Communication Skills

Effective Communication Skills are very important for our professional /personal success, regardless in what business we participate to.

The purpose of communication is to get your message across to others clearly and unambiguously, and the communication becomes successful when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information as a result of the communication.

Searching online for "How to.." on Communication Skills, i cam across on some very useful videos which i want to share them with you.

Communication Skills_Part1

Communication Skills_Part2

Communication Skills_Part3

Communication Skills_Part4

More to come....

Enjoy,
Ana

Tips to Improve Your Interpersonal Skills.

Recently i had a job interview with an International company, and despite testing technical / professional skills, a great importance on the interview process was given to the "Interpersonal skills".

Interpersonal Skills is one of the elements how you are perceived by your manager and coworkers, which play a large role in things as minor as your day-to-day happiness at the office and as major as the future of your career.

No matter how hard you work or how many brilliant ideas you may have, if you can’t connect with the people who work around you, your professional life will suffer.

Here are some tips, on how to improve our Interpersonal Skills.

• Smile. Few people want to be around someone who is always down in the dumps. Do your best to be friendly and upbeat with your coworkers. Maintain a positive, cheerful attitude about work and about life. Smile often. The positive energy you radiate will draw others to you.
• Be appreciative. Find one positive thing about everyone you work with and let them hear it. Be generous with praise and kind words of encouragement. Say thank you when someone helps you. Make colleagues feel welcome when they call or stop by your office. If you let others know that they are appreciated, they’ll want to give you their best.
• Pay attention to others. Observe what’s going on in other people’s lives. Acknowledge their happy milestones, and express concern and sympathy for difficult situations such as an illness or death. Make eye contact and address people by their first names. Ask others for their opinions.
• Practice active listening. To actively listen is to demonstrate that you intend to hear and understand another’s point of view. It means restating, in your own words, what the other person has said. In this way, you know that you understood their meaning and they know that your responses are more than lip service. Your coworkers will appreciate knowing that you really do listen to what they have to say.
• Bring people together. Create an environment that encourages others to work together. Treat everyone equally, and don't play favorites. Avoid talking about others behind their backs. Follow up on other people's suggestions or requests. When you make a statement or announcement, check to see that you have been understood. If folks see you as someone solid and fair, they will grow to trust you.
• Resolve conflicts. Take a step beyond simply bringing people together, and become someone who resolves conflicts when they arise. Learn how to be an effective mediator. If coworkers bicker over personal or professional disagreements, arrange to sit down with both parties and help sort out their differences. By taking on such a leadership role, you will garner respect and admiration from those around you.
• Communicate clearly. Pay close attention to both what you say and how you say it. A clear and effective communicator avoids misunderstandings with coworkers, collegues, and associates. Verbal eloquence projects an image of intelligence and maturity, no matter what your age. If you tend to blurt out anything that comes to mind, people won’t put much weight on your words or opinions.
• Humor them. Don’t be afraid to be funny or clever. Most people are drawn to a person that can make them laugh. Use your sense of humor as an effective tool to lower barriers and gain people’s affection.
• See it from their side. Empathy means being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand how they feel. Try to view situations and responses from another person’s perspective. This can be accomplished through staying in touch with your own emotions; those who are cut off from their own feelings are often unable to empathize with others.
• Don't complain. There is nothing worse than a chronic complainer or whiner. If you simply have to vent about something, save it for your diary. If you must verbalize your grievances, vent to your personal friends and family, and keep it short. Spare those around you, or else you’ll get a bad reputation.

Enjoy,
Ana

Soft skills "Survey with AIT's Managing Director"

In a survey conducted by our team members titled “Soft skills & E-learning” with Mr. Athanasios Zesimopoulos he answered:

What do soft skills mean to you?

This term refers to a set of personality characteristics and traits that are complementary to the “hard skills” acquired through formal education and training. Under the wide umbrella of soft skills someone could include leadership, motivation, communication skills, team management, confidence, versatility, reliability, efficiency among others.

Are soft skills as important as “Hard skills”?

One set of skills balances the other.

Do you believe that soft skills can be taught through internet means (E-learning)?

Soft skills refer mainly to personality and the conduct towards others/tasks/jobs, etc. Interaction and sometimes mimicking others behavior is a key component in acquiring soft skills. If an on-line method allows real time interaction then some soft skills could be taught by experts.

When you interview a possible employee or a student, how do you measure his/her soft skills generally?

An interview and direct interaction are the only ways to evaluate his/her personality and his/her ability to deal with a set of issues/problems/standards. Setting real problems and case studies evaluating his/her reaction to these is one way to measure soft skills.

Do you recommend AIT to include core subject about “Soft skills” in its curriculum?

As an academic institution that concentrates on the hard skills our students should acquired (especially in technical masters) and given the limitations of time and heavy work load such an addition could be difficult. However, in the MBIT program there is a mandatory course on negotiation which is in this direction. Moreover part of every day student life is presentation and defense of the projects, homework, thesis, etc. There are also team projects and a number of activities that involve the use of soft skills. Finally, the preparation towards AIT’s career days and the interview process with potential employers itself is a valuable activity through which a set of soft skills are acquired.


