Communication Soft Skill

IBM Global Services India

1 © 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services

© 2004 IBM CorporationThe information in this document shall not be disclosed outside of IBM

IBM Confidential

Fundamental Soft SkillFundamental Soft Skill

Presented By: Amit Kumar RoyPresented By: Amit Kumar Roy



Program Objectives

To have a standardized program that enables ELTP's and ensures that at the end of the Program they have

Adequate skill levels to perform

Variance of skill levels among ELTP’s is reduced

Average perform capability of the team is high

Technology

Soft Skills and AttitudeApplication Domain Knowledge

3Dimensions of Enablement



Soft Skill Tips

Set up your Mail Signature with Necessary details Set up your "Out of Office" or “Out of Campus” when you are off. Technical Analysis Mails to Show your Experience not Inexperience Send Tasks Plan and Status Mails to keep all Stakeholders Informed Respond your Mails in One Business Day Review the CC and TO list Discourage large attachments. Zip it up Avoid Last minute surprises Always provide ETA and Workaround for blockers Minute the meeting you attend Avoid using SMS kind of Language in Business Mails. Always try and make the mail positive When you are upset with a mail try not to reply immediately.Give some time , review, try to remove emotions and send later. Use Goggle Desktop for Search functions .



Set up your Mail Signature with Necessary details

• Advantage A person who has not seen you

sitting remotely should clearly get the information from your signature.

• Disadvantage Without proper signature, it will

be very difficult to identity the people, and working application.

People may not be able to contact you in urgent situation.

• Required Format Name Role Designation ( Like EFMS-

Development, EFMS-Test, EFMS-System Engineering )

Sub team that you belong to ( Like EFMS-MS or EFMS-MIS or EFMS-TP or EFMS-ChildApps )

IBM location with Address Seat No Contact Numbers ( External call in

Number with Country and area code, Mobile Number )

Internet E-mail ( @in.ibm.com )



Good Examples

Example1:

Thanks and regards,Santhosh Vandyil

AT&T Account, ELTP Mgmt,IBM India Private Limited,Manyata Embassy Business Park,D2-Block,3rd Floor-MD2-3A-150Outer Ring

Road ,NagawaraRachenahalliBangalore-560045

Contact: Office: +91-80-402-56299 Mobile: +91-98458 85384 TieLine : 92 -21299 E-Mail: [email protected]

Example2:Thanks & Regards,Shraddha GargEFMS-Development,EFMS-MISIBM India Private Limited,Block - D2, Manyata EmbassyBusiness ParkSeat: MD2-3A-293Outer Ring Road, Nagawara - Rachenahalli VillageBangalore – 560 045, Karnataka, IndiaContact:Mobile : +91-9900211744Tel : +91-80-280-56148(Extn)

Email : [email protected]



Set up your "Out of Office" or “Out of Campus” when you are off

• Advantage The out of office message alerts the

sender to look explore for alternatives

• Disadvantage It may create a situation, when some

thing is urgently required, and no one is aware about that.

It will break the communication series.

• Required Format Starting when you will be out of

office When will you return back For the current activities that you are

involved in who is the backup with Email address and Contact no of backup ( # Backup should be aware of the same and it should be in consultation with your manager )

And you escalation path ( manager e-mail address and contact no)



Good Example

I will be out of office starting 29th August evening India/Morning EST and will be back on 2nd Sept. During this period I will not have access to my E-mails. Please contact the following backups during my absence

PA911:

Srinivas Piratla ( [email protected] )

Extn: +9180-402-56111

PB494 :

Srikanth Mulapudi ( [email protected] )

Extn: +9180-402-56112

In case you need additional support please contact my manager

Patil Devraj ( [email protected] )

Extn: +9180-402-56109

Mob: +919886530288



Technical Analysis Mails to Show your Experience not Inexperience

• Advantage It will provide the clear picture of

problem It will reflect your work done It will reflect your Experience

• Disadvantage It will reflect your work

inexperience It may confuse the second party to

approach to problem It will not reflect your effort to

analyze and solving the problem

• Required Format Problem Description Your conclusion Snippet of log file which aided the

conclusion Snippet of Sql Queries which aided the

conclusion

Snippet of Requirements which aided

the conclusion



Send Tasks Plan and Status Mails to keep all Stakeholders Informed

• Advantage Easy to trace your progress

• Disadvantage You may not able to complete your

task on time Work may get stuck in mid, because

of improper analysis of risk and issues.

