Transversal skills

Transversal skills are skills that can be used in a wide variety of situations and work settings. These skills are increasingly in high demand for learners to successfully adapt to changes and to lead meaningful and productive lives. In the third module we will see in more detail 5 transversal skills: communication, negotiation skills, teamwork, language using attitudes, collaboration.

You work for a company operating in five foreign countries. Next month, the date has been set for the first meeting of members from these countries, in order to organize an event promoting the company's products and to share the responsibilities that each country will take on. You have to choose the most suitable representative from your company to participate in this meeting, but there are some advantages and disadvantages that you need to consider regarding your three partners.

You choose the "first candidate" who speaks fluent English, always listens carefully to his interlocutor but is very shy in an environment that is not with familiar faces and therefore in the meeting there is a case that he/she does not feel comfortable communicating with other participants.

You choose the "second candidate" who has been working for the company for many years and has full knowledge of how it works, but does not speak English well, so he/she should attend fast English courses until the meeting.

You choose the "third candidate" who has been hired some time ago and worked in the public relations sector. He/she speaks very good English, is comfortable in communication, has the ability to quickly understand the character of people through verbal and non-verbal communication, while he is characterized by a special sense of humor. The disadvantage is that he/she is a new member of the company and it will take some days of "training" before the meeting, so that he/she fully knows how the company operates.

You work in a cultural center as an event organizer and you are invited to make the program of cultural events for the summer season. To create the program you will need to contact many artists and cultural venues. Due to the Covid19 pandemic you cannot have live communication. How is it chosen to communicate?

The fastest and easiest way is to send a common email to everyone.

Telephone communication is the most direct and easy way.

We will be able to communicate better through live web chat applications (Skype, Zoom).

Communication

You work for an advertising company in managing grievances at the HR department. One of your customers is unhappy and obviously annoyed, as he has paid a large amount to your company but due to a mistake his company was not advertised in the way agreed. He is asking for his money back and is asking for your cooperation to end. How do you manage it?

If he is irritated, I raise my voice so that he can see that he is not going to get his money back this way.

I remain polite and listen carefully to what he says to me. I admit the mistake of the company and ask him to contact the department for the refund.

With a smile and kindness I assure him that we will find the best solution to keep him content and to continue our cooperation. Then I ask him to arrange a meeting in the next few days to find a solution that will satisfy him completely and the company to offer him a favorable offer package, for the mistake that was made.

Your company is conducting a survey in order to produce a new technological product that will be in demand. A meeting is organized, in order to discuss with your associates from the three different branches of the company how the responsibilities of the research team will be distributed. Which of the following options do you think best describes the ideal behavior in the organization meeting in which the person will have to negotiate?

If you have a strong character, you can choose your responsibilities.

Maintain Self Control, undertake what they ask you to have a good relationship with partners.

Plan & Prepare Thoroughly, Listen Very Carefully, Be able and willing to walk away and take another deal.

Negotiation skills

You are a university professor and you choose to assign a semester assignment to students instead of exams in order to pass the course you are teaching. What kind of work do you choose and why?

Individual work, so that it is clear what the examinee has learned and he definitely deserves the final grade

Group work during the Christmas holidays, so that students can work together for a common result and organize their own way of working having free time during the holidays

Group work during the course at the university, so that students are evaluated not only for the final result, but also for the way they work as a team.

You work in a travel agency. For next year you and your 3 colleagues have to prepare a travel guide. Each employee undertakes to prepare travel proposals for a season (autumn, winter, spring, summer). You have a period of one month until you have it ready for the manager to check. However, two weeks before the deadline one of your colleagues, who is new to this position, panics and due to stress cannot continue his work. How do you manage it?

Keep working with your own section of the magazine, as time goes by and you do not want to be late.

Invite your colleagues to an after-work meeting to redistribute the part that the colleague has not completed.

You support your colleague, assure him that together you will succeed and you help him to calmly organize all the work that is left, giving him advice for the best result, so that the work is completed and he does not leave the office himself.

Teamwork

You work in a school as a foreign language teacher. There are students in your class from different countries and different cultures. There are students with a positive attitude towards the language they are taught (L2) and students with a negative attitude towards L2. Do you need to make adjustments to your lesson?

No, the course is already organized and does not need changes. Students should study what is taught regardless of their perceptions of the language.

It might be helpful to analyze with the students the reasons why they have a negative attitude towards L2 and to explain how this attitude can deprive them of success in L2.

Yes, the lesson should be organized from the beginning with intercultural material, so that students find similarities and differences between languages. Experiential teaching, with songs, fairy tales, role play will help children to face the lesson with more interest and will ensure the success of all.

There are new, foreign language terms in your field of work that cannot get translated well. The youngest employees have already incorporated them into their work, but you prefer working in your own language, as you’ve always done - leaving terms untranslated seems unprofessional to you. As a manager, what do you do?

You announce that all work-related documents must be in your national language only. .

You don’t say anything, but personally continue translating the terms.

You understand that work language changes and decide to go along with it. You research the new terms more to see in what context they are being used.

Language using attitudes

You work as a teacher in a secondary school. Your class consists of students of different ages, with different backgrounds. How will you place the classroom desks so that the lesson is done in the best possible way?

Each student will sit alone at a desk, so that there is no noise in the classroom and everyone can attend the lesson.

Students will sit in pairs at each desk, so that they can help each other in case something is needed. Students will choose who to sit at the same desk with, so that there is good cooperation.

Students will sit in fours on two joined desks. The choice will be made randomly, through a game that will precede the lesson, so that in each group there is "diversity" and everyone learns to work with people different from them. Thus, one will be able to contribute to his team in his own way.

You are working in a retail store and the manager has asked you to do a renovation. The employees of the store undertake to clean the store in order to start the renovation. Two of the employees working in the same corridor are arguing, as one of them does not help the other to transport the goods, so that the store is empty. You are the store manager and you have to provide a solution to the problem. How do you manage it?

I do not get involved, let them find a solution on their own.

I go to the hallway and ask them to change position and move away from each other.

I go straight to the hallway and call them to my office to talk, I ask them to explain what is happening, I try to find a solution to their disagreement and I urge them to apologize to the other members of the group for the disruption they caused.

Collaboration