CHAPTER IV:

“BUSINESS SKILLS FOUNDATION”

4.1 Don’t Be Late, be on Time.!

4.2 Attitude.
4.2.1 Activities to Develop Attitude
4.3 Brainstorming.
4.3.1 The basic rules for brainstorming are:
4.4 Character Building.
4.4.1 Role Models For Character
4.4.2 .- Activities; (more to come
4.5 Diversity Program.
4.6 Stress Management.
4.6.1 Being Prepared Reduces Stress
4.7 Time Management.
4.7.1 Organization is Key
4.7.2 Master To Do List
4.7.3 .- Activities To Improve Your Time Management
4.8 Smile.
4.9 Networking.
4.9.1 Tips that will help make you a better net worker.
 CHAPTER IV:

“BUSINESS SKILLS FOUNDATION”

4.1Don’t Be Late, be on Time.!

One of the most important skills we can introduce you to is the skill of being early or
before you are expected. You can benefit from this in your daily life and certainly in
business. Once you have this basic skill mastered you will reduce stress and become more
organized and productive.

There are many reasons why you should not be late:

 Respect other people’s time for waiting for you,

 Show that you care enough to be on time,
 Reduce stress from hurrying while you are late,
 To have time to organize yourself and thoughts before you are expected,
 Have time to prepare before you leave – once you are late you rush and forget
things etc.

Activities to develop and practice this skill:

Plan a 10–15-minute buffer for going to school. Ask everyone to get up 15 minutes earlier
than normal, eat breakfast 10-15 minutes earlier and be ready to go early. When you get to
school you will quickly realize that you feel better organized and ready for a good day.

The next time you are planning to go somewhere – plan for some “just in case time” or
time for the unexpected.
 4.2 Attitude

Attitude is key to your success. It’s your choice to have and understand your attitude
with in your boundaries of business and life itself.

A definition for attitude is a manner of acting, feeling, or thinking that shows one’s
disposition, opinion etc. It’s really how you respond to and approach things.

Of all the skills you develop, an attitude will take you the furthest. We have all heard
about or have seen someone with a “bad attitude” and we know how it really stands out. A
bad attitude doesn’t take people very far in life. The trick is to really work on the right
things to develop a “good attitude”. Over time, you will find out that a bad attitude can be
cool to some people, but it is really the good attitude that will rule!

If we look back at the definition of attitude and look at

the words of feeling and opinion, we quickly realize that
people have different feelings and opinions on things and
therefore, different attitudes. So it becomes a little
unclear on the right or good attitude and the wrong or bad
attitude.

It is ok to have different feelings and opinions on things.

Just because you disagree on something, doesn’t mean you
have a bad attitude. It is the way you communicate or show
your feelings and opinions that determines your attitude.
If you disagree and argue in a disrespectful way, or don’t listen to other opinions, then you
have a bad attitude.

Most people will agree that a “positive attitude” is a good attitude. The world is a much
better place when we look at things and respond to things in a positive way. This is not to
say that things should not be looked at critically. If you look at the “Put Your Thinking
Hat On“, you will realize that there are times when you should be critical (Black Hat).

A little bad attitude is ok, but let’s try for good attitude most of the time. You will find
out that you can actually respond to things in several ways (good or bad) and that the way
you respond affects how people respond back to you.

 Here is an excellent anecdote that may help

you understand how your attitude can
affect how well you do things:

“If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me

incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I
acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the
ability in the beginning.”

Mahatma Gandhi

I think you will agree that a good attitude towards

yourself is believing in yourself. Once you believe in
yourself you will respond to things a lot differently
and in a way that gets better results.

 Here is another example of having a good

attitude:

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.”

Henry Ford (Founder of Ford Motor Company)
In this example, the attempt to find a remedy is a
good attitude to a situation. People that always find
fault in things would normally be considered to have a
bad attitude. Therefore, people who have a solution
to a problem would be considered to have a good attitude.
4.2.1 Activities to Develop Attitude
Here is an activity for mealtime at home. We have all had something put in front of us at
mealtime that is new, and we think we don’t like it. Try this the next time it happens.