• Required Format Your expected timeline of

completion of the activity Date associated with the timeline What do you perceive as Risks and

Issues for the same



Respond your Mails in One Business Day

• Advantage It will reduce the time zone problem Helped to resolve the problem with

Time Line Second party can approach further

in their respective Time zone

• Disadvantage It may delay the completion time. You may not able to complete the

task on time line.

• Tips For mails which is to keep IBM US

informed or requesting there help you should be sending the mails by India Lunch time. This will make sure that it gets the US SME attention by there start of business.



Review the CC and TO list

• Advantage It will not create the unnecessary

confusion TO will reflect,mail is required for

them, and CC will reflect, this mail is just for there information

• Disadvantage It may create mail war like “Please

remove me from list” It will eat some valuable time of the

person unnecessarily It will lead to unnecessary traffic

• Tips Critically review the To and CC list

of a mail. Are there so many people needed in the list. if not remove the unnecessary people

Critically review if the mail has large attachments



Discourage large attachments

• Advantage Reduce the unnecessary traffic Reduce mail server storage issue

• Disadvantage Recipients will get frustrated, if he

is accessing the network from home via a dialup or weak connection

Dialup and Home connectivity users will be blocked

The recipients will face lot of issues if you have large unzipped attachments in the mails

It will create mail server storage issue

• Tips Always use WinZip/Pkzip to zip

the large documents that you have attached



Avoid Last Minute Surprises

• AdvantageMentors appreciate

genuine concerns of delay however not at the last minute

• DisadvantageFrequent requests for

delay may be interpreted as the capability issue of the candidate

• TipsAlways keep your

lead/manager/mentor informed either by phone or by a mail if the work product is getting delayed with a valid reason for the same. Don’t come back on the last minute



Always provide Workaround for blockers

• Advantage Easy to trace the current status It will reduce the escalation Workaround will reflect the

required time to solve

• Disadvantage It will be difficult to get current

status It will show your inexperience

• Tips Current status ( Analysis/ Identified

the problem/Fixing In progress/Testing )

Estimated time of Availability Workaround for the problem ETA needs to be reviewed

and approved by your senior team members



Avoid SMS Kind of Language in Business Communication

• Advantage You tend to have a good start

with the Professional/Mentor with whome you are interlocking

• Disadvantage If not followed can be

misinterpreted as a communication capability issue of the candidate

• Tips Written Communication can

tell a lot about the person who is sending it.

Use formal language, follow case sensitivity and proper language constructs like sentences and punctuations.



Minute the meeting you attend

• Advantage Reflect the purpose of meeting Reduce the inconvenient because of

Date,Time and Location Provide the clarity for Participants

required Trace out the Absentees

• Disadvantage Participant will not able to get the

importance of meeting It may cause unnecessary

inconvenient, because the lack of date, time and location information

• Tips

The Minutes of the Meeting mail should have

Name of the Meeting Participants Absentees Date and Time Location Contents of the meeting also

needs to be captured. Which may be decision, comments and Action items



Pause and Respond

• Advantage You may able to send a mail,

without any emotional aspect

• Disadvantage Your business relationship may get

effected because of your mail

• Tips When you are upset with a mail try

not to reply immediately You can write the reply and keep it

in draft Give some time , review it yourself

and try and remove the emotions and send later.



Positive Mail

• Advantage It will show your Experience It will give a good relationship with

customer/other person Providing the workaround will give

a right path to approach further

• Disadvantage It will show your inexperience You may loose the support of your

customer/other person

• Tips Always try and make the mail

positive Try to see the problem in

customer's/other person's perspective and reply on the do ability of a problem and not stating that it is not doable

Think of the workaround that may remove the hindrance of the customer



Use Google Desktop

• Advantage This is a free software You can easy Download and Install Very easy to work on this It will reduce the time of searching

the documents

• Disadvantage Searching a document can eat a lot

of time It may bit reduce the speed of your

TC/TP



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Communication Soft Skill

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