Skill development report the flexible application of soft skills

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION *** SKILL DEVELOPMENT REPORT THE FLEXIBLE APPLICATION OF SOFT SKILLS Instructor Mr Hoang Anh Duy Ms Pham Thi My Dung Course PPHE101 3 Group[.]

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

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SKILL DEVELOPMENT REPORT THE FLEXIBLE APPLICATION OF SOFT SKILLS

Instructor: Mr Hoang Anh Duy

Ms Pham Thi My Dung

5 Bùi Hoàng Minh 2013250017

6 Đào Xuân Minh 2013250018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 3

INTRODUCTION 4

I Rationale of study 4

II Objective of study 4

III Scope of study 4

LITERATURE REVIEW 5

I Soft skills 5

II Four important soft skills 6

III The application of soft skills in Covid-19 pandemic 10

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 11

I Applied method 11

II Research procedure 11

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 12

I Story 12

II Analyze the story 12

III Applied skills in project 13

RECOMMENDATION 16

CONCLUSION 18

REFERENCES 19

APPENDIX 20

I Task division 20

ABSTRACT

Along with the vast development pace of the 21st century, youngsters now face the

challenge of perfecting themselves with not only profound knowledge but also diverse

skills Consequently, soft skills equipment is becoming increasingly essential, especially

the application of 4 skills: Positive thinking, Time management, Communication and

Teamwork

Our group was so fortunate to learn these 4 skills in the Skill Development Class of Mr

Hoang Anh Duy, Ms Pham Thi My Dung and had a great opportunity to apply them

into practice by doing a group project: making a reflection video In order to finish this

assignment and successfully convey our message, our group has utilized the 4 skills

from the beginning stage of collecting ideas to the final steps of making the video

The idea for our video stems from the reality that a large number of students in university

have not recognized the importance of soft skills and not applied them flexibly in certain

situations When difficulties come and the whole life inverses, they realize that lacking

of soft skills influences negatively on their work and they often fall into discouragement

Therefore, in our group project, we hope to reflect this reality to share the feeling with

those who are experiencing the same states with our main character – an excellent

student lost motivation during quarantine time but finally overcame by the power of soft

skills application With the negative-to-positive journey of a boy, our video will cover

three main skills: teamwork, time management and communication

In this report, we would like to show how the video has been launched to finish The

following parts will be about Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology,

Findings and Analysis , Recommendation, Conclusion and Appendix

INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE OF STUDY

Soft skills are considered as one of the most powerful weapons in achieving goals It is widely acknowledged that soft skills are cultivated through experiences in real life so they are not innate or inherent in everybody Soft skills require people to frequently practice and experience to achieve them As a matter of fact, students need to develop these skills and apply them in every aspect of life Especially when the Covid-19 pandemic breaks out, soft skills are becoming more and more important for people to adapt and normalize several problems Through launching this project, we hope to remind the application of soft skills in challenging situation like the Covid-19 pandemic

II OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

Through the video, we want to portray the picture of the reality in some youngsters’ quarantine time in order to sympathize and encourage people to get through the most difficult time We also emphasize the role of soft skills in helping people adapt to new situation and apply them flexibly in any circumstances Moreover, we want viewers watching our video can understand our message: Life is constantly changing every hour, every minute, every second We live in the present and the future not in the past so always make efforts to change yourself to get used to the situations, never let circumstances affect you and keep trying to improve yourself day by day

III SCOPE OF STUDY

 Execution time: From May to June, 2021

 Location: Private houses

 Implementer: Group 7 - Class PPHE101(1+2.2/2021)CLC.3

 Video title: Flexible application of soft skill

 Language: English

 Report: 21 pages

 Video length: 10 minutes 02 seconds

Soft skills include:

2 The importance of soft skills

In a research carried over by Professors from University of Michigan, Harvard and Boston College pointed out that appropriate soft skills training delivered positive impact over productivity, employee retention, job satisfaction and most importantly professionalism of a workplace The crucial benefits were that such programs resulted

in higher return on employer investment and leadership development in a sustainable way

For example, lack of communication skill may create confusion, tension, misunderstanding and an overall negative impression of a person with the colleagues or the superiors without any knowledge to that individual giving rise to conflicts in relationships and unnecessary stress at work

II FOUR IMPORTANT SOFT SKILLS

1 Positive thinking

Positive thinking, or an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation Positive thinking has a lot of physical and mental benefits It gives us greater health, better creativity or problem solving skill; it reduces our stress so we can get the best of the work result

2 Time management skill

b) The application of time management skill

Time is a limited resource We cannot estimate how long it left Bad time organization and management gives us several problems such as forgetting to do something because

we have lots of things or even nothing to focus on, overloading, having boring days, distraction, procrastination, …

Time management skills will help to control our time and organize our life more effectively

 Think systematically

 Collaborate more effectively with available resources

 Be ready to respond to changes in the external environment

 Be more proactive in assessing the results and achievements of individuals and organizations

c) Methods to achieve time management skill

 The Urgent/Important Matrix

The Urgent/Important Matrix is used to manage time more productively and to achieve goals It means spending your time on things that are Important and not just Urgent

 Important: These are activities that lead to the achieving your goals and have the greatest impact on your life

 Urgent: These activities demand immediate attention, but are often associated with someone else’s goals rather than your own

Using the Eisen Decision Principle, tasks are evaluated based on the criteria important/ unimportant and urgent/not urgent, and then are placed in according quadrants in an Eisenhower Matrix (also known as “Eisenhower Box” or “Eisenhower Decision Matrix”)