Finally, Tomorrow we will publish the MSITT Program Director Professor Anna Tzanakaki’s Answers (visit us again)!

Enjoy & Learn,

Amjad Alqaisi

Soft Skills "Survey"

In a survey conducted by our team members titled “Soft skills & E-learning” with Professor L. David Brown (Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government) when he visited the AIT last month he answered:

What do soft skills mean to you?

Soft skills are personal skills, emotional skills, and managerial skills. It is different from hard science capacities.

Are soft skills as important as “Hard skills”?

Sure, they are a lot more important in our social life (at home). Technical people might require more hard skills than soft skills to carry out their jobs, but soft skills are of so importance if they want to pursue managerial positions.

Do you believe that soft skills can be taught through internet means (E-learning)?

Its hard, soft skills cannot be broadcasted; it should be transferred through interactive learning (i.e. face to face)

When you interview a possible employee or a student, how do you measure his/her soft skills generally?

CVs would tell something but not so much. Direct questions, body language and oral interaction will tell a lot more.

Do you recommend AIT to include core subject about “Soft skills” in its curriculum?

Yes very much recommended. In the MPA and MBA of Harvard business school, we have core courses about leadership, negotiation and other soft skills.

Tomorrow we will publish Professor G. Yovanof 's Answers (Visit us again)!

Enjoy & Learn,

Amjad Alqaisi

How to improve your memory: 5 simple tips

Believe in yourself

Don't let negative expectations defeat you. If you expect to fail, you won't even try. If you find yourself thinking, "I can't remember names," substitute "I may forget some names.

Focus your attention on what you really want to remember

No one can remember everything. So put effort and energy into those areas that are most important to you. Much of what is called forgetting is a lack of attention. Before you blame your memory, ask yourself if you were really paying attention.

Relax

Tension interferes with the memory process; relaxing often lets the memory come to the surface. When you feel anxious about the possibility of forgetting, you may become preoccupied with the anxiety and unable to concentrate on recalling the needed information. The solution is to take a deep breath and relax; often the information will come to you.

Give yourself plenty of time

People of all ages forget more frequently when they are rushing. In general, if you have enough time to think about what you need to accomplish, you are less likely to forget something. You may also find that you need more time for learning new information and for recalling information from long-term memory. Give yourself a little additional time and see if it helps in encoding and retrieving information.

Be organized

The old saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place" is good advice for memory improvement. Make a decision to improve your organizational skills in whatever ways are important to you. If you routinely put your keys, glasses, purse, and bills in the same place, you will not waste time searching for them.

Reference www.bayt.com

6 steps to more productivity

Every one of us needs to organize his/her workload in order to be more productive below is a summarized steps on how to reach that. (summarized from reference below)
1-make a daily list: make a daily list of what you are going to finish today.
2- Segregate time for each task: give each task of your daily list a specific amount of time to be finished.
3- focus: The instant we break concentration, the entire problem that we were modeling in our head drops on the floor and shatters into a million pieces.
4- Take breaks: When you can’t figure out a problem, it’s time to put it on your mind’s back burner for a bit. Or, right after you solve a problem, have a 10 minute celebration before moving on to the next thing.
5- Take care of your equipment: Most of what you’re paid for is produced by your brain, so treat it like your most important piece of equipment. Caffeine may put some spark in it, but overdoing caffeine may make you think less clearly. Beer as well causes neurotoxins (nerve cell damages)
6- Follow through: If you have a choice between working on two projects, choose the one that is nearly finished even if the other one is more fun. When you complete a project, it creates momentum and reduces that long to-do list.

Reference: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/project-management/?p=193&tag=nl.e108

Today, soft skills are required in all functions of the workplace

Today, corporates are increasingly relying on e-learning to improve the soft skills of their employees. Until a few years ago, soft skills training was offered only to the sales team as these skills were equated to training in communication and client interaction. But now it is a prerequisite to all categories of employees.


A full study made by HR Magazine about e-learning and soft skills through a sample of big companies such as Reuters, Delaware North Companies Inc, US Bancorp and others stated that companies nowadays rely more on technology ways to deliver soft-skills to their employees. Globalization has played a major rule in this expansion as many companies have multinational employees and they want to teach them all sorts of soft skills in order to develop their productivity and teamwork efficiencies.

For example, more than half of the employees at Reuters News Agency are Non-native English speakers and operate in non-English native countries. That motivation created the need for developing their language skills, the reason that Reuters chose to contract with an e-learning company GlobalEnglish Corp to deliver online virtual classes and customized courses for their employees. The feedback of the program was positive and the cost of teaching each employee is about $500 a year.