Instead of saying “Yuck, what is that?” or “I won’t try that!” or “I don’t like that!”, try
another approach. For example, “Thank you for something different. I don’t know that
I am going to like it, but I’ll try it.”

Now after you have tried it, if you really don’t like it, you
will have more success with saying that you don’t and that
you would really appreciate something else.

Think of other situations were using your “good attitude”

may help you through a situation around the house.

 Try the “Put Your Thinking Hat On” activities with

attitude in mind.

 The next time you notice “bad attitude”, think about

how they/you could have responded differently.

 Have some fun with thinking of “bad attitude” and

“good attitude” approaches to things that come up
every day.

 In the book Tom Sawyer, the author, Mark Twain showed how Tom made the job
of white washing (painting) a fence look like so much fun that he got other boys to
pay him to let them do some of the work. The other boys did actually have fun. Can
you think of opportunities like this?
 4.3 Brainstorming.-

Brainstorming is an individual or group creativity technique by which efforts are made to

find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering of ideas spontaneously contributed by
participants.

Brainstorming is a great way to come up with ideas. The goal of brainstorming is to come up
with a long list of “crazy ideas”.

Brainstorming gets people to think in ways they don’t normally. It is important to have fun
and not criticize (don’t say, “what a stupid idea”).

Many products you enjoy would have been developed with brainstorming techniques.

Video games. Imagine all the idea thinking that goes into developing characters and
situations they face in a game. Whenever you think about improving a game; you are
brainstorming.
Movies – characters, costumes,
filming locations and cast.
Music - songs you enjoy were
developed through brainstorming
for the idea for the song.
 4.3.1 The basic rules for
brainstorming are:
Quantity, not quality (more is better); it is
important to generate as many ideas as possible
and don’t worry how good they are at this stage.

 No ideas can be criticized, and no idea is

too wild to write down. Remember they are all good ideas at this stage.
 It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea first,
work together to build on it and generate more ideas.

Activities:
Pick something you have to arrive at a decision on. (examples;
what gift to give, vacation activities, how to spend next
Saturday afternoon)

 Think of several ideas – think about as many ideas or

options that you and a group can think of individually or as
a group.
 Once you have exhausted the ideas or options you have –
then you complete brainstorming.
 Try this a number of times for different problems,
opportunities, or situations you have to deal with.
The lesson learned is to consider ideas without preventing yourself or ideas from thinking

openly and without judgement. The goal is to think about things you would not normally
consider or not take the time to consider. The decision making is not part of brainstorming
. Once you have explored many ideas; the decision making becomes much easier.

Like all skill development, it is helpful to understand the skills and find the time to
improve. The experience of doing brainstorming often will improve your skill level of
brainstorming.

4.4 Character Building

What is Character?

All the qualities that make a person and make them

different from others. The pattern of behavior or
personality ; nature; kind or sort.
Good character is the motivation to do what is right, the
true test of character is measured in our response to the
pressure of difficult situations with moral expectations and
Sense of behavior or humanity.
Components of Character or Character Traits:

“Success in golf (and life) depends less on

strength of body than upon strength of mind and
character.” -Arnold Palmer

“You become what you think about,”

Earl Nightingale
You will be amazed at the impact the following traits can have on you by just learning what
they mean. If you learn what these traits mean you will probably use them daily. If you can
master the use of these traits, you will become a person of great character. This may not
be the most exciting “tool” that we provide for you, but it will probably help you the
most in your career and more importantly in your daily life. Please start by thinking about
and learning the following words:

 Caring, feeling concern or interest.

