidelines help employees understand what is expected of them in the workplace. Communication policies should cover how to use the various methods of communication available, what kind of language to use in the workplace, how often to communicate on specific kinds of projects and who to communicate with.

Your workplace culture can help to reduce the communication gap in the organization as well. If the company invites open and honest communication between employees, and the leadership team leads by example, then the front-line employees may feel more comfortable and empowered to communicate effectively with each other.

Employers should consistently monitor the effectiveness of employee communication and develop strategies to improve upon it. For example, if the sales department often has issues with people missing targets because they weren’t aware of the specific goals, it could be there is a gap in communication. As a result, the management team should sit down with the department members to assess their communication protocols and channels and provide processes to improve the situation.

Know Your Audience

Learn as much as possible about the audience and the event.  This will help you target the insights, experience or knowledge you have that this group wants or needs:

• Why has the audience been brought together?
• What do the members of the audience have in common?
• How big an audience will it be?
• What do they know, and what do they need to know?
• Do they expect discussion about a specific subject and, if so, what?
• What is the audience’s attitude and knowledge about the subject of your talk?
• What is their attitude toward you as the speaker?
• Why are they interested in your topic?

Choose Your Core Message

If the core message is on target, you can do other things wrong. But if the message is wrong, it doesn’t matter what you put around it.  To write the most effective speech, you should have significant knowledge about your topic, sincerely care about it and be eager to talk about it.  Focus on a message that is relevant to the target audience, and remember: an audience wants opinion. If you offer too little substance, your audience will label you a lightweight.  If you offer too many ideas, you make it difficult for them to know what’s important to you.

Research and Organize

Research until you drop.  This is where you pick up the information, connect the ideas and arrive at the insights that make your talk fresh.  You’ll have an easier time if you gather far more information than you need.  Arrange your research and notes into general categories and leave space between them. Then go back and rearrange. Fit related pieces together like a puzzle.

Develop Structure to Deliver Your Message

First, consider whether your goal is to inform, persuade, motivate or entertain.  Then outline your speech and fill in the details:

1. Introduction: The early minutes of a talk are important to establish your credibility and likeability.  Personal anecdotes often work well to get things started.  This is also where you’ll outline your main points.
2. Body: Get to the issues you’re there to address, limiting them to five points at most.  Then bolster those few points with illustrations, evidence and anecdotes.  Be passionate: your conviction can be as persuasive as the appeal of your ideas.
3. Conclusion: Wrap up with feeling as well as fact. End with something upbeat that will inspire your listeners.

You want to leave the audience exhilarated, not drained. In our fast-paced age, 20-25 minutes is about as long as anyone will listen attentively to a speech. As you write and edit your speech, the general rule is to allow about 90 seconds for every double-spaced page of copy.

Spice it Up

Once you have the basic structure of your speech, it’s time to add variety and interest.  Giving an audience exactly what it expects is like passing out sleeping pills. Remember that a speech is more like conversation than formal writing.  Its phrasing is loose – but without the extremes of slang, the incomplete thoughts, the interruptions that flavor everyday speech.

• Give it rhythm. A good speech has pacing.
• Vary the sentence structure. Use short sentences. Use occasional long ones to keep the audience alert. Fragments are fine if used sparingly and for emphasis.
• Use the active voice and avoid passive sentences. Active forms of speech make your sentences more powerful.
• Repeat key words and points. Besides helping your audience remember something, repetition builds greater awareness of central points or the main theme.
• Ask rhetorical questions in a way that attracts your listeners’ attention.
• Personal experiences and anecdotes help bolster your points and help you connect with the audience.
• Use quotes. Good quotes work on several levels, forcing the audience to think. Make sure quotes are clearly attributed and said by someone your audience will probably recognize.

Be sure to use all of these devices sparingly in your speeches. If overused, the speech becomes exaggerated. Used with care, they will work well to move the speech along and help you deliver your message in an interesting, compelling way.

Career awareness describes your career attitudes, knowledge and your life’s experiences. Career awareness is using all of these considerations when making active decisions about your career.

Your level of career awareness will directly influence how important and impactful the Power Moves you make will be.

The best and most talented jobseekers prioritize applying to companies that are known to have solid career development programs.

Therefore, these companies will not have much difficulty attracting applicants when they have an open position, because they will be lining up.

Boosting employee motivation and job satisfaction.

Employees who work in a company with a strong and positive stance on career development will feel more motivated to work. They will stay with the company, since it holds promise that there is a clear career path for them to follow.

Otherwise, they will simply look elsewhere for other, better, career opportunities. Their job satisfaction will be high, and this will have a domino effect on his individual productivity, and the overall organizational productivity.

Career development promotes equity in the workforce.