You will find interesting information about more examples in this report.

http://brandguidelines.elementk.com/HRMagHTML/January%202008%20HR%20Magazine%20Hard%20Facts%20About%20Soft-Skills.htm


Amjad Alqaisi

E-learning reaches out to Soft-Skills students

An article from: Talkibie

- February 19th, 2008
- Haley January Eckels

Businesses have increasingly turned to online training methods in recent years, using technology as a way to better serve the needs of their employees’ professional development. This is especially true for those employees who need help with “hard skills,” such as computer training, operating machinery, or safety standards. Now, HR departments are starting to look to e-learning as a means of teaching “soft skills” or “people skills,” like communication, conflict resolution, management techniques, teamwork, and foreign language. This trend is still in its infancy, and some business are scratching their heads and asking, “Can you really learn people skills online?”

Employers are turning to e-learning to ensure that younger workers are developing the soft skills they need as they take over the work force. Baby boomers are slated to retire soon, and companies are worried that their experience and knowledge will go with them. Younger workers are accustomed to using computers, cell phones, and social networking websites in their everyday activities, and e-learning advocates hope that these two groups can be linked through online mentoring and training programs.

U.S. Bancorp has begun using a software package called Open Mentoring which connects workers across the organization for personalized training and mentoring services. Open Mentoring matches up employees based on demographic and competency information, and helps them connect through phone calls, online chats, and forums. The strategy may help preserve some of the organizational knowledge and memory that would otherwise be lost when experienced employees retire.

Employers are also using e-learning technologies to improve the language skills of their increasingly diverse workforces. Many companies who use an outsourcing employment model or who operate overseas are finding it increasingly important to provide language training to employees at locations all over the world. E-learning tools can help make that experience uniform and ensure the quality of teaching is the same across the company. One leader in this market is GlobalEnglish, which boasts clients such as Reuters, Mitsubishi, Nestle, General Motors, Canon, and Hilton International. They offer customized programs which will allow for specific problems or challenges to be addressed depending on the native language of the employee.

Online training has also come in handy for companies who need to give seminars on ethics or sexual harassment laws. During my tenure at a major publishing company with thousands of employees worldwide, we were required to participate in a web-based sexual harassment course. The 60-minute interactive class included a pretest, videos of real-life scenarios, test questions, and follow-up material that could be printed. Rather than attending a crowded meeting with a frustrated HR rep trying to shout over the chatter of bored employees, we were able to complete the training on our own schedule without the distractions of our immature coworkers.

So how do we know if online training is appropriate or effective for soft skills development? Many organizations are attempting to answer the same question. A number of online training models include follow-up meetings and sessions to allow trainees to interact and test their knowledge. This means that local HR reps have a chance to evaluate the effectiveness of the training, if only on an informal level. Metrics for soft skills learning are hard to define, but many programs use a survey/user satisfaction model to collect data and measure success. However, with the incorporation of more and more Web 2.0 tools into e-learning programs, people skills can indeed be exercised online. Between blogs, WIKI, social networking/bookmarking, and video sharing, employees really are able to communicate and learn in a group setting from the comfort of their cubes.

Enjoy,
Ana

Play & Learn @ Soft Skills.

One of the effective ways to grasp knowledge is an online simulation.
Get to know what are your soft skill capabilities in sales!

Enjoy,
Ana

Speed Reading and E-Learning

In this blog we are trying to give you the skills that will help you to develop your learning through e-learning concepts. One of the most important soft skills that will help in your development is the ability to read in a fast way.
I created a presentation about how to start reading in a fast way, what to do in order to reach great results.
And by this speed-reading will allow you to read more materials in the same time that you spend reading now.

You can download the presentation from here.

Enjoy fast reading and fast e-learning

Fadi

Online-learning.com

I have done an analysis about www.online-learning.com which concern pure virtual play company which teach courses online as well as doing business with other companies and universities.
Please find the study results of that website on the following link.

http://ait.softskill.googlepages.com/E-Business.doc

Also please take time to fill our survey.









Regards,
Amjad

Oracle University as an e-learning website

Click here to take our Online Survey to evaluate Oracle University e-learning site



As a part of our study for the e-business course and since our blog theme is related to e- learning area, as a homework we had to do a study about an e-learning website Oracle University (http://education.oracle.com/).

You can download the file from here
Enjoy
Fadi
P.S Please take time to fill our survey



Click here to take our Online Survey to evaluate Oracle University e-learning site

E-learnig @ Latitude University

One of a classes i am attending at AIT (Athens Information Technology), is E-Business course.
Like all the courses, has its own project requirements.
This blog, by the way is initiated as an E-business project, where the team members had to define a topic to talk more in their blog. As a first homework our course professors involved us in finding a web site within the context or our blog (which is E-learning e-business area), and to elaborate in business models adopted by this website.
To accomplish this homework i referred to the "Latitude online University" "http://www.latitudeu.com". A report of the homework can be found here.

As an open training community, Latitude University, gives the possibility to everyone to share or gain knowledge. It brings together those with "teaching" skills to the knowledge seekers, and all this for free or at a low price fee.

@ LatitudeU, i found very interesting e-courses, talking about different aspects of "Soft Skill". I would recommend to the readers of this blog, to get and join LatitudeU, explore it and to benefit for its online course catalog, and please feel free to answer to the following questions:

Enjoy Folks!
Ana