TOPIC 1.PROMOTION OF LIFE SKILLS
PROMOTION
OF LIFE SKILLS
Life
skills are the means through which a person can live well in a society. They
are the ways an individual can properly manage his/her life and that of other
people. Promotion of life skills is of great importance in modern societies
because of the prevailing socio-economic, political and cultural changes that
havebeen accelerated by scientific and technological advancements. The
undergoing changes require good leadership, teamwork, positive relationships,
self-worth and self-confidence from members of societies or communities so as
to survive in this competitive world.
Good
Leadership, Team Work, Positive Relationship, Self-Worth and Confidence
Importance of Good Leadership, Teamwork, Positive Relationship,
Self-Worth and Confidence Qualities
Explain
the importance of good leadership, teamwork, positive relationship, self-worth
and confidence qualities
A
leader is a person who guides or directs others in a group, an institution, a
company, a village or a country. Good leadership refers to proper leadership
which adheres to the important characteristics of a good leader.
Characteristics
of a good leader
The following are the Characteristics of a good Leader:-
·
A good leader should be a task-oriented or people-oriented
leader. The task oriented leader will place emphasis on training and
performance with the ultimate aim of achieving and winning. He/she should be
able to identify the community goals or specific targets. The leader then
should be able to impart these goals to his people and commit them to work hard
and intelligently to achieve the desired community goals.
·
A good leader should not simply issue orders for people to
follow, but he/she should be able to instill good characteristics to them which
will make it possible to achieve the stated goals.
·
A good leader should have confidence, determination and
perseverance. There will be many complex issues that must be addressed by the
leader; therefore the leader should be bold enough to encounter such
situations.
·
A good leader should be able to create an ideal situation that
will encourage his/her people to perform. The leader should be ready available
for his/her people and they should be free to approach him/her for
consultations.
·
A good leader should be able to identify good opportunities that
can be utilised to achieve the stated community goals. The leader has to be
optimistic that opportunities can be exploited to yield the intended goals.
Good leaders should have a vision which they work towards. Good leaders know
where they are heading and lead their people towards the same vision. Good
leaders are not passive people. They are usually extremely passionate in
whatever they are doing.
·
Good leaders should be wise if they are to be successful. Being
a leader often means that crucial decisions will have to be made at one point.
Having wisdom to make a right decision is most important in ensuring success.
Good leaders have compassion for their followers. While they understand they
have a goal to pursue, they constantly look back and care for the people that
are following them. They are not selfish people who only think about their own
needs and luxuries; they also must care for the people who are working for
them. In Africa, for instance, we have Mzee Nelson Mandela, the former
president of the republican of South Africa and leader of ANC. Mzee Mandela is
the one of the few African leaders who possesses such kind of leadership
characteristics.
·
Good leaders should be charismatic, attractive to the people
through their good personalities. This can be through the way they speak. They
are extremely well-versed in public speaking and they can influence and inspire
people with the things that they say. A good example of such kind of a leader
is the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere. The former president of Tanzania.
·
Good leaders must be persistent in the attempt of meeting their
goals. They realise that the goal to success is not simple; despite that, they
see that the benefit of reaching the goal are greater than that of the setback
that they will experience.
·
Good leaders should have integrity. They mean what they say, and
they say what they mean. They are people who keep their promises and they do
not play the two-faced political game that a lot of others do.
·
Good leaders must be ready to pursue their dreams until they
become true. The fears are real, but the courageous leader pursues them despite
the fears. Good leaders are extremely disciplined in their pursuit of their
goals. While most people would be easily discouraged, good leaders make sure
they achieve their goals.
In our
community where good leadership is practiced, a leader adopts a participatory
approach in decision-making. A good leader will always consult his/her people
before any important decision is made. For instance, in an institution like a
school, a good leader should recognize that his/her employees are more than
just employees; they are also the people to be involved in making decision.
Leadership styles
Leadership styles have been classified on the basis of how
leaders use their authority. There are four leadership styles, namely
dictatorial, autocratic, democratic and laissez-fair leadership.
·
Dictatorial leadership. This
is the type of leadership governed by a dictator that is dominated by fear,
threats, disgrace, and frequent dismissal of the workers.
·
Autocratic leadership. This
type of leadership is characterised by central authority. All the powers are
controlled by one individual; a leader can give or withhold rewards or
punishments.
