Life Skills Introduction PDF

Introduction to Life Skills Dr. Viksit Tripathi  What are Skills? The capability to perform something efficiently is known as skill. A skill is a learned ability to do something well. What are Life Skills? “The ab...

Introduction to Life Skills Dr. Viksit Tripathi  What are Skills? The capability to perform something efficiently is known as skill. A skill is a learned ability to do something well. What are Life Skills? “The abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life”. -World Health Organization Hence, the qualities that individuals can develop to lead a successful life are known as life skills.  Life skills are a set of important tools to ensure that an individual leads a fruitful life. These set of tools can be used by everyone across all age groups, especially by adolescents because of their vulnerability to health problems. Any skill that is useful in your life can be considered a life skill. Tying your shoe laces, swimming, driving a car and using a computer are, for most people, useful life skills. Broadly speaking, the term ‘life skills’ is usually used for any of the skills needed to deal well and effectively with the challenges of life. Core Life Skills- The set of Ten Core Life Skills can be categorized as below. Social Skills Thinking Skills Emotional Skills Self-Awareness Creative Thinking Coping With Stress Empathy Critical Thinking Coping With Emotions Effective Decision Making -- Communication Interpersonal Problem Solving -- Relationship 1. SOCIAL SKILLS Self-Awareness focuses on valuing oneself, including our personality, attributes, tastes and distastes. By developing attributes like self-awareness, we will be able to comprehend the amount of stress or pressure a person is in. It is important to develop self-awareness to eventually develop empathy, effective communication and interpersonal relationships. Empathy is one of the major tools needed to form a positive relationship among our loved ones and our society. The value of imagining one’s life from their perspective can be learned by empathy. Empathy is important because it improves our communication with others and can help us understand and accept others better. Empathy can also drastically improve social interactions, especially between multicultural individuals and societies.  Interpersonal Relationship help us to relate in positive ways while interacting with people and being able to make and keep friendly relationships that are of great importance for our mental and social well-being. It may mean maintaining good relations with family members who are the most important source of social support. It may also mean an ability to end relationships constructively. Effective Communication means that we are able to express ourselves, both verbally and non-verbally, in ways that are appropriate to our cultures and situations. This means being able to express opinions and desires, and also needs and fears. And, it would also mean being able to ask for advice and help in the time of need. 2. THINKING SKILLS Critical Thinking is an ability to analyse and interpret information in a systematic manner. Critical thinking is highly responsible for influencing and recognising behaviour that can be used to lead a well- balanced life. Creative Thinking is a novel way of seeing or doing things that is characteristic of four components-fluency (generating new ideas), flexibility (shifting perspective easily), originality (conceiving of something new), and elaboration (building on others’ ideas). Decision Making helps us to deal constructively with decisions about our lives. It teaches people how to make decisions about their actions in relation to a healthy assessment of different options and what effects these different decisions are likely to have. Problem Solving helps us to deal constructively with problems in our lives. Significant problems that are left unresolved can cause mental stress and give rise to accompanying physical strain. 3. EMOTIONAL SKILLS Coping with Stress means recognizing the sources of stress in our lives, recognizing how they affect us, and how we act in a way that helps us control our levels of stress by changing our environment or lifestyle, and learning how to relax. Coping with Emotions means recognizing emotions within us and others, being aware of how emotions influence behaviour and being able to respond to emotions appropriately. Intense emotions like anger or sadness can have negative effects on our health if we don’t respond to them appropriately. All these skills are interrelated and reinforce each other. Together, they are responsible for our psychosocial competence; build our self-esteem and self- efficacy and nurture holistic development.  How to Develop Life Skills Developing Life Skills is a life-long process that helps individuals grow and mature; build confidence in one’s decisions taken on the basis of adequate information and thought, and discover sources of strength within and outside. It is noteworthy that, from times immemorial, every culture and society has invested in educating and empowering its younger generation to lead fulfilling and responsible lives. For example, the ‘Panchatantra’ stories from India have very important lessons in Life Skills enhancement that remain relevant to all generations. It is advisable that whatever methods a facilitator chooses, they should be learner centred, i.e. based on the particular needs, developments and interests of the learners and help bring about positive behaviour change.  Self-Awareness Self-Awareness is the ability to recognise our character, personality and other traits. The improvement of one’s awareness is necessary to enhance communication, relationships and feel empathy. Since self-awareness is important for an individual’s development, we will focus on the value of self-awareness and self-exploration. Proper understanding of self- awareness can help develop qualities and traits such as self-confidence and self-esteem. It also helps in exploring and assessing oneself and evaluating an individual’s progress. The following activities will lead towards achieving self-awareness.  Self-Awareness 1. DISCOVERING SELF 2. MY STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES 3. SELF-ESTEEM AND ITS IMPORTANCE 4. OVERCOMING LOW SELF-ESTEEM 5. SETTING GOALS FOR  Management skills Management skills can be defined as certain attributes or abilities that an executive should possess in order to fulfill specific tasks in an organization. They include the capacity to perform executive duties in an organization while avoiding crisis situations and promptly solving problems when they occur. Management skills can be developed through learning and practical experience as a manager.  The skills help the manager to relate with their fellow co-workers and know how to deal well with their subordinates, which allows for the easy flow of activities in the organization. Management and leadership skills are often used interchangeably as they both involve planning, decision-making, problem-solving, communication, delegation, and time management. Good managers are almost always good leaders as well. In addition to leading, a critical role of a manager is to also ensure that all parts of the organization are functioning cohesively. 1. Technical Skills Technical skills involve skills that give the managers the ability and the knowledge to use a variety of techniques to achieve their objectives. These skills not only involve operating machines and software, production tools, and pieces of equipment but also the skills needed to boost sales, design different types of products and services, and market the services and the products. 2. Conceptual Skills These involve the skills managers present in terms of the knowledge and ability for abstract thinking and formulating ideas. The manager is able to see an entire concept, analyze and diagnose a problem, and find creative solutions. This helps the manager to effectively predict hurdles their department or the business as a whole may face. 3. Human or Interpersonal Skills The human or the interpersonal skills are the skills that present the managers’ ability to interact, work or relate effectively with people. These skills enable the managers to make use of human potential in the company and motivate the employees for better results.  Skills required for managerial success 1. Communication and interpersonal skills 12. Conflict resolution 2. Listening skills 13. Time management 3. Relationship-building skills 14. Delegation 4. Emotional intelligence 15. Motivation 5. Organization and project management 16. Recognition 17. Confidence 6. Strategic thinking 18. Vision 7. Decision-making 19. Functional skills 8. Trustworthiness and respect 20. Technological skills 9. Teamwork 21. Adaptability 10. Team orientation 11. Problem-solving