The social edge

To excel in your chosen profession, social skils are as important as technical expertise

Indian entrepreneurs and businessmen may excel in their specific technical field but this skill often deserts them during social and public interactions. Often an unintentional burp has ruined business deals and has left a lasting negative impression on interviewers thus leading to rejection.

The problem as we can see lies not in technical or professional capabilities but

in the manner in which a person presents himself/herself during various situations. Since this plays an important role in one’s professional life, various institutes have started offering training in the same.

These institutes offer training in soft skills,etiquette,self-confidence while facing an audience etc. The training modules are designed to bring out the latent talent in people. They add the necessary polish so that the individual leaves a good impression on others. There have been situations in the corporate world where the interviewers select one particular candidate over the other even when the technical proficiency is the same because one had better language skills over the other.

With the number of business deals being finalized over lunch and dinner increasing, the importance of dining skills has increased. Table manners gliches are no longer acceptablel, a certain level of sophistication is expected. These issues(dining skills, public speaking etc)also play an important role when company representatives travel overseas. Edge Academy, one of the training institutes, offers training on appropriate behaviour while traveling with senior officials and what to wear when attending important meeting. “Finetuning of a persons’ persona helps in getting business deals through, sometimes it is the tilting factor,” says Sudhir Udayakanth, President, Edge Advanced Learning Pvt Ltd. “We do not teach anything new but improve on latent skills,” he adds.

Various language institutes such as the Alliance Francaise and Max Muller Bhavan offer training in language and cultural skills. Max Muller Bhavan has a couple of programs for corporate people. One is the Fit for Germany program in which businesspeople are taught the German language through conversation in everyday situations. The other is a two day intercultural seminar on the historical, geographic, cultural and practical aspects of living in Germany.This program ensures that the individual is well prepared for his/her stay in Germany.This training has been conducted in companies such as Siemens and Wipro.

These programs are flexible and most training institutes offer both personalized and group coaching. Also companies and individuals can select specific modules and combine them into a customized course. Some institutes(such as Edge Academy) provide free follow - up sessions if the courses are being conducted in the company.

People from the corporate world have realized the importance of developing the skills taught in these institutes and are making good use of them.

The institutes have been receiving a numberof clients. Established institutes like KWEC (Kapoor’s Workshop for Effective Communication) have reputed companies as their clientele and have trained around 9000 people in 48 organisations so far.

With flexible prices and comendable training, these institutes are indeed improving the personal and professional lives of executives and anyone interested in improving their life skills.

Issue BG27 June03