·
Democratic or
participative leadership. This
type of leadership involves the leader consulting the subordinates on the
proposed actions and decisions and encourages their participations.
·
Laissez-fair leadership. This
is the type of leadership where the leader is really not in control. The leader
is only consulted if information is required, and he/she can make only a small
contribution. This type of leadership gives chance for the subordinates to
decide on their own.
Importance
of good leadership
The following are some of the importance of good leadership in a
community
·
Earns trust from the people by involving them in
decision-making. Hence they can work together with their leaders to achieve
their goals.
·
Increases efficiency and effectiveness in a community, as people
are satisfied with their leaders work or performance.
·
Enhances public relations in a community. The positive image of
a leader enhances public relations that will lead to the achievement of
community goals.
·
Enhances people’s confidence, especially when leaders are
transparency and accountable to their decisions.
·
Reduces conflicts in a community. With good leadership neither
the people nor the leaders shall be involved in conflicts. The community do
have proper channels to forward their problems through democratic ways based on
decision making-making procedures.
Activity 1
What kind of leadership is practised in Tanzania? Support your
answers with vivid examples.
Good Leadership, Teamwork, Positive Relationship, Self-Worth,
Confidence Qualities
Demonstrate
good leadership, teamwork, positive relationship, self-worth, confidence
qualities
Leadership
can be defined as interpersonal influence exercised in a situation and directed
through the communication process towards the attainment of specified goal.
Leadership does not mean power, prestige, wealth or great education butrefers
toinitiative and willingness to serve mankind and showing a real concern to
others.
Teamwork
A team
comprises any group of people with a common purpose. A group in itself does not
necessary constitute a team. However there are many components that up a team
like managers and agents. Teamwork is a joint action done by a group of people
(team) with a common goal. The notion of teamwork does not mean that the
individual is no longer important, itmeans that effective and efficient
teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishment. The most effective teamwork is
produced when all individuals work together to achieve a common goal.
To
effectively achieve the goals of an organisation, all the people should combine
their efforts. If everyone does his/her job well, and then it increases what
the team can accomplish. Teamwork has to be recognised by everyone knowing that
great things happen if individuals work together as one unit. Everyone has a
unique role, but each individual role must be recognised and appreciated.
For
instance, at school both teachers and student are supposed to live and work as
a team. This will help in building student discipline and academic performance.
However, this can only be achieved through participation of students and
teachers in school governance. Teamwork is something that must be a high
priority and must be given constant attention. Every player must understand how
important for them to work together if they want to be successful. Each player
must be dedicated to the whole team and be ready to act unselfishly. When
challenges arise the team need to have the resources, accountability and
commitment to deal with them in a constructive and positive manner.
Aspects of teamwork
A good
and strong leadership is essentially for successful teamwork. While each
teamwork member will be encouraged to share thought and opinions as well as
skills, the leader will be responsible for the final decisions and
implementations that are made. A leader should be strong and confident as well
as competent in his/particular area of expertise
Goal-setting
is an essential part of teamwork. A team should set its goal for easy
accomplishment of a task. A team cannot work well and achieve its goal if it
does not have well-defined goals to be achieved. It is also very important for team
members to understand their roles and responsibilities. The team leader can
make it possible by defining the purpose in a clear-cut manner in the beginning
of the formation of the team.
Communication
is another important part of teamwork. The team members must communicate all
aspects of a project and be willingly to listen to each other. The lines of
communication should be open at all times and to all team members. Teamwork can
be very successfully if everyone is willingly to accept one another and work
together for the good of the group.
The
team must have a unified commitment. This does not mean team members must agree
on everything. It means that all individuals must be directing their efforts
towards the foal. If an individual's efforts are going towards his/her personal
goals, then the team will confront this and resolves the problem.
The
team must have a result-driven structure. The team should be allowed to operate
in a manner that produces results. It is often best to allow the team to
develop the structure.
The
team must have high standards that are understood by all. Team members must
know what is expected of them individually and collectively. Vague statements
such as “positive attitude” and “demonstrated efforts” are not good enough.
The
team must have competent members. In the education settings this can be taken
to mean that the problem given to the team should be one that the members can
tackle given their level of knowledge and skills.
