Group Discussion –Why and How?

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Group Discussion –Why and How?

 

Companies conduct group discussion after the written test so as to check the prospective candidate for –

  • Interactive skills
  • How good you are at communicating with other people.
  • How you behave, participate and contribute in a group.
  • How much importance do you give to the group objective as well as your own.
  • How well do you listen to viewpoints of others
  • How open-minded are you in accepting views contrary to your own.

The aspects which come forward in GD are verbal communication, nonverbal

behavior, conformation to norms, decision-making ability and cooperation.

 

Preparation for GD

  • Reading: This is the first and the most crucial step in preparation.
  • Mocks: Create an informal GD group and meet regularly to discuss and exchange feedback.

 

During the GD Panelists assess participants on following qualities/traits:

  • Leadership Skills – Ability to take leadership roles and be able to lead, inspire and carry the team along to help them achieve the group’s objectives.
  • Communication Skills –Candidates will be assessed in terms of clarity of thought, expression and aptness of language.
  • Interpersonal Skills – People skills are an important aspect of any job.
  • Persuasive Skills – The ability to analyze and persuade

 

GD is a test of your ability that reflects:

  • Clarity of thought
  • Group working skills (especially during a group task of case study discussion)
  • Conflict handling
  • Listening and probing skills
  • Knowledge about the subject and individual point of view
  • Ability to create a consensus
  • Openness and flexibility towards new ideas
  • Data based approach to decision making

How do I take my chance to speak?

  • Trying to interrupt others while speaking would only harm your chances.
  • Maintain an eye-contact with the speaker. This would show your listening skills. It will help you gauge from his eye-movement and pitch of voice that he is about to close his inputs.
  • You can quickly take it from there.
  • Try and link your inputs with what he has spoken whether you are adding to or opposing his arguments.

Positive Task Roles in GD

  • Initiator
  • Information seeker
  • Information giver
  • Procedure facilitator
  • Opinion seeker
  • Opinion giver
  • Clarifier
  • Social Supporter
  • Harmonizer
  • Tension Reliever
  • Energizer
  • Compromiser
  • Gatekeeper
  • Summarizer

 

Negative Roles in GD

  • Disgruntled non-participant
  • Attacker
  • Dominator
  • Patronizer
  • Clown

 

Initiation Techniques

  • When you initiate a GD, you not only grab the opportunity to speak, you also grab the attention of the examiner and your fellow candidates.
  • If you make a favorable first impression with your content and communication skills after you initiate a GD, it will help you sail through the discussion.
  • But if you initiate a GD and stammer/ stutter/ quote wrong facts and figures, the damage might be irreparable.

Techniques to initiate a GD

  • Quotes
  • Definition
  • Question
  • Shock statement
  • Facts, figures and statistics
  • Short story
  • General statement

Summarization/Conclusion

  • Most GD doesn’t really have conclusions. A conclusion is where the whole group decides in favor or against the topic.
  • But every GD is summarized. You can summaries what the group has discussed in the GD in a nutshell.

While summarizing a discussion:

  • Avoid raising new points.
  • Avoid stating only your viewpoint.
  • Avoid dwelling only on one aspect of the GD.
  • Keep it brief and concise.
  • It must incorporate all the important points that came out during the GD.
  • If the examiner asks you to summaries a GD, it means the GD has come to an end.
  • Do not add anything once the GD has been summarized.

We conduct workshop on ‘Communication Skills’ and many other soft skills improvement programs both for industries, educational institutes and individuals. We also offer a few programs like ‘Shine under Stress (Strategies to Succeed in Exams)’, ‘Seven Laws of Teaching’, ‘Student’s Behaviour Management’ etc. pro bono to educational institutes

Please visit link http://bit.ly/sarwansingh or write to us at sarwansingh6644@gmail.com  or englishacademybaroda@gmail.com or call (91)8866680407 for further details.

By:

Sarwan Singh

@sarwan_singh

http://singhsarwan.blogspot.com

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