Thanks to career development programs, the playing field at the workplace may be leveled a bit. It promotes equity, where employees can have equal opportunities to improve themselves and advance their careers.

A similar situation is that of a multi-cultural workforce in an American company. The assumption would be that the American workers will have more opportunities to be promoted and rise up the ranks. But with a career development program firmly in place, even non-Americans can compete.

Personal traits and characteristics of the individual

People have varying personalities, and it is these differences that make others more responsive to career development than others. It is possible that someone who is too shy will end up advancing slower in his career in the field of marketing, as compared to someone who is outgoing and a go-getter.

Knowing your quirks and personality traits early on will give you a head start in your career planning and development. Today, self-assessment tests for purposes of career planning are being conducted for high school students so that, early on, they will have an idea what workplaces they are interested in, and what line of work would be a good fit for them.

Skills and knowledge

People who are skilled and knowledgeable about a job are the ones who are most likely to be hired by a company, while those who don’t may not even make it past the second round of screening.

This means that, for those who made it, their mental abilities aided their advancement in their career. For those who did not, their lack of skills and know-how served as a barrier to their career development.

Physical abilities

Physical limitations may also be hindrances to getting further up the career ladder. There are jobs that have specific requirements with respect to the physical abilities of the person who will perform the involved tasks.

Those who are able will have great chances for advancement; those who are not should look for other career paths that will match their physical abilities and accommodate their limitations.

Social and economic factors

An individual may have grown up wanting to become a physician. However, financial constraints and other socio-economic issues may have kept him from going to med school and getting the career that he originally wanted. Family situations and other similar circumstances are also factors that may impact an individual’s development in his desired career.

Some of the activities you should do to help you choose a career:

1. Perform a self-assessment.
2. Identify your must-haves.
3. Make a list of jobs to explore.
4. Research jobs and employers.
5. Get training (if you need it) and update your resume.
6. Find and apply for jobs.
7. Continue growing and learning.

Perform a self-assessment

Before making any important decision, it’s a good idea to take time for self-reflection. Choosing a career is no different. In this step, you’ll reflect on what kind of work environment you want to be in, what type of work you enjoy, who you want to work with, and more.

As you’re reflecting, you may want to write down your notes. These can be helpful references as when you’re evaluating job descriptions later on.

Here are a few questions to get you started. Try not to dwell on the questions for too long. Instead, write down the first thoughts that come to mind. If you’re not sure of some answers, trusted friends or family members may be able to guide you.

Self-assessment questions to consider:

• What are your key values?
  Example answers: Financial stability, helping others, independence
• What soft skills do you possess?
  Example answers: Time management, communication, confidence, problem-solving
• What technical skills do you possess?
  Example answers: Data analytics, planning, research, multilingual, photography
• What natural aptitudes do you have?
  Example answers: Writing, leadership, selling, project management, communicating, planning, technical problem-solving
• What’s your personality like?
  Example answers: Myers-Briggs (MBTI) personality type, quiet, outgoing, confident, aggressive, loyal
• What are you interested in?
  Example answers: Technology, writing, medicine, design

Identify your must-haves

Next, take some time to identify your must-haves in a job. These can range from anything like salary or travel to benefits and location. It might be helpful to return to the question-answer activity when recording what you can’t be flexible with when it comes to your career:

• Do you need to earn a certain salary?
• Do you require certain benefits like specific healthcare coverage or a certain amount of time off?
• Could you take a job that involved travel?
• Do you need to work in a certain location?
• Do you require any sort of flexibility to work from home?
• Do you need to adhere to a specific job title or level?
• Are there certain tasks you need to do or do not want to perform?
• Is there a certain work environment you cannot operate well in?

It is important to know what you need from a job ahead of time. For example, if you need to earn a consistent salary, you may want to avoid freelance work. Once you’ve determined your must-haves, you can use the research phase to determine jobs that might not work for you.

Make a list of jobs to explore

After understanding a bit more about yourself and your needs in a job, start looking for jobs that sound interesting or desirable to you. If there’s a job you don’t know much about, write it down and research it later. You may end up finding an interesting career path. Additionally, remember that job titles don’t always represent the actual job perfectly. While a title might not seem desirable, the job description might be a good fit for you. To start making your list of jobs, here are some considerations:

• Use your network. Do you know friends or colleagues with jobs that seem interesting? Tap into your network to explore jobs both they might hold, as well as jobs they think you may be interested in and/or good at.
• Find interesting industries. Is there a particular industry that seems appealing? Are you naturally drawn to a particular category of work like design, fashion, business or education? Think about friends, family members or acquaintances who have compelling or attractive jobs.
• Identify things you enjoy doing. Are there any activities or tasks that you love doing? These can be anything from designing presentations to organising information to working as part of a group. For example, if you enjoy designing presentations write down careers that might involve doing this type of work.
• List your goals and values. Consider where you want to be in two, five and ten years. Is there a particular title or level you want to achieve? Is there a location you want to be in or a certain lifestyle you want to have? Taking time to think about your future can help you identify jobs that will be a long-term fit.
• Evaluate your strengths and talents. What are you good at? Whether you identify soft or hard skills, determining your strengths paired with things you enjoy can help you find a career that sets you up for success.

