Aerospace Technology Project (II)

Well, on Thursday we continued researching and doing the Aerospace Technology project about the design of the aircraft for 2040. In my opinion what we did that day doesn't have much to do with communication skills, but I really enjoyed it and some nice and creative ideas actually came to my mind during this class (maybe the fact of not having a "technical class" made my imagination flow more).

Therefore, I can't give any opinion or advice about issues related to communication skills. Actually this made me ask the teacher what I could write about in this post, because the only things that I thought about during the class were issues related to fuel alternatives for the aircraft or different designs for aircraft configurations.

To be honest, I already knew I wouldn't get any clear answer (because I know the teacher wants us to discover the answer by ourselves, making us reflect about what we ask), but despite this, I finally asked. Guess what? All (or at least the majority) of the answers to my questions weren't actually answers, but instead she asked me the same thing with other words in order to make me think about what I had just asked. I don't really like it when people aren't clear and answer questions with other questions, but (unfortunately) I realized that I also do that... 

This reminds me of the typical saying: "Do not do to others what you wouldn't want others to do to you".

That's all for today. Thanks for reading!

SWOT Analysis

So what is a SWOT analysis? To be honest, I've never done one and I first heard about this in our last class, on Thursday... But because I have to do one, I will talk a bit about what it is.

So first of all, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, and it is used to evaluate these characteristics or elements. It is an important type of analysis which, after doing it, it can help you improve, by knowing what you are good at (strengths) and what you are doing wrong, and therefore should improve (weaknesses). If you want me to be honest, I don't really understand how the "opportunities" and "threats" should be used; despite this, I guess it is the same as the strengths and weaknesses, but related to your competitors. I mean, it may be what you are doing better than others (opportunities) and what others are doing better than you (threats).

So the SWOT analysis is a really useful and easy tool anybody can use in order to success, by realizing what he/she can potentiate and what he/she should change in order to improve.

Thanks for reading my blog!

How to criticize assertively

Hi again everybody! So today I'm going to talk a bit about criticism, but (again) in an assertive way! As you may have realized if you have read my previous posts, I keep talking... and talking... and talking... about assertiveness, but this is because of its importance.

So the most relevant point on assertive criticism is that any critic you do (if you want to do it asertively) you must do it so that it is helpful for the person you are criticizing, what I mean is, all your critics must be constructive and you must explain why you have that opinion; don't criticize without giving any reasons!

Another point to take into account, apart from knowing how to criticize, is to know how to receive criticism. Regardless on if somebody is criticizing you in an aggressive or in an assertive way, you must try to respond in an assertive way (as always), by explaining why you agree or disagree with what is being criticized.

Obviously, there are some situations where it is really difficult to act assertively, just because our emotions can be too strong; but we must always try to act as assertive as possible, although it may depend on each situation (in my opinion, sometimes it's better just to keep quiet, or to act passively).

Thank you for reading my blog!

Assertiveness Techniques

So as you can see we keep talking about assertiveness, but this time about techniques.

I guess it is a really important issue because if we want to success and get to be a better person, we should constantly use this techniques, practicing a lot, in order to end up using them naturally.

If we use this techniques, which we can find all over the Internet (nowadays everything you want to know about is there), we will be closer to acting in a way which respects the needs, wants, rights and opinions of both the person you are talking with and you.

I'd like to share with you a video which explains one of these techniques. It sorts of explains how to say no in an assertive way, by using two techniques: fogging (which is agreeing with some of the fact, but retaining the right to choose your behavior and to say no) and the broken record (which simply consists on repeating and insisting in what you want or feel).

I believe it is quite good because it first explains, then makes examples and finally gives feedback about those examples. 

I hope you find it interesting! Thanks for reading.

No problem with saying "No"

Hi everyone! Today in class we discussed (in my opinion) about a really valuable topic: how to say no (in an assertive way).

It is an important topic to talk about but, for me, it is even more because generally it is really difficult for me to say no. When somebody asks me to do something, even though I have more things to do, I usually do it (and I also try to do my best in it; loosing a lot of time...) because if he asks me, it might be because he needs me, and I believe it is really important to help people, so I feel guilty when I don't do so. But what I realized today is that my wants and rights are also important, and if I know how to say no, the other person will understand my reasons and therefore he won't care about it. In addition, if I keep doing everything I'm asked to, it will come a day when I will probably explode because I won't be able to do anything. What is important is to achieve a win-win solution! (Not a "you win, I lose" solution).

But there are a few times when I actually say no, but when I do it it's usually because I really feel unrespected and I can't stand it. The problem is that when this happens I'm quite aggressive, so it's also important to know how to change this way of saying no into an assertive way.