 Cooperation, the act of working together.
 Courage, the ability to control fear when facing danger or pain, bravery.
 Empathy, the ability to identify oneself mentally with a person or thing and so
understand his or her feelings or its meaning.
 Fairness, being just, unbiased, in accordance with the rules.
 Honesty, in an honest way. Fair and just; not cheating or stealing. Free of deceit and
lies; sincere.
 Integrity, the quality or state of being of sound moral principle; uprightness, honesty,
and sincerity.
 Initiative, cause to begin, start working. The ability to initiate things, enterprise.
 Optimism, a tendency to take a hopeful view of things, or to expect that results will be
good,
 Peacemaking, free from
disturbance or disorder,
 Perseverance, continue steadfastly,
especially in something that is
difficult or tedious,
 Respect, admiration felt towards a
person or thing that has good
qualities or achievements;
 politeness arising from this.
Attention, consideration,
 Responsibility, being the cause of
something. Having to account for
one’s actions. Capable of rational
conduct; trustworthy,

We believe that character can be built or learned,

character can be changed and if we create the right
conditions, change will occur.

We are just trying to help you understand the character. As

you understand character you will use it to your advantage
and for the benefit of people around you.

Did you know that you are not born with character. You
actually develop your character and self-esteem through
the experiences you have. We will try and help you model good character for you to
develop and provide the knowledge of what skills are needed to develop character traits.

4.4.1 Role Models For Character

The
traditional ways
people have learnt
character have been
at home,
 neighborhoods, community support agencies and schools.
Unfortunately many people don’t get the needed attention
from these areas and in some cases the influences are not
good.

A lot of kids spend more time watching TV and playing

video games. There is no question that you are
entertained and that it can be a fun way to spend time.
The problem is that a lot of what you see and hear from
TV, videos and movies doesn’t really show you what a good
character is all about.

Do you know that the worse things you see happen, the more
likely you are to start accepting them. This can be a great
challenge for you and a good reason that your character
needs a little work or improvement.

Many people look to heroes in sports and music to shape

their character. If you look at the character of many of these people, you will recognize
that they really aren’t the right influences. They may be very talented and entertaining
and therefore possible role models for their professional accomplishments but let’s not
confuse it with role models for character.

Think about changing the phrase “I want to be like him or her when I grow up” to “I
would like to perform like him or her when I grow up”. Perform relates to the skills
that a person has in their sport, music etc. but does not necessarily include their
character. Wouldn’t it be kind of neat if kids could send the
message to these people that we will like and support you if
you change your character instead of ” we love you and you
are the greatest ” etc.

4.4.2 .- Activities; (more to come)

 Skits on fairness. Think of situations where you have
seen unfair behavior and then act out the appropriate
response from someone with good character.
 Let’s go through a little character test and tune-
up. Start with yourself and compare yourself to the
character list at the top of the page. Ask a friend,
parent, teacher, or sibling etc. to review how well you
do on the list of character traits. Ask them to be
totally honest. Be prepared to listen, respect their
opinion, think about what they say and try and change.

 Surround yourself with good character. Think about character when you choose
friends and join teams or associations. Think about the character traits and find out if
the people you hang out with have good character. We have all heard the phrase of how
you like to hang out with someone that is “cool”, but you probably haven’t heard the
phrase ” I would like to hang out with that person because he/she has good
character.”

 Let’s look at a common situation to help us think about character improvement. You
have probably seen people drive a little too fast through
areas with kids around the streets. Can you think of a
few of the character traits that these people should
work on. (Hint – respect the safety of kids is a good
starting point).

 Let’s think of the environment and how people can

improve their character to benefit the environment.
Think of ways that respect , perseverance, and
cooperation could be used on the environment. Can you
think of other character traits that could be used on the
environment.

4.5 Diversity Program

This program is being developed to help everyone realize the

need to understand and respect the diversity of people in
our daily lives and in our global business world. This is an
essential skill required to work in business. It is important
to learn to work with people and to respect their
backgrounds and why they act the way they do.
Diversity in this program means different kinds of people or cultures or ethnic
backgrounds. In business it is important to
understand and identify the needs of
cultures to do business with them.