3 Teamwork skill

a) What is team

A team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, knowledge and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal (Thompson, Leigh 2008)

Teamwork is the process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal Teamwork means that people will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals (Business Dictionary, n.d)

Teams are important because they can accomplish much more than any of the members could achieve individually The team that functions effectively and efficiently brings together a diverse range of characters, skills, and talents, and is able to realize large, complex projects

b) What makes a successful team

Team members need to understand and agree on the role of each person

In all likelihood, once this has been done, the team members will work well together and achieve their goals, and at the same time gain a sense of satisfaction from the experience

 Group Conflict Management

Conflict is perceived as incompatible differences resulting in some form of interference

or opposition Whether the differences are real is irrelevant If people in a group perceive that differences exist, then there is conflict

Thomas-Kilmann’s five modes for handling conflicts include 5 types of conflict solving:

Communication is often divided into 2 types: Verbal and Non-verbal communication

 Non-verbal communication, or Body language, includes facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, gestures displayed through body language and the physical distance between the communicators They are powerful communication tools that account for 70-80% of communication

 Verbal communication contains Speaking, Listening and Writing

Research has found that three or more people working together on a project are much more effective than a single person spending all of his time doing the same thing However, without communication, the three-plus team members can be as useless as if the project went untouched

Benefits of Communication:

Teams that communicate complete projects in a quicker and more efficient amount of time than others They also are more accurate in their work than others Effective communication also allows team members to understand their roles and the roles of everyone else on the team It also gives room for understanding among the team members for what needs to be done

There are some rules that we can apply to have effective communication:

 ABC: Accuracy, Brief, Clear

 5C: Clear, Concise, Correct, Complete, Courteous

 7C: Clear, Concise, Correct, Complete, Courteous, Consistent, Coherent, Cautious

b) Listening skill

Understanding is the highest level of listening skill We need to pay attention to all of the speech and even apply information in the future to feedback, answer and sympathize There are some tips for better listening skill:

 Try to remove the obstacles

 Give your full attention on the person who is speaking

 Make sure your mind is open

 Be following the speaker and let the speaker finish before you begin to talk

 Taking note is sometimes really effective when listening

 Your body language can show that you are listening or not

 Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You cannot really listen

if you are busy thinking about what you want say next

c) Speaking skill

In order to have effective speaking skills, we need to focus on something:

 Thinking before speaking

 Prepare what you will say

 Gain listeners’ attention

 Speak briefly, easy to understand

 Use usual and popular statements and idioms

 Use proper tone, volume, and speed in the context

 Ask for responses to make sure that audiences receive the messages

d) Writing skill

Writing is an essential skill, especially in professional workplace, or even in study We need to learn the skill of writing emails & letters and academic report

III THE APPLICATION OF SOFT SKILLS IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Covid-19 pandemic opens a whole new situation for everyone around the world People, especially students, stay at home more than ever before to study online As a result, it changes entirely our life, our habits and even our attitudes People may feel bored and have no interest in studying or working at home Many individuals lose their jobs and become unemployed At that moment, soft skills are the key to normalize our life

Time management skill will help us to spend our day suitably and work more productively Therefore, we will not feel that nothing has been done and tasks are completed more effectively Positive thinking is the solution for depression and stress Communication should be conducted online, but it will become more interesting if we can take advantage of technological devices

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

I APPLIED METHOD

We make the video following the change of the main character in his life when the pandemic came and he had to make efforts to be different in his lifestyle At the beginning of the clip, we decide to introduce the character of the protagonist, who is absolutely a perfect student at school But there suddenly returned the pandemic and he became unenthusiastic with study, or teamwork Throughout the scenes is how the central character becomes better and leads his teammate to great grade at the end

We use a realistic filming style to show all the psychological developments of the characters The content of the video focuses mostly on the main character but also shows the effect of the supporting character on him

In the processing of filming, each character has some scenes so that we can develop our ability to act, express our face-emotion and our voice In some scenes, we have reappeared classes on MS Team or another online basis so that everyone in group can attend video The way we act in this video also has something similar to how we actually

do teamwork We have a chance to remove our limitations and make difference in our attempts to have the work done

II RESEARCH PROCEDURE

We want viewers to understand what they are watching and keep up with the main character’s change From that point, we hope viewers feel sympathize with the character and have the motivation to be hard-working in this difficult period of the pandemic

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

he quit listening to lectures to play games with his classmates This negative change was only realized through the results of his macroeconomic presentation when he was assigned the task of team leader Unlike before, the division of work is delayed; the work

is divided unreasonably and the works of team members were not supervised by the team leader For that reason, the presentation was not successful and received many criticisms from the teacher After that failure, he dreamed of himself in the future who unable to graduate with good grades, lose confidence and become unemployment Since then, he decided to find what he had lost He started waking up earlier, spending time exercising at home, focusing more on his lessons Then the chance to correct his mistake appeared when the macroeconomics teacher gave the class one more presentation to improve the score After the last mistake, Nam feels guilty and hopes everyone will give him a chance to do it again This time, Nam no longer neglects the work All the tasks are divided more clearly and more rationally, everything is done under Nam's supervision On the presentation day, Nam and everyone's efforts have been rewarded, the presentation was very successful and received many compliments from friends and teacher

II ANALYZE THE STORY

1 Communication

Definition: Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between