Soft Skills, the cornerstone of professional success, has become an essential aspect of one’s personality and one needs to take conscientious efforts in order to develop such skills. In fact, these skills are considered even more important than hard skills or technical skills by certain industries. Keeping in view the ever increasing demand for soft skills in today’s globalised world, this book aims at introducing the term soft skills which encompasses in itself an array of skills pertaining to one’s personality, employment and profession; it also provides certain specific strategies to enhance them.
Broadly divided into five sections, namely, Introduction to Soft Skills, Personal Skills, Employment Skills, Business Skills and Soft Skills for Global Environment, the book covers a wide range of topics under each section thereby enabling the readers, whether they are students or professionals, to understand the nuances of soft skills and also to apply the strategies to strengthen them. In a nutshell, the book aims at serving as a beacon of light to lead students and professionals to accomplish their goals and achieve success.
- Covers a wide array of topics under soft skills
- Provides numerous practical examples to understand each skill
- Adopts a user-friendly approach and an easy-to-understand language
- Includes an in-depth discussion on personality factors, confidence building, ethics and etiquette—rare to find in other books of this kind
- Gives focussed strategies for acing presentations, conversations, interviews and GDs
- Contains activities, cases and self-evaluation exercises in the chapters/at the end so that the learners can assess their soft skills
- Includes concept-oriented questions/quiz at the end of each chapter to facilitate the learning
- This book includes a licence key for our digital learning app, CENGAGE app, that provides access to self-assessments and flashcards.
Section 1 Introduction to Soft Skills
Chapter 1 Soft Skills and Importance
Section 2 Life Skills/Personal Skills
Chapter 2 Essentials of Desirable Personality
Chapter 3 Confidence Building
Section 3 Employment Skills/Professional Skills
Chapter 4 Communication Skills
Chapter 5 Job Search Skills
Chapter 6 Interview Skills
Section 4 Corporate/Business Skills
Chapter 7 Team Skills
Chapter 8 Leadership and Motivation
Chapter 9 Ethics and Etiquette
Section 5 Soft Skills for Global Environment
Chapter 10 Applying Soft Skills Across Cultures
Appendix A English Sounds and Symbols
Appendix B British and American Vocabulary
Appendix C GD Topics and Interviews: Questions and Tips
Key Terms
Self-Evaluation Exercises
References
Index
Meenakshi Raman
Meenakshi Raman is Professor of English and Communication and was formerly heading the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Pilani and Goa Campuses of BITS Pilani till July 2017. With 25 years of teaching at BITS Pilani, Dr. Raman has authored 17 books on Professional Communication and English Language Skills. Many of her books are being adopted as textbooks by various universities in India. She has guided several Ph.D. students, published over 60 research articles and presented several papers at international conferences in India and countries abroad. Dr. Raman has been conducting workshops at several institutions in India for enhancing the soft skills of students and professionals.
Shalini Upadhyay
Shalini Upadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa Campus, India. She joined BITS Goa Campus in 2005 and has more than 18 years of experience. She is an expert in communication, presentation design, and public speaking. She imparts training and coaching to senior executives, leaders and CXOs to transform their communication and presentation skills. She is an inventor and has filed two patents. She has authored two books on communication and multiple research papers for conferences and journals of repute. As Principal Director, she has successfully executed the research project funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research, Ministry of HRD. She is on the board of research committee of various educational universities. She keeps herself busy by supervising her Ph.D. scholars, coaching and training people, reviewing and writing research papers and authoring books. She has co-founded a start-up, NGO “mPower”, which imparts awareness about the government policies for the citizens of India. She is an active runner and participates in marathons.
