As mentioned earlier; Soft skills include psycho-social abilities and interpersonal skills that help different people solve their problems, think critically, establish effective relationships with others, improve their leadership and team-building qualities, and manage their time. , to control the stress and pressures of life in an efficient way and…
Considering the extensive competition that exists today for organizational positions, developing soft skills is extremely important for productive activity in the workplace.
Previously, managers focused on hard skills and the ability of people to perform tasks effectively. But now every type of job you can think of requires you to have certain personality traits. In addition to this, another important point is that soft skills are transferable to different professions and are independent of what field you are working in. In this section and in the training process of “strengthening soft skills in the workplace”, we want to address the important issue of “Personality” and address this important issue from a close angle.
Table of Contents
What is character?
Personality is the style of our attitude towards issues, feelings, and behaviors. Personality is the totality of a person’s existence, which also includes other traits. Personality includes the following:
1) Personality traits
Integrity: a person’s honesty in interacting with others, loyalty to beliefs, value systems, etc.
Acceptance: acceptance of the people I interact with.
Order: refers to a person’s disciplined approach to life and work.
Commitment: refers to the individual’s commitment to personal success and group goals.
2) Behavioral traits
Interpersonal skills: refers to the methods of communicating with others and maintaining relationships.
Communication skills: refers to the ways of writing, speaking, listening, and using body language in a person’s interaction with others.
Team management: It refers to the effective role with which a person demonstrates the ability to build and manage a team to achieve its set goals.
Stress management: refers to the ability to maintain calm in a stressful situation, identify stressors and find solutions to reduce them.
3) Attitude
Positive attitude: the ability to have a positive outlook in facing problems and difficult situations and to try different ideas when facing obstacles.
Win-win situation: the ability to negotiate and convince the other party to achieve an acceptable goal for the problem and create a win-win situation for both sides of the negotiation.
Not forgetting the goal: the ability to focus the mind on the final goal and avoid various problems that may come the way.
Types of personality types
People have different personality types, some of them are as follows:
Perfectionists: They are never satisfied until they reach the level of perfection. Sometimes these people forget that there is nothing they can be perfect at, they are usually a source of stress for themselves and those they work with, and they can’t be criticized for wanting to be perfect. Reach the highest level and get excellent results.
Helping people: They always want to help others by guiding, advising, etc.
Dreamers: They are sometimes called dreamers and think of innovative ideas, sometimes others find those ideas impractical, but sometimes the strangest ideas can lead to a new design or product.
Successful people: These people are those who are determined to achieve what they have planned for. They use their maximum capacity and show commitment towards their work and finally reach their goal.
Bold people: These people are neither aggressive nor passive in any situation. They prefer to defend their rights, respect the rights of others, and have an innate ability to convince others.
Questioning people: They are skeptical individuals who question opinions, behavior, ideas, methods of doing things, etc., and are mostly not satisfied with the results. Others usually do not understand such people and see them as an obstacle to the progress of things.
Adventurous people: They are willing to take risks to achieve their goals. No risk is too big for them and they look at experiences with an adventurous spirit.
Observant people: These people are great observers of others and the events around them. They openly and sometimes imperceptibly check and analyze people, events, happenings, environment, etc. and sometimes they are a good source of information that other people don’t notice.
Peace-loving people: They avoid facing tense situations and always try to make peace between the conflicting parties. We cannot say that every person can be classified in one of these categories, most of the time a combination of the above characteristics is seen in people. A certain personality trait may be dominant in one person and another personality trait in another. Which of these are you? Think about them.
And now it’s time to get to the important topic of character transformation!
Personality transformation
Personality transformation means improving the inner and outer image of a person to create a positive change in life. Every person has a personality that can be reshaped or developed. Personality development is very important because it allows people to make a positive impact on others, build and develop relationships, and advance in their careers. Some people are naturally charismatic, while others may be good listeners or givers of advice. It is important that people strengthen their strengths, recognize their weaknesses, and try to improve them. Personality development is a tool that helps people to realize their abilities and strengths that make them successful and happier person.
Elements of character transformation
The following elements are vital for character development:
- Self-awareness
- Goal setting
- Creativity
- Innovation
- Human values
1) Self-awareness
Self-awareness includes self-knowledge of personality traits, strengths and weaknesses, and interests. Developing self-awareness can help you recognize when you are under pressure and stress, and is often a prerequisite for effective communication and the ability to empathize with others. How you see yourself is very important and you also need to know how others see you, so you need to know how many “selves” you have and how you take care of each one.
Physical self
Body: You only have one body so take care of it.
Belongings: You need to take care to keep your belongings in perfect condition, such as cell phones, bicycles, books, etc.
Home: It is the place where you and your family members live and interact with each other. So you need to make sure that the environment is safe and reliable.
Social self
Interaction with others: communication with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, etc. must be effective and stable.
Relationships with others: Create clear and respectful boundaries for your relationships, both socially and professionally.
Spiritual self
Be honest and transparent about your spiritual beliefs and your relationship with the ruling forces in the world. Be brave and stand up for your values and beliefs.
To become aware of your perceptions, ask yourself:
- Who am I what are my strengths and weaknesses? What are my priorities? How do we see ourselves? How do others see me?
- Who do I want to be? What are my short and long-term goals? (in personal and work life)
- How do I reach them? What steps should I take to reach my goals? What resources are available to me? What other resources can I use?
To understand all this, it is good to perform a SWOT analysis.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis is effective when you sincerely do all the steps and considerations to know yourself and take appropriate actions.
Strengths
Answer the following questions about yourself:
- What qualifications or capabilities do I have professionally that distinguish me from others?
