Human Relations Essay

1 In your opinion, do supervisors of entry-level workers rely more on soft skills or hard skills to accomplish their work? Explain. In my opinion, supervisors of entry-level workers rely more on soft skills than hard skills in order to accomplish their work. My reasoning in this is that â€Å"soft skills† often equate to â€Å"people skills†, or developed communication skills. When supervising entry-level workers, such â€Å"soft† skills in communication and working with people will be more beneficial to the supervisor than the technical knowledge or transferable skills referred to as â€Å"hard† skills. When supervising entry-level workers, the supervisor does not actually need advanced technical knowledge or skills relative to the job. Entry-level workers will not have, or necessarily need to learn, such skills and information from the supervisor. Instead, it is most important that the supervisor uses â€Å"soft† skills to maintain open communication channels to understand and respond to worker concerns and needs. 2 Why do people need soft skills in an era of high technology? People need soft skills in an era of high technology for several reasons. Technology is often a tool rather than a tutor or teacher; therefore, human help will always be necessary when workers and individuals are learning to operate new technology. I.T. support staff need to have soft skills in order to carry out their jobs, which involve dealing with people as well as dealing with technology. 3 Discuss two (2) ways that interpersonal skills related to the digital age are demonstrated while interacting with large numbers of people, as well as groups. Interpersonal skills relating to the digital age are demonstrated while  interacting with large numbers of people in several ways. From social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, most people have developed the skill and awareness of â€Å"broadcasting† information or opinions to a large audience. Also though such social media, most people have developed an awareness of privacy filters – for example, in their use of digital technology they may choose to share certain information with a smaller subset of the entire group. 4 How might you improve your effectiveness as a team player in terms of people-related team activities? Discuss three (3) ways. I could improve my effectiveness as a team player by being a more active listener, consistently (i.e., listening attentively to everyone’s contribution instead of periodically â€Å"zoning out† when a certain person is speaking). I could also initiate, as the team members meet for the first time, sharing of each individual’s preferred gender pronouns – if PGPs are uniformly shared at the outset, and this creates a safe atmosphere and dynamic for any gender-nonconforming individuals in the team. Finally, I could make a concerted effort to default to a dynamic of trust, and remind myself that – even if a team member is expressing opinions or taking actions I disagree with – they almost certainly have best intentions.