Communication Soft Skill

IBM Global Services India

IBM Global Services

Fundamental Soft Skill Presented By: Amit Kumar Roy

IBM Confidential

© 2004 IBM Corporation

The information in this document shall not be disclosed outside of IBM 1

© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

Application Domain Knowledge

Soft Skills and Attitude

3Dimensions of Enablement 2

© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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 .

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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.

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Required Format Name Role Designation ( Like EFMSDevelopment, EFMS-Test, EFMSSystem 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 )

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

Good Examples

Example2: Example1: Thanks & Regards, Shraddha Garg Thanks and regards, EFMS-Development, Santhosh Vandyil EFMS-MIS AT&T Account, ELTP Mgmt, IBM India Private Limited, IBM India Private Limited, Manyata Embassy Business Park, Block - D2, Manyata EmbassyBusiness Park D2-Block,3rd Floor-MD2-3A-150 Outer Ring Road Seat: MD2-3A-293 ,NagawaraRachenahalli Outer Ring Road, Bangalore-560045 Nagawara - Rachenahalli Village Bangalore – 560 045, Karnataka, India Contact: Contact: Office: +91-80-402-56299 Mobile: +91-98458 85384 Mobile : +91-9900211744 TieLine : 92 -21299 Tel : +91-80-280-56148(Extn) E-Mail: [email protected] Email : [email protected] 5

© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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 email address and contact no)

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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 Emails. 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 7

© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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.

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

Avoid Last Minute Surprises

• Advantage  Mentors appreciate genuine concerns of delay however not at the last minute • Disadvantage  Frequent requests for delay may be interpreted as the capability issue of the candidate

• Tips  Always 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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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.

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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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

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IBM Global Services India

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.

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM Global Services India

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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