Research and narrow down your list

After you’ve explored jobs that seem interesting, start researching each one to create a short -list of serious career possibilities. The goal is to arrive at one or two career paths that you’re excited about. You can use the following steps as a guide for your research:

• “A day in the life.” To get a better idea about whether a certain career might be a good fit for you, look into what the day-to-day responsibilities of each job looks like. Get example job descriptions and common tasks and responsibilities. You might also consider asking to shadow people in your network with jobs on your list.
• Salary. Whether you have a specific salary requirement or not, it might be helpful to learn about average compensation for the jobs you’ve identified.
• Job requirements. Before choosing a career, you will need to know what certifications, degree, training or other credentials are required. You might decide that fulfilling certain requirements isn’t a good fit for you. Thus, narrowing down your list to careers that are more suitable.
• Growth opportunities. It’s important to know if there is an opportunity for growth in your chosen career. This means the availability you’ll have in the career to advance, gain skills and take on more responsibility. Read job descriptions carefully to learn about job requirements and growth opportunities.
• Job outlook. Another key piece of information is how your selected job stands in the labour market. This includes data like hiring trends and job growth. Search for news stories about the industry or job title that interests you. You will want to give preference to jobs that have steady hiring and growth.

Get training and update your resume

Once you’ve narrowed your list down to one or possibly two career paths, you’ll need to assess whether you need additional training or credentials. While some employers are willing to provide on-the-job training, others will look for candidates who already possess their requirements. For details on a specific job, carefully review the job posting. Pay attention to sections labelled ‘Requirements’ and ‘Education and Experience’.
Once you’ve determined that you are qualified for this career path, update your resume to reflect your relevant strengths and skills. It can be helpful to explore job postings to understand what employers in your industry and position are looking for in candidates.

Find and apply for jobs

You can begin looking for opportunities on Indeed—on desktop or on mobile. To add filters, select the “Filter” button. From there, you can set your search distance, job type (full-time, part-time, contract, etc.) and experience level.
If you’ve successfully accepted a new job, we’d love to hear about it.

Continue growing and learning

As with any change, it can take time to adjust to your new career. During this transition time, pay attention to the parts of your job that you’re enjoying. You’ll continue growing, learning and changing as you understand more about yourself, your industry and what works best for you.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you step into a new career:

• Make the most out of your first year. In a new job, it can be overwhelming to take in new information, learn the industry and become an established member of the team.
• Keep track of your goals. If you are feeling uneasy or unsatisfied in your career, it can be helpful to go back to your future goals. If your career no longer aligns with what you want in your future, consider shifting your tasks or looking for other roles that might be a better fit.
• Pursue your interests. If there is a certain task, activity or role you particularly enjoy, spend time developing and exploring those interests. Following what you enjoy and are good at can help you advance in your career and get the most out of your day-to-day role.

Career information refers to information for the purpose of planning and management of one’s own professional career. Career information helps in planning a career strategy. Furthermore, there are many sources of career information which exist nowadays. Most noteworthy, career information identifies various possible career paths. Individuals are able to compare the various career paths or options due to career information.

Career information helps individuals in preparing the overall pattern and design of one’s career. This information also identifies the various goals and career interests for individuals. Career information polishes the general approach of an individual towards his career. Career information relates to all types of careers whether skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled.

Sources of Career Information

The various sources of career information are below:

Personal contacts: Personal contact includes one’s family, relatives, friends, and acquaintances. These contacts are very essential in providing career information. The personal contacts might not have the necessary information themselves. However, they may know other knowledgeable people who can help in providing a job. Most noteworthy, these contacts can lead to an informal interview. In an information interview, a job seeker talks to someone who can provide valuable information about a job offer.

Counsellors: Counsellors are professionals who help clients analyse their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, they help the client evaluate their skills and goals. Most noteworthy, these counsellors help determine what a client requires in a career.

The Internet: The internet is certainly a valuable source of career information. The career information is very huge in magnitude. Also, this information is available on various websites, applications, blogs, articles, videos, on the internet. Most noteworthy, the ease and comfortability of finding career information makes the internet a very popular source of career information.

Organizations: Many organizations provide precious career information. These organizations include business firms, labour unions, professional societies, trade associations, and educational institutions. Above all, these organizations offer a huge variety of inexpensive career materials. These organizations are vital in case the individual already has a job and wants another job.

