Scaling New Peaks

In today’s global arena, the role of management institutes has moved far beyond just providing skills that will help students get a good job. The focus has shifted to creating global leaders responding to newer challenges.

DR.UDAY SALUNKE, Director, Prin.L N Welingkar institute of Management Education and Research opines that the most important attribute that students should have is the Right Attitude.

“B-schools can help to give a maximum understanding of the market, but the mental preparedness, will and passion should come from the student”, He concludes.

Qualities a Leader Must have in managing a Business?

While there are many qualities that differentiate a leader from the rest of the pack, there are some important ones that are common to most business leaders that help them to manage work and people. These are as follows.

Ambition:– The person with a dream is the most likely to attain success, simply because he or she has a goal to work towards. Someone with the drive and high aspirations will be propelled towards the determination and diligence to make a success of their business. Every great leader, in business and in other fields of life has an objective that they work to achieve and this becomes the driving force that shows others the vision of what can be. This inspires the leader and the people around him or her towards the actions required to make the vision a reality.

Knowledge of the business:– A sound understanding of the dynamics of the business that they are in is a common quality amongst great business leaders. They learn from books, people and experience to develop a keen sense of the workings and history of their business. While this is essential for any business person, it is an art mastered by leaders that makes them highly successful at their work.

Consistency:– Consistent behavior inspires trust and is the foundation for integrity. The higher or nobler qualities of character such as integrity, concern for people, honesty work only when applied with consistency. The people who look to leaders for guidance or inspiration do so because they believe that a leader will give the right answer every time. This is possible only through consistency of thought and action.

Good listening skills:– All the soft skills are important for a leader but one of the most essential leadership skills in business management is being a good listener. This allows the leaders to pick up on little facts that many overlook. Listening contributes to the knowledge base of the individual as opposed to speaking, which only imparts knowledge to others. The leader is also able to inspire confidence and attract people to him or her because they know the leader is listening.

Creativity:– A good deal of being a leader is to think on your feet. Your situation and environment change constantly in the business world and a good business leader keeps an open mind. A leader will adapt quickly to new information and have the creativity and vision to handle change.

Ability to own up to mistakes:– A leader manages problem situations by owning up to mistakes and taking the blame in place of trying to cover mistakes up or pass the buck. This is a sign of true integrity and inspires others to stand by him or her in a time of crisis. If a leader were to try and cover up the mistake, people would respond in an angry, indignant manner and he or she would lose all the trust and power vested in him/ her.

Decision-making skills:– A strong business leader is decisive and has the courage to stand by the decision taken. This is the hallmark of all great managers and leaders.

Experts Begin to Identify Nonacademic Skills Key to Success

Experts Begin to Identify Nonacademic Skills Key to Success is the headline of a recent story in Ed Week. It discusses research that is finding non-academic skills are important keys to student success in college and in their careers. Here’s an excerpt:

Across education and industry, research by Mr. Sackett; Neal Schmitt, a psychology professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing; and others shows the biggest predictor of success is a student’s conscientiousness, as measured by such traits as dependability, perseverance through tasks, and work ethic. Agreeableness, including teamwork, and emotional stability were the next-best predictors of college achievement, followed by variations on extroversion and openness to new experiences, Mr. Sackett found. “If you take a close look at these commercial tests [given during job interviews], they are compound traits of the top three traits” predicting post-high school success, he said.

Interestingly enough, this is the focus of my upcoming third book (now, tentatively titled “Student Self-Motivation”) that will be published by Eye On Education in May. In it, I provide practical ideas and lessons for the classroom on how to help students learn these kinds of skills in a way that connects with academic content knowledge.

I don’t think it has to be approached from an either/or perspective.

You can get a “peek” at what I’m talking about by viewing some of my previous “The Best…” lists, including:

My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students

My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control

My Best Posts On Students Setting Goals

I did, though, get a bit concerned after reading another section of the article:

Roger P. Weissberg, a psychology and education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the director of the university’s Social and Emotional Research Group is building “common-core standards for social-emotional learning,” while Steve Robbins, the vice president for research at ACT Inc., said the Iowa City, Iowa-based testing company is integrating academic achievement, behavior, and career planning into its K-12 programs.

When I start reading about creating “common-core standards” for these qualities, and hear that a testing company is starting to get involved, warning lights start to flash in my head… However, that reaction might be unfair, so I’ll reserve judgement until I see what they come up with.

Does the color of your clothing really make a difference?

The psychology of color:

Studies have shown that the colors you decide to wear in an interview can actually make a difference. In the competitive world we live in you need to ensure that you take every advantage you possibly can.

Different colors evoke different emotions and it is imperative when you're interviewing that you evoke the right emotions from the interviewer.

Examples:

Blue: Words that describe the color blue include: trust, loyalty, wisdom, peaceful. These are exactly the type of feelings you want to be portraying in your interview. Blue is a calming color (think ocean and sky) and sends out a signal to the interviewer that you are indeed honest and sincere. Studies have shown that wearing the color blue to an interview will increase your chances of getting hired more than any other color.

Red: In contrast to the color blue, the color red stirs emotions more than any other color. Red is a strong color, very emotional, an extreme color that in an interview scenario can work against you. Unlike blue which has a calming effect, the color red is a fiery color (the color of love and passion), and can be an intimidating color for the interviewer.

Orange: Similar to red. A color that stirs emotion and therefore a color I would avoid wearing in a job interview. Although orange is not seen to be as an aggressive as the color red, it is still perceived as a color that can evoke feelings of power and aggression.

Grey: My second favourite color to wear after blue. Grey gives the look of sophistication and authority. In a corporate environment the color grey is professional and portrays an individual as being confident without being intimidating.

Purple: The color of "Royalty". The color symbolizes power, aristocracy, lavishness, and extravagance.

Black: Be careful when wearing just black to an interview.  The color black is seen as a power color and can be viewed as threatening. Wearing black outfits can portray an individual as being powerful or even arrogant. Black is also associated with negative implications such as death, sin, and fear.

Just remember that first impressions count a lot when you go to interview. Know your audience and dress accordingly .

All  The  Best !!!