The Hindu Business Line : ‘Communication skills vital to be a team leader’

Chennai, Feb. 24 With knowledge, you can meet the expectations of a particular job profile, but ultimately, it is the soft skills that will help you exceed those expectations and grow within an organisation. Success is directly related to the way you communicate, your ease at being a team worker, and drive to think outside-the-box, as those elements define a person’s attitude towards work and life.

These were some of the tips offered by Ms Lakshmi Kruti Vasan, Director, NuVeda Learning Pvt Ltd, at a seminar for students at Anna Adarsh College for Women, organised as part of the Business Line Club lecture series.

Remember those days when becoming a manager was such a big event? Now, 25-year-olds have joined the ranks. The problem crops up when they don’t have the necessary set of skills to transition from, say, a technical or functional specialist to a team leader/supervisor/manager.

That’s where soft skills come in, lending more than a helping hand. Companies in the IT, BPO, KPO, biotech, and pharmaceutical sectors have found that their people need personal skills to work effectively in cross-functional teams, local teams or global teams, Ms Vasan said.

Bosses today expect new recruits to possess skills over and above what they expected in the past. What we learn today will last for about six years, compared to the 25-year limit earlier. In this high-competition world, it is personal skills that will hold you in good stead, determine if you are in the train, or on the track, she said.

While an individual entering the corporate zone may have the right qualifications and drive, can you imagine that simple things such as neat clothes and hair and being fit can make or break your progress on the corporate beanstalk?

“Good grooming is more important than we may think,” Ms Vasan warns. “It may sound simple, but these are crucial elements. Success dressing in many ways is style under pressure, that delicate balance between personal flair and professional clout. And don’t forget, health is in. Be aware of what you eat and how it impacts your body. Be fit, it will show.”

Students got a rundown on other aspects of corporate must-knows, including the importance of listening skills and body language, projecting an attentive and respectful tone in a telephone conversation, accountability in e-mail messages as “you may be surprised to find where your message ends up”, and key elements to a powerful presentation.

So what is the king of all the soft skills? “It is really communication that anyone ever gets paid for. You can’t overestimate the importance of communication. A person with average knowledge and fantastic soft skills is more likely to succeed than one who is brilliant but down on personal skills. If you cannot effectively communicate, then you will only end up paying for it,” she said.

Present at the event was Ms Jayashree Ghosh, Principal, Anna Adarsh College for Women, and Ms Leji A. George, faculty and co-ordinator of Soft Skills Club at the college.

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