Libraries and Career Centres: Libraries offer a massive amount of career information. Furthermore, one can easily find the range in which one is seeking a job. Many trade publications and magazines are available in the libraries. Above all, these trade publications and magazines contain a substantial amount of career information.

Strategies of Disseminating Career Information

Following are the various strategies of disseminating career information:

Career Talks: Career talks provide information about various vocations or professions. Moreover, invitations are sent to experts to come and speak about important professions. For this purpose, there should be an organization of certain career days. The principal in a college or school may give career talk. The teacher also joins to deliver their own talks.

Publications: This strategy is one of the most effective in disseminating career information. Publications provide printed career information. Furthermore, these are meant of the general masses. Publications involve books, magazines, newspapers, journals, periodicals, bulletins etc.

Displays and exhibitions: Information collected from multiple sources must be classified. Then after that, the information must be made available to the pupils. There is a display of charts, posters, leaflets, and newspaper cuttings on bulletin boards and walls. The display of these materials takes place in libraries, schools, institutions, organizations, parks, railway stations, bus stops, and other public places.

Film shows: Career information can be disseminated through film strips. A film strip refers to a series of a particular item. Furthermore, these film strips are made on the various aspects of a particular item. Most noteworthy, screening of film strips on different career options, professions, or occupations takes place. There must be commentary along with the film strips to make it more useful.

Career counseling is a type of advice-giving and support provided by career counselors to their clients, to help the clients manage their journey through life, learning and work changes (career). This includes career exploration, making career choices, managing career changes, lifelong career development and dealing with other career-related issues. There is no agreed definition of career counseling worldwide, mainly due to conceptual, cultural and linguistic differences. However, the terminology of ‘career counseling’ typically denotes a professional intervention which is conducted either one-on-one or in a small group. Career counseling is related to other types of counseling (e.g. marriage or clinical counseling). What unites all types of professional counseling is the role of practitioners, who combine giving advice on their topic of expertise with counseling techniques that support clients in making complex decisions and facing difficult situations.

Benefits

Empirical research attests the effectiveness of career counseling. Professional career counselors can support people with career-related challenges. Through their expertise in career development and labor markets, they can put a person’s qualifications, experience, strengths and weakness in a broad perspective while also considering their desired salary, personal hobbies and interests, location, job market and educational possibilities. Through their counseling and teaching abilities, career counselors can additionally support people in gaining a better understanding of what really matters for them personally, how they can plan their careers autonomously, or help them in making tough decisions and getting through times of crisis. Finally, career counselors are often capable of supporting their clients in finding suitable placements/ jobs, in working out conflicts with their employers, or finding the support of other helpful services. It is due to these various benefits of career counseling that policy makers in many countries publicly fund guidance services. For example, the European Union understands career guidance and counseling as an instrument to effectively combat social exclusion and increase citizens’ employability.

Challenges

One of the major challenges associated with career counseling is encouraging participants to engage in the process. For example, in the UK 70% of people under 14 say they have had no careers advice while 45% of people over 14 have had no or very poor/limited advice.

In a related issue some client groups tend to reject the interventions made by professional career counselors preferring to rely on the advice of peers or superiors within their own profession. Jackson et al. found that 44% of doctors in training felt that senior members of their own profession were best placed to give careers advice. Furthermore, it is recognised that the giving of career advice is something that is widely spread through a range of formal and informal roles. In addition to career counselors it is also common for psychologists, teachers, managers, trainers and Human Resources (HR) specialists to give formal support in career choices.

Similarly it is also common for people to seek informal support from friends and family around their career choices and to bypass career professionals altogether. In the 2010s, increasingly people rely on career web portals to seek advice on resume writing and handling interviews and to do research on various professions and companies. It has also possible to get a vocational assessment done online.

Career assessment

Assessment tools used in career counseling to help clients make realistic career decisions. These tools generally fall into three categories: interest inventories, personality inventories, and aptitude tests.

Interest inventories are usually based on the premise that if you have similar interests to people in an occupation who like their job, you will probably like that occupation also. Thus, interest inventories may suggest occupations that the client has not thought of and which have a good chance of being something that the client will be happy with. The most common interest inventory is a measure of vocational interests across six domains: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional. People often report a mixture of these domains, usually with one predominant domain.

Aptitude tests can predict with good odds whether a particular person will be able to be successful in a particular occupation. For example, a student who wants to be a physicist is unlikely to succeed if he cannot do the math. An aptitude test will tell him if he is likely to do well in advanced math, which is necessary for physics. There are also aptitude tests which can predict success or failure in many different occupations.