- What outstanding skills do I have?
- What do others think about my strengths?
Weak points
Make a list of your weaknesses (maybe you can get help from a close friend or family member):
- Do I have bad habits?
- What do others think about my weaknesses?
Opportunities
- Think about the opportunities that exist and you can take advantage of them:
- What technology or knowledge can I use to improve my skills?
- What new skills can I learn that will give me a competitive edge?
Threats
There may be threats that hinder your progress, list them:
- Is there anyone who can do it better than me?
- Do new technologies threaten my progress?
- Is it possible that some of my characteristics are preventing me from reaching my goal?
- What obstacles do I face?
So do a SWOT analysis for yourself and know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This exercise will help you analyze yourself and prepare the ground for creative actions.
How can the results of the SWOT analysis be used?
Focus on your strengths in the following situations:
- When writing a resume
- During the interview
- When applying for a promotion
- When interacting with others
Pay attention to the following and take steps for them:
- Work on your weaknesses and reduce them
- Try to turn threats into opportunities that you can use to your advantage.
2) Goal setting
Many strong characters have big goals and dreams. Determine what you want to achieve. It doesn’t matter if you want to become a great designer or an expert digital marketer. Setting goals is a big step in developing and shaping a strong and charismatic personality. But what is the purpose? The goal is a road map to the future. You have to decide what your ultimate goal is in your personal and professional life. After deciding on your goal, you need to make a plan to achieve it. Not planning is equal to planning to fail! When planning you should think about all the aspects and resources you need (physical, mental, financial). As Abraham Lincoln said:
“If I had 8 hours to cut down a tree, I would spend 6 hours sharpening my axe.”
Goals should be precise and detailed. If your goal is not clear and focused, you will not be able to achieve anything.
SMART goals
SMART is a keyword you can use to guide your goal-setting process. SMART criteria are attributed to Peter Drucker’s goal-based management concept.
- S: for Specific
- M: for Measurable
- A: For Achievable
- R: for Relevant
- T: for Time-bound
SMART is an effective tool that provides you with clarity, focus, and motivation to achieve your goals. It can also increase your ability to achieve them by encouraging you to define your goals and set a date for their completion. Anyone, anywhere, without the need for special tools or training, can easily use SMART goals.
3) Creativity
The fact is that until now, psychologists and researchers have had different understandings of this word and have provided various definitions of it. The existence of such disagreement is due to its complex nature
Creativity is a mental process that is seen by a certain person and at a certain time; a process that results in a new work – either an idea or something new and different – is produced. New and different products can be verbal or non-verbal and objective or subjective. In studying creativity, the following two important points should be noted:
First, creativity can be the creation of new forms or forms from old ideas or products. In this case, most of the thoughts and ideas of the past are the basis of new creations.
Second, creativity is an exclusive matter and is not the result of individual effort and only a general situation or problem; hence, a person may create something of which he had no prior mental record; although that thing has been created in a similar or completely identical ways by someone else and in a certain situation.
The creative process
There are 2 stages in creativity:
- Brainstorming: Think of a new idea or approach.
- Produce: Turn your idea into action.
Tip: If you have ideas but do not act on them, you are a good dreamer but not a creative person.
Steps to be creative
Questioning: Ask questions for yourself and others, and question the validity and practicality of ideas and approaches.
Observing: Check your environment and carefully observe different people, events, and situations.
Networking: You may need the help of people to implement your ideas.
Testing: Measure the validity of any idea or approach by testing it.
4) Innovation
Innovation is one of the words that is heard many times in business, schools, universities, and even different social environments. But what does this concept, which has a close connection with concepts such as creativity, technology, invention, and knowledge-based economy, really mean? If we want to express innovation in simple language, we can say: “The essence of innovation is making changes in products or services or the method of creating and supplying them, to respond to new markets and the changing needs of customers. Correctly carrying out these changes and succeeding in them depends on observing the links, discovering opportunities, and using them appropriately.
5) Human values
Human values are virtues and capabilities that help us to behave correctly and acceptably when interacting with others. Possessing human values make life valuable, purposeful, and excellent and gives us identity. The types of moral and human values are respect, truth, peace, acceptance, consideration, gratitude, frankness, affection, empathy, listening, love, etc. With the existence of human values, we can easily enjoy all kinds of moral values such as justice, honesty, refusal of violence, etc. Because human values transmit positive and emotional waves that strengthen moral values.
When we realize our most important human values, we can easily find the building blocks of character and life mission. For example, if one of our highest values in life is courage, we are more likely to seek new challenges to overcome our fear in any situation. By being aware of individual values and with continuous practice, we can easily achieve the personality we like and thus make our list of human values more complete.
Schwartz and his colleagues 2001 stated that there are 10 basic values specific to all people in the world, which directly affect their behavior and actions. These 10 values are:
1) Self-direction: it gives direction to the goals and ambitions of life.
2) Stimulating (Motivation): Creates energy, vitality, and movement to achieve dreams.
3) Pleasure-seeking: It works based on the principle of pleasure and needs immediate inner satisfaction.
4) Success: It defines victory and personal merit.
5) Power: It is associated with comprehensive control and dominance over people and resources.
6) Security: It includes personal safety, harmony, community stability, interpersonal relationships, and self-control.
7) Conformity: overcoming actions, tendencies, behaviors, and motivations that cause others to be upset and hurt.
8) Traditionalism: includes respect, support, commitment, and acceptance of customs and culture.
9) Benevolent: It is necessary and necessary to maintain and improve the level of well-being of others, especially those close to us.
10) Universality: It includes appreciation, understanding, tolerance, and protection of the well-being of people and nature.