The
team must have a collaborative climate. It is a climate of trust produced by
honest, open, consistence and respectful behaviour. With this climate team
perform well and without it they will fail.
Conflict
resolution. Conflict will rise no matter how teams functions together. The best
way to counter conflict is to have structured method of conflict resolution.
Team members should be able to voice their concerns without fear of offending
others. Instead of avoiding conflict, its better to resolve them quickly. Its
often advised that the team leader should sit with conflicting parties and help
to work out their differences without taking sides and try to remain objective
if possible.
COMPOUNDS
OF TEAM BUILDING
The
most important compound for team building is the selection of participants to
be in agroup or team. The team leader usually looks specific things from the
members in order to ensure success in the group or team projects. It’s very
important to have members that have confident and are able to build trust among
other participants. Most importantly, the participants must have a positive
attitude at all times.
Training
on how to work together is also a very important compound of teamwork. A team
must know how to work together in order to be productive and successful. If a
team can work together, It will be able to resolve issues that are standing on
the way to accomplish a goal. Working together may not come easily at first,
but with proper training and mutual communication the team will be able to
adapt quickly.
Balanced
skills set. When creating teamwork, it’s important to have balanced skills
sets. One way to achieve this is by having experts in different fields. If some
members provide some of their theoretical skills, for example, individuals that
are knowledgeable about the course materials are confused about technology part
of it. On the other hand the individual may fill that the technical side of the
problem is more important than the theoretical side of it. By combining both
sides, the team can come up with the solutions that benefit everyone.
Allocation
of roles within the team is one of the elements needed for team building.
Assigning roles to team members help them to know the team’s place. Each member
should be assigned a role that is clearly defined. This will facilitate easily
decision making and will ensure the completion of the task assigned within the
required time
Harmonizing
personalities. The personality of some one play a bigger role on how the team
performs. The leader must understand the kind of people and personality they
need to have in order to gain success from the team group. For instance someone
who shows supportiveness is dedicated to the team’s success. The person who
takes more responsibility, is very easy to work with and listen attentively to
the ideas of other people.
Importance of teamwork
Large, ambitious plans usually require people to work together.
Thus, team work has become an important concept for work organisations.
Effective teams are necessary if the industry is going to realise good and
sustainable results.
·
Teamwork can make more effective and efficient use of labour and
prove productivity by maximizing the different strength and skills of team
members, encouraging team members to undertake a wide range of tasks and making
team members accountable to customers.
·
Teamwork improves quality and encourages innovation of product
or services. Innovation has been the outcome of many team works initiatives.
Involvement of team members/workers in productive activity through team work
contributes a lot to the improvement of the quality of products and various
innovations.
·
In an institutions like a school, students learn to work
together in many ways. They learn to rely on each other and take advantage of
every opportunity they have. Most often high-performing students in exams
experience the benefit of teamwork at school. They consistently perform better
than others, especially by attending group discussions.
Positive relationships
Positive
relationships can be defined as the state of having meaningful, loving,
supportive and cooperative relationships between two or more people. It’s not
difficult to establish meaningful, loving, loving, supportive and cooperative
relationships.
Principles for developing positive relationships
In order to develop positive relationship, someone needs to
understand the following principles of human behaviour;
·
Time and patience. Building positive relationship is like
building a house; it take a lot of time and patient to accomplish likewise to
understand human life it take time and it need patient to cope with them.
·
Applying the principle of brotherhood and allowing others to
become more responsible.
·
Allowing people to make choices
·
Every human behaviour has a social purpose. It should be notes
that some people misbehave they are searching for self-attention and some look
for revenge
·
Changing your negative behaviour can most effectively influence
the negative behaviour of others.
·
Someone’s positive relationship are influenced by his/her
positive actions, thus people must appreciate others peoples positive’s
positive behaviour.
·
Avoiding retaliation if offended; instead express good will. You
will improve the quality of relationship. Retaliation stimulates further
violence.
·
Avoid finding faults in others; focus on their strength and not
their weaknesses
·
Show strong confidence in your team members; this will develop
their confidence.
·
If the members lack strong confidence, focus on their past
legitimate successes.
·
If it is difficult to speak to a busy person, communicate with
him/her through your loving actions
·
Withdraw from conditions that can easily lead to power struggle.