Personality inventories are sometimes used to help people with career choice. The use of these inventories for this purpose is questionable, because in any occupation there are people with many different personalities. A popular personality inventory is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality, but Jung never approved it. According to Jung most people fall in the middle of each scale, but the MBTI ignores this and puts everyone in a type category. For example, according to the MBTI, everyone is either an extrovert or an introvert. According to Jung, most people are somewhere in between, and people at the extremes are rare. The validity of the MBTI for career choice is highly questionable.

Bad attitudes in the workplace whether yours, your employees, your coworkers or your boss might include laziness, tardiness, rudeness, rumor mongering or any other attitude or activity that lowers overall morale. Someone’s negative attitude could be due to personal problems. An employee might be having romantic problems, financial difficulties or a medical situation that influences behavior at work.

Sometimes just the news of the day is enough to bring you down. Bad attitudes also can result from workplace events, such as a firing, pay decreases or other small-business problems. Whatever the underlying cause, your or someone else’s bad attitudes in the workplace can have serious negative consequences.

Decreased Productivity and Performance

Bad attitudes spread, which is why you must address the issue quickly. A single person’s bad attitude can have a huge effect on the operation of your business. For example, if one employee begins complaining, his discontent might spread to other workers. Bad attitudes also can trickle downward.

A cranky manager can ruin the workplace atmosphere for everyone he supervises. Pervasively negative attitudes can have a detrimental effect on performance, causing employees to become apathetic and despondent. Mistakes might occur more often, and output will likely slow.

Bad Attitudes Make for Unhappy Customers

If your customers encounter bad attitudes from your employees, they won’t come back. Customers don’t want to deal with snippy or rude representatives, and employee apathy leads to blown project deadlines and incomplete fulfillment of orders. Monitoring the performance of employees who deal directly with customers might head off some trouble, but a more effective approach is to deal with the underlying causes of the discontent to raise the morale of the entire workplace.

Identification of Problem Situations

Sometimes, one person is the clear cause of an organization’s problem. Other times, you must identify underlying causes for general discontent. For example, if you enforce unreasonable deadlines for projects, meaning employees must work overtime to meet your expectations, you can expect resentment to build.

Though you should expect the best from your employees, pushing them too hard will test their loyalty and might be bad for morale and employee retention. Other possible causes of bad attitudes include employee perceptions concerning the financial health of your business, insufficient support from management or a feeling that hard work goes unappreciated.

Look for Resolution

Ask for regular employee feedback so you can stay ahead of the curve. Act quickly and decisively to nip negative attitudes in the bud. For example, if an employee consistently voices unreasonable complaints, take that person aside for a private discussion. Try to come to an equitable resolution but warn the employee you won’t tolerate negative influences in your business.

Dealing with systemic problems is more difficult but well worth it in the long run if it improves employee morale. High morale has been shown to lead to better performance and happier customers. For example, invite employee feedback concerning workloads when determining project deadlines.

Types of Negative Attitude:

There are certain types of people that indulge in negative states of mind. They are all different in some ways of thinking and acting, but the unifying feature of all of them is their constant negativity.

Here are several types of such personalities:

1. Miserable Type.
2. Silent Killer.
3. Drama Queen.
4. Paranoid Type.

1. Miserable Type:

Such people are grumpy from the start of the day. They meet with failures as soon as they wake up, which sets their day to be full of anger and hopelessness. Usually this type of people keeps to themselves and their presence makes others moody.

People instantly feel their bad energy and try to stay away from them. The most interesting distinction of this type is that they are mainly unaware of their mental state. They don’t realize that they are negative.

2. Silent killer:

Such people usually understand psychology quite well. They use this knowledge to gradually introduce hatred, anger and low self-esteem in others. They do this by making remarks about how others behave or look. They know that their remarks are destructive, but others may not realize that.

3. Drama Queen:

This is the most common type. Their emotions range from anger to self-pity and every small incident can be turned into the storm. They seem to like the fact that they can change how others feel and be the centers of attention.

Such people are needy and insecure, they crave for constant reassurance. They strive for attention and approval. If they don’t receive what they want, they begin acting in childish ways. They may start crying, throwing things around or trying to get on others’ nerves.

4. Paranoid Type:

They perceive others to be constantly trying to worsen their lives. If they go shopping, they think that shopkeepers are trying to rip them off. If someone wants to befriend them, they think that he/she wants something in return for the friendship.

Consequences of Negative Attitude:

The negative attitude can cause a lot of problems for the individuals with the negative attitude. It can also cause problems to the family members and also the people who are around the person with the negative attitude.

Some of the consequences of negative attitude are:

1. It shortens life.
2. It creates unpleasant future.
3. It harms others.
4. It produces negative effects.

1. It Shortens Life:

The more often one becomes angry, upset or frustrated, the less days one will have left to live.