This is relevant to business in many ways

from how to work together, create products
to how to communicate to different
cultures. A product name in the Ecuador
could have a very different meaning in
another country. A commercial in one
country could insult people in another
culture.

Example, In Ecuador one of the typical

national plates is the Roasted Guinea Pig
where in other places is considered as a pet.

4.6 Stress Management

What is Stress?

How do you know that you are stressed?

Stress will do all kinds of things to you. It

will make you tired, edgy, you will be
impatient and short with people and disrupt
your sleeping. There are many frightening statistics that will tell you the growing number
of sick days of workers, lost jobs, serious illness, and a shorter life from too much stress.
This is enough to let you know that it is something that you need to be aware of and
understand how to reduce stress.

Your body will react in a number of ways.

first a chemical called adrenaline will speed up

your body system:
 your eyes dilate,
 your muscles get tense,
 your breathing bets faster,
 your heart pounds faster,
 your stomach gets butterflies,
 your hands get cold,
  your feet get cold.

Exercise is Key

You will find that a very important way to reduce stress is to exercise. Exercise is to your
body as soap is to dirt, it kind of cleans your body of stress. Stress is tension in your
nervous system and needs to be relieved through exercise.

4.6.1 Being Prepared Reduces Stress

You will quickly find out that when you are prepared
for a situation you will be less stressed. One situation
comes to mind; people are often very stressed when
they are late. What do you think would happen in this situation if they left early enough to
get there well in advance of when they have to be there.

Bytes of Advice:

Don’t fuss about things that you can’t control!

Develop the ability to change at an early age.
Many people suffer from stress because they are
uncomfortable with change.

Tips to Deal With Stress:

 Exercise daily for at least 20

minutes. Exercise will help you
clear your head and relax.

 Breathing exercises. Take some

time out and take a few slow
deep breathes. While you are
 doing the breathing exercises try and think about something that takes your mind away
from your stresses.

 Make sure you eat a balanced diet. If you eat properly, you will give your body a better
chance to deal with stress. There are also certain foods that will affect your nerves
and possibly increase your stress.

4.7 Time Management

Why is this important?

You will find out at some point that there are not enough hours in a day to do everything
you feel you need to do. The key to time management is to understand what has to be
done, how long you will/can spend on it and when things will get done. There are only 24
hours in a day and therefore there is only so much that you can accomplish in a day.

4.7.1 Organization is Key

The sooner you learn how to organize your time the sooner you will find out how to have
more time for the things you need to and want to do.
“I don’t have time” is an expression you often hear.
The next time someone says it to you, ask them why. Is
it because they have other priorities?
Don’t over commit!
This advice will help
you a lot. You have to
learn to say no
sometimes. If you are
organized, you can quickly say I am working on these
things which I should be done in whatever time therefore
they won’t get done if I do this.

Wasting Time
Many people waste a lot of time looking for stuff that they can’t easily find. Have you ever
wanted to find something like a toy, ball, etc. and end up looking for it for 15 minutes plus.
What if you had a bin with a box or a drawer etc. where
these kinds of items are. Putting things away in an
organized way will save you time later.

4.7.2 Master To Do List

You need to identify what has to be done and organize it
in a way that you can check it off as it is done. A simple
to do list can be used for a real range of things from
party planning, shopping list, school project, etc.

When you complete a task on your list, take the pleasure

of crossing it off.

Don’t be afraid to transfer old items to a new page.

Set priorities so that the important things you need to

do are identified. This can be done by A, B, C or 1,2,3
ranking system.

If you haven’t tried a daily planner (book with space for each day of the year) make one or
buy one. Daily planners are great for noting things you have to do on certain days.

Take your master to do list and put it in your daily planner on the days that you plan to do
the things. At the end of the day check for items
that are not done and move them to the day that
you now plan to do them on.