So, sometimes we need to say no, and there is no problem with that, but what we have to know is how to say it. If we learn how to do it in an assertive way, we will actually success in many areas of our lives.

Thanks for reading!

Being assertive

Well, today I'm going to talk about assertiveness, (in my opinion) a quite difficult-to-achieve skill which is essential for good leadership.

Assertiveness is based on balance: it requires being direct about your wants and needs while still considering the rights, needs, and wants of others. So the problem with this is that there is a really fragile line between assertiveness and aggressiveness (which is doing what is in your own best interest without thinking in the others' rights, needs or feelings). It's really common ending up being a bit aggressive, just because it might be easier than being assertive; but there is also another fragile line between being assertive and being passive. This is what actually happens to me, and when you are passive, you normally don't get what you want just because you think too much in the other people's needs or feelings. So this is something I must change if I want to get to be someone someday. 

Assertiveness helps to build self-confidence and provides many other benefits for improving relationships at work and in other areas of life. When you are assertive, you act fairly and with empathy, so the power you use comes from your self-confidence, not from intimidation. This way, people will see you as a leader and someone they want to work with.

I hope you find my blog interesting and useful. Thanks for reading!

Manuel Campo Vidal: A Great Conference!

As I said a few minutes ago in my last post, I forgot to tell you about how this Monday's conference about flexibility went (see my post: "Flexibility and adaptability").

Last Monday (15th April) Manuel Campo Vidal held a conference at the UEM about the importance of flexibility. He spoke in a way which was really easy to follow, making the topic very interesting, drawing our attention at every moment and giving a great example of the communication skills we should all have.

In addition, he talked about important topics we will need to embrace in order to achieve a better professional future. Between the most important ideas that were said in this conference I would highlight the following:

You need to be able to adapt to the society's needs and you shouldn't be afraid of moving away from your hometown, in fact you should move nationally and internationally and have a global vision of the world. Flexibility is one of the most important things you must have if you want to succeed.

In addition, knowing how to communicate well with others is essential, because the people who succeed (unfortunately) aren't those who do the best work, but the ones who actually know how to explain well their work and how to make it attractive. He also told us that we should get rid of the idea that an engineer doesn't know how to explain himself because it's totally false. In fact, Manuel Campo Vidal studied engineering and he showed in this conference that his communication skills are absolutely great.

Another important idea to take into account is the importance of having different visions from different disciplines because that's what the society asks us to have. We are engineers (in my classmates' and my case) but we also need to know a bit about other fields, such as economics or environmental science for example. Teamwork and entrepreneurship are also really important aspects we should assume.

According to the communication skills part, he gave us some tips, such as getting to know the people you are going to talk to before holding a conference or a similar situation, or saying the most important ideas at the beginning and at the end of a talk (because people usually tend to forget the middle parts). He also showed us a really interesting video which displays an example of how an effective conference should be done. The video shows the different communication tools that Al Gore uses in a conference he held about climate change. It was really interesting.

Creativity moves the world!

On Thursday we saw a really interesting video about a conference which talked about education nowadays and how it kills creativity. It criticized the way schools are teaching our kids because instead of promoting their skills and what they like, letting them be creative (which in the end is what really matters), children keep being taught what the industry needs, so mathematics and all sorts of science are considered at the top while arts are at the bottom of everything.

By the way, it shouldn’t be like this. It’s true that science and maths are important, but they are not the only thing in the world. We keep thinking that arts and humanities don’t have a future, that if you study these sort of things you won’t have a job, and it’s totally false. What happens nowadays, I mean, the reason why there are so many people who don’t have a job is just because everybody tends to study those things which are said to have a good future, and if you like them, great! But if you don’t, the truth is that you won’t have a job, just because you won’t have that inside-force which makes you make progress and succeed.

What I am totally convinced of, is that if you really like something, and although it isn’t thought to have a good future, you will surely succeed. And this happens because, if you like something, you will put it “on the top of your list” and you will always try to do your best on it in order to improve; and probably you will even get to be the best on it. And this is what actually matters: that you are good at something and that you are happy doing it. 

Besides this, I’d also like to focus on how Ken Robinson (the man on the conference) communicates his idea of education and creativity, because I’d say it’s a great example of communication skills, because he knows how say what he wants to tell, but he also knows how to drag your attention during the whole conference, which is very important too.

I certainly recommend all of you to watch the conference because it will make you realize the importance of creativity on our way to a better world.

Here is the link to the video of the conference: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
It has subtitles in many languages and you can download it if you wish.