2. It Creates Unpleasant Future:

If one constantly moans and is dissatisfied with circumstances, in the future one is sure to meet with more of the things he/ she is unhappy about. The more people complain, the more things they will find to complain about.

3. It harms others:

The negative mood affects people around you. One should never make others feel bad because by doing so one is contributing not only to his/her own misery, but to the unhappiness of others also.

4. It Produces Negative Effects:

Every cause has an effect and so one’s negative attitude (cause) produces negative circumstances. Mostly people think it’s the other way round, but that’s not the case. A person thinking causes their circumstances.

According to Gordon Allport, “An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

According to Si P. Robbins: “Attitude is manner, disposition, feeling and position with regard to a person or thing, tendency or orientation especially in the mind.”

Frank Freeman said, “An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to certain institutions, persons or objects in a consistent manner which has been learned and has become one’s typical mode of response.”

Thurstone said, “An attitude denotes the sum total of man’s inclinations and feelings, prejudice or bias, pre-conCeived notions, ideas, fears, threats and other any specific topic.”

Anastasi defined attitude as, “A tendency to react favorably or unfavorably towards a designated class of stimuli, such as a national or racial group, a custom or an institution.”

According to N.L. Munn, “Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service or institution.”

Types of Attitude

1. Positive Attitude

This is one type of attitude in organizational behaviour. One needs to understand how much a positive attitude it takes to keep the work moving and progressing. It means that keeping a positive mindset and thinking about the greater good, no matter whatever the circumstances are. A positive attitude has many benefits which affect out other kinds of behaviour in a good way. For example, a person who has a positive attitude and mindset will look for the good in other person’s no matter how bad they behave or how bad is their attitude. The former person thinks about the greater good and that is why he is called a person with a positive attitude.

These persons generally don’t care about the hurdles in life. They nurture their skills daily and overcome almost anything and everything that comes in their way. The best way to maintain a positive attitude for the beginners is to avoid naysayers and believe in themselves. These persons know about their earlier mistakes and instead of being ashamed of them, they have vowed not to repeat the same thing. If you have a positive attitude, then you should have some list of attitudes.

let’s follow them:

(a) Confidence: Confidence is good attitude and one of the basic things in the list of positive attitudes. Generally, people with a plus or positive mindset are rewarded with this automatically. Confidence is necessary to approach life with zest. Looking at things confidently and saying “I’m up for this’, is enough to reflect your attitude towards life in general and attitude in particular. Confidence in other elements in the world will start with being confident with self.

(b) Happiness: Happiness is the next type of attitude in the list of positive attitudes and behaviours. A happy mind is an abode for all the good things to self. Confident people are quite happy as they are not worried about results, interviews, etc and other similar things in life that are meant to test us. Look within yourself; you will find happiness.

(c) Sincerity: An individual with a positive mindset is often found to be quite sincere. He or she is aware of the work to be done, and they know that the only way out of a situation is through it. Sincerity is one trait that you should never let go off or compromise.

(d) Determination: A determination is one of the primary rewarding points for a person with a positive attitude. A right dose of hard work, effort and determination are essential to get things the way you want. A person who is driven and properly determined will overcome all impossibilities.

2. Negative Attitude

A negative attitude is something that every person should avoid. Generally, people will negative attitude ignore the good things in life and only think about whether they will fail. They often find a way out of tough situations by running away from it. They often compare themselves with other persons and find the bad in them only. In short, he is exactly the opposite of the one with a positive mindset. There are certain bad effects that a person with a negative mindset has to face.

(a) Anger: A person with a negative mindset is often found to be angry most of the time. Sometimes there might not be any kind of specific reason behind their anger. Anger is the root cause of self-destruction. While some amount of anger is good, extreme cases of anger only lead to destruction.

(b) Doubt: A person can question himself but he or she should never doubt themselves. Unfortunately, if you have a negative mindset, then you will often doubt yourself. Self-doubt will lead to no progress and will often lead to low confidence.

(c) Frustration: A negative person is a frustrated person. As said earlier, attitude defines the person and that is why if you are frustrated that will show on your face and you will be facing some serious difficulties. Frustration will not help you build your career. It is an irritant and will keep preventing you from taking any positive step forward.

3. Neutral Attitude

This is another type of attitude that is common. That mindset is a neutral one. There is no doubt. Neither is there any kind of hope. The people generally tend to ignore the problems in life. They wait for some other individual to take care of their problems. They generally have a lazy life and they are often unemotional. It is as if they don’t think about anything that much and doesn’t care for the same as well. They never feel the need to change themselves as they can simply live with the way they are.