4.7.3 .- Activities To Improve

Your Time Management
 Get organized – create some files. To Do. To
Read. To File.
 Track your time for a week. List the things you
do each day and the time you spend on it.
 Summarize your week and think about other
ways to use your time. Set priorities. Set goals
and allocate some time to meet your goals.
 Develop a “To Do List”. This can be as a simple
as a sheet of paper with all the things you need to do and would like to do. Manage the
list by crossing things off as you complete them.
 Set a schedule of things you would
like to do each day and week.

4.8 Smile
A smile surprisingly to many is a skill. A
smile by definition is a facial expression
formed primarily by flexing the muscles
at the sides of the mouth. It often
makes you feel better when you receive
a smile from someone, and it can make
you feel better to smile. Smiling is
actually a relaxation strategy; if you
feel tight or stressed then take a
moment and smile. There are times when a smile will ease your tension and others around
you.

Poem that puts the impact of a smile in words:

There’ something you may give a friend and stranger,

too.
It seems that when you give it,
It’s given back to you.
This gift is worth a million,
But doesn’t cost a dime.
It’s lasting in effect,
But doesn’t take much
time.
This simple little gesture,
Can make the day worthwhile.
It’s just as good as sunshine,
It’s what we call a smile.
By: Jill Wolf

Activities:
  Make a point or take time to smile regularly.
 You face a difficult situation try smiling.
 Encourage other to smile by sharing a smile with them.
 Do smile exercises when you feel stressed. Smile as big as you can to stretch your
mouth muscles.

4.9 Networking

Networking is something that applies to school, friends, job searching, executives,

entrepreneurs, and business owners. Networking is a very important skill you can develop
to achieve success.
Networking can be described as planned word-of-mouth marketing that when done
properly will empower individuals and nurture relationships. It is all about making the time
to keep in touch with people you know and making the effort to meet people that can help
you create opportunities now or in the future and people that you can help.
Networks are people talking to one another, sharing ideas, information, and resources.
Networking may not seem too relevant to you at first, but if you give it a try ,it will really
help you. The more people you know in life, the more chances you will give yourself to
succeed.
Act as your own coach and assess your successes to make sure you are advancing toward
your goals.

4.9.1 Tips that will help make you a better net worker.
 Your first step in networking is to create a concise, positive message delivered
effectively about who you are and what you have to offer others.
 Successful people do not achieve success on their own; instead they surround
themselves with a strong support group.
 Successful networking is based on the premise of “givers-gain.” When you give
something of value, the value is returned to your multiple fold.

 It is not the network or end-product that is important in networking, but the process
— the connections and the way that they are made — that creates powerful links
 between
people
and

communities.
 Networking is about farming rather than hunting. It is about developing relationships
and establishing trust. Focusing on the relationship will produce greater results than
focusing on yourself or your product or service.
 Having a strong personal foundation or good character — integrity, high standards, and
reserves — enhances your networking ability.


 Master net workers do not turn their networking skills on and off selectively, instead
they live every day, all day with the belief in cooperating with others and helping
others achieve success.
 Effective networking requires planning and practice. Place yourself in networking
opportunities and plan ahead. Who do you want to meet, who can you help, who can help
you, where can you meet them, what do you want to know about them, what do you want
them to know about you?
 Develop a diverse network of resources that you can refer to others. This list should
include people from other departments, divisions, companies, and professions, as well as
those you work with directly.
 Networking requires intent, persistence, and determination. Make relationships a part
of your life, keep an open mind and expect results from unexpected places.

Activities:
Call people you have met or normally see just to keep in touch. You may have played with
these people on a sports team , gone camping together, went to school together , worked a
part-time job together. You may be able to help them in some way. Just ask them what
they have been up to and think of a way to help them or a reason to get together.
Talk to teachers, friends of parents and other adults you know, about your future. You
never know what suggestions they may come up with. You may also find something that you
can help them with, like a computer problem etc.
Ask people how they keep in touch with old friends, people they went to school with,
worked with etc.