He or she will feel disconnected quite often and that is why having a neutral attitude is very bad and should be fixed as soon as possible. However, a person with neutral attitude if changes can only go to the path of a positive attitude. In most cases, it has been seen that the attitude adjustment metal therapies have led persons to a road filled with positive feelings only.

4. Sikken Attitude

One of the most dangerous types of attitude and different is the sikken attitude. The sikken attitude has the calibre to destroy every image that comes in connection with a positive image. This type of attitude is more of a negative attitude and is very destructive. It often reflects the mind’s negativity. It is necessary to let go off this kind of attitude for the betterment of the self and the people around you. They are often difficult to be mended because the attitude is deep-rooted within one’s personality. However, with time, it nevertheless is possible to change the course of direction of this attitude.

Attitude will either define you or destroy you. What generally follows is, your attitude will be an inspiration for many in your team. Therefore, companies look for people with a positive attitude. People in general seem to stick around the positive vibration, as that will motivate them enough to progress in life. Bad or good, attitude has the power to change people’s thoughts and therefore, their behaviour. Be an example of a good one.

Improving Your Communication Skills

Business communications require a good understanding of your audience. Our Communications Planning article outlines a simple process that you can follow to assess your audience, to choose an appropriate channel to reach them, and to monitor the effectiveness of your message.

If your goal is to gain information, be sure to ask the right questions and to stay clear and concise our article on The 7 Cs of Communication offers a useful checklist of factors to consider.

Finding common ground with your audience will help you to establish trust and rapport. But be aware of cultural or personal differences, and show that you respect other people’s points of view.

When you convey information, use your powers of negotiation and persuasion to present your case, rather than stating your opinion as fact, and be prepared to compromise. You can use rhetoric to construct a persuasive argument, but it’s important to remain credible and authentic.

And crucially, when you’ve delivered your message, listen carefully to the response. Active Listening techniques help you to pay close attention, to show the speaker that you are taking their words on board, and to respond constructively. Mindful Listening can help you to focus on what’s being said, and to “tune out” distractions.

“Looking” also plays a part in “listening.” We pick up cues from a person’s body language. They tell us whether he or she is confident, or bored, or thinking about something else and even if he’s lying.

Becoming more aware of posture, eye contact, hand gestures, and tone of voice helps us to “read” other people more effectively and to adapt our communication style accordingly. And if we recognize our own body language, we can project a feeling that we may not actually be experiencing to appear confident in job interviews, for example.

Whether you want to make a good first impression, to attend a speed networking event, to meet a new boss for the first time, or to just get along better with your colleagues, good interpersonal communication skills will help you to make every second count.

Learning to Manage Differences

You’ll likely encounter conflict, or at least differences that seem hard to reconcile, at some point in your working life. You may, for example, find yourself dealing with rude or difficult people, or those who feel they need to “cut you down to size” (known as “tall poppy syndrome.”) In such situations, the ability to remain calm but assertive is a key interpersonal skill.

Unresolved conflict can be damaging and disruptive, and often affects morale and productivity. It can result in personal animosity, making people feel as if they have to “take sides,” disengage from the team, or even leave the organization.

On the other hand, conflict can bring underlying issues to the surface, where you can examine, acknowledge and deal with them. This can help to prevent similar problems from recurring and to enhance mutual understanding.

That’s why the ability to deal with conflict effectively is an interpersonal skill that’s highly valued by employers.

So let’s look at three approaches to conflict resolution:

The Interest-Based Relational (IBR) Approach advocates separating the problem from the people involved. You examine the issue objectively, simply setting out the facts to discuss without damaging your relationships. This requires courtesy, listening skills, understanding, and a willingness to compromise.

Perceptual Positions is an exercise that helps you to see other people’s points of view. You assign, say, chairs in your office to the opposing points of view, plus one for an objective observer. Then you sit in each chair in turn and picture the situation from the three different perspectives.

And Bell and Hart’s Eight Causes of Conflict can help you to identify the source of, and therefore a solution to, an issue. The causes range from insufficient resourcing and confused roles to incompatible values and unpredictable policies, and our article gives you pointers on how to manage each one.

Learning to Manage Agreement

We’ve seen how you can use your interpersonal skills to manage conflict. But how do you create an agreeable and harmonious working environment?

The first step is to use your interpersonal skills to establish trust. Trust enables you to be more effective, to take worthwhile risks, and to feel secure. You can discover useful strategies for working with your co-workers, clients and suppliers in our article, Building Trust.

The next step is to work towards a situation where team members understand one another. They can collaborate to improve the team’s overall performance, if you can help them to reveal more about themselves, safely. The Johari Window is a useful tool to help you to Manage Mutual Acceptance.

Understanding individuals’ interpersonal strengths helps you to match them with suitable tasks or projects. This can increase their motivation, engagement and productivity. Read our article, Four Dimensions of Relational Work, to find out how to assign tasks based on people’s attributes.

Another key aspect of managing agreement relates to feedback. People will likely view poorly expressed feedback as destructive criticism. Deliver it well, however, and you can address difficult issues before they worsen.

Maintaining Your Personal Integrity

Your integrity, your ability to stand up for what you believe in is central to your interpersonal skills. Integrity enables you to measure your choices and decisions when dealing with others against the benchmark of your personal values. Your reputation and personal brand rest on it.

This can keep you on the right track on a daily basis simply interacting with others in a friendly, polite way, for example, can make a huge difference to the people around you. It can also guide you through challenging but potentially rewarding situations, such as working with rivals. It is also important if you’re in a position of authority.

1. Keep a gratitude journal

Sometimes one single event can ruin an entire day and an unpleasant interaction or experience at night can overshadow the enjoyable parts of our day. With this awareness that our mind tends to cling to the negative, we can intentionally focus on the good parts of our day to offset this imbalance. Try writing down 5 things that you feel grateful for every day and see how your attitude changes. Science has found that gratitude can significantly increase your happiness, and protect you from stress, negativity, anxiety and depression. 

2. Reframe your challenges

There are no dead ends, only re-directions. Although we might try, there are very few things in life that we have complete control over. We should not let uncontrollable occurrences from the outside turn our inner to mush. What we can control is the effort that we put in and when we give our full effort, there is no reason for regret. Have fun with challenges, embrace them as adventures instead of  attempting to resist an experience for growth. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.” :Robert Kiyosaki

3. Get good at being rejected

Rejection is a skill. Chalk every broken heart and failed job interview as practice because no one gets to slide through life without being rejected. Don’t let it harden you and don’t expect the worse. If you wait for bad things to happen, chances are it will or you’ll narrow in on the bad in the midst of the may good things you’ve missed along the way. When there are cracks in your heart, they let the sun in.

4. Use positive words to describe your life

The words that we use have a lot more power than we think. How you talk about your life is how your life will be. Your mind hears what you say. If you describe your life as boring, busy,  mundane, chaotic, that is how you will percieve it and you will feel the effects in your body and mind. If you use the words simple, involved, familiar or lively, you will see your life in a whole different light and find more enjoyment in the way you chose to shape your life.

A study from US data suggests that having a positive attitude is not only has a direct effect on your happiness, it is also correlated with your earning wage.

5. Replace have with get

Do you ever notice how many times we say that we have to do something?  I have to go to work. I have to go grocery shopping. I have to pay my rent. Now change this one little word to get and see what happens. I get to go to work. I get to go grocery shopping. Even, I get to pay my rent. Your attitude quickly changes from needing to fulfill obligations to being grateful for the things that we become accustomed to having:  a job to support you and your family, food on the table, and a roof over your head. Try to make this change when you are thinking to yourself and you may feel and appear happier and less stressed.

6. Don’t let yourself get dragged into other people’s complaints

Your day was going pretty well and then you get to work and your co-worker can’t stop complaining about the cold weather. You didn’t really think about it before he/she brought it up and now you find yourself agreeing and joining in on the complaint-fest of how sick you are of this cold weather. In a month you’ll be pulled into complaints about how it’s too hot. Don’t fall into the trap. A study done at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology shows that complaining leads to lower moods and negative emotions, decreased life satisfaction and optimism, and emotional and motivational deficits.  You might find that your co-worker will complain less without the validation of someone else having the same complaint.

7. Breathe

Our breath is directly connected to our emotions. Have you noticed we hold our breath sometimes when we are concentrating on something? Can you feel your breath change when you are angry or anxious? Our breath changes depending on how we feel. The great news is that the connection goes the other way too. We can also change how we feel using our breath! Check out this infographic on the scientific benefits of breathing.

8. Notice the righteous in times of tragedy

It’s hard to have hope and stay positive when hate and violence is all over the media. What we don’t see as much is that in every instance of natural disasters, war, traumatic experience, you will find people rising up, reaching out to each other and showing raw compassion and love. Hold onto the stories of modern day heroes and selflessness in the times of fear and devastation.

9. Have solutions when pointing out problems

Being positive doesn’t mean that you have to be oblivious to problems. Positive people have constructive criticisms to improve conditions. If you are going to point out problems in people or situations, place just as much effort into suggesting solutions. Instead of pointing out all of the things that are wrong, offer ways to make it better.

10. Make someone else smile

Who do you think about most of the time? If we answered honestly, most of us would say themselves. It’s good to hold ourselves accountable, take responsibility for our life roles, hygiene, food, etc. but set a goal for each day to make someone else smile. Think about someone else’s happiness and it will help us to realize our immense impact that our attitude and expression has on the people around us.