Importance of positive relationships
·
Positive relationships are important in maintaining a sense of
good among ourselves. A destructive relationship is not always good because it
leads to various problems such as abuse. It’s obvious that people needs
positive relationships, because they need to be supported, comforted and have
fun.
·
Positive relationships are important and are a source of success
in every area of life as they enhance love, family happiness, business success
and spiritual fulfilment.They also promote good principle that ensures success
to everyone, partners, family, friends and work colleagues. This means that
there is a need to identify key principles and techniques that attract positive
relationships because they heal any relationship issues.
·
Positive relationships enlighten the people on how to make a
right decision in relationships, communicating better, enjoying greater
intimacy and confidence.
Self-worth
Self-worth
refers to a feeling of confidence in yourself that you are a good and useful
person. Its a favourable estimate or opinions of oneself. Worth refers tohow
much we value something, how important it is for us and how much priority we
give it compared to other things.
Self-worth
is a measure of our unconditional self-love. High self-worth means loving
ourselves unconditionally in all areas of our lives. To have a higher degree of
self-worth, we must love ourselves even when we make mistakes.
Self-worth
is frequently based on our feelings of worth in terms of our skills,
achievements, statutes, financial resources or physical attributes. This kind
of self-worth often cultivates an independence and arrogant attitude. When we
find ourselves not measuring up to societies’ criteria for worth, we suffer
serious consequences.
Our
self-worth depreciates dramatically. The illusion of being successful and
admired gives way to disillusionment as our possessions and achievements that
once nourished our souls fail to satisfy our appetite. To satisfy every
individual experience, hunger, thirst, fatigue and so forth, we are
conditionedtoget food, drinks or rest. By getting these things we will achieve
an acceptable self-worth. Nothing depreciates self-worth faster than regret,
anger or fear.
Aspects of self-worth
Taking
good care of yourself shows you really do love yourself unconditionally. This
is a sign of self-worth. If you love yourself wholeheartedly, you will
prioritize your time and resources to reflect the relative importance of each
part of yourself. You will have to create some balance in your time and life so
that you can take good care of your body and main interest and needs. Spend
time and money on activities wisely.
Importance of self-worth
Self-worth
is a vital belief for empowering oneself. A valid sense of self-worth is
necessarily in order to attain love, peace, joy, power and a sound mind. A
Valid sense of self-worth eliminates the possibility of committing suicide.
Without self-worth, doubts and fears about our very existence will persist and
will destroy dreams and vision and undermine our greatest accomplishments.
Self- confidence
Self-confidence
is a belief in one’s own abilities to do things and be successful. People with
high self-confidence typically have little fear of the unknown. They are able
to stand up for what they believe in, and have the courage to risk
embarrassment, such as delivering a presentation to a large group of people.
Aspects of building self-confidence
Although many of the factors affecting self-confidence are
beyond your control, there are a number of things you can do to build
self-confidence. These are
·
Dressing style. Clothes affect the way someone feels about
him/herself. It changes the way you feel about yourself and interact with other
people. I f you dress well, you will fill confident in all places howeverif you
dressimproperly you will feel shy and lose confidence.
·
Good posture. By practising good posture you will automatically
feel more confidence. Stand up straight, keep your head up and make eyes
contact. You will make a positive impression on others and instantly and feel
more alert and empowered.
·
Walking fast or quickly also builds one’s self-confidence. One
of the easiest way to tell how a person feels about him/herself is to examine
his/her work. Is it slow, tired, painful or energetic and purposeful? It is
believed that people with confidence walk fast or quickly. They have places to
go, people to see and important work to do.
·
Listening to motivational speeches. Another way of building
self-confidence is listening to motivational speeches. You can feel this need
by creating personal commercials. Write a short speech that highlights your
strengths and goals. Then recite it in front of a mirror aloud whenever you
need a confidence boost.
·
Compliment other people around you and refuse to engage in
criticizing them. When we think negatively about ourselves, we often project
that feeling on to others in the form of insults and gossip. To break this
cycle of negativity, get in the habit of praising other people. In the process,
you will become more liked and build more self-confidence. By seeingthe best in
others, you indirectly bring out the best in yourself.
·
Make efforts to speak up in a group discussions. During group
discussions, many people never speak up because they afraid that people will
judge them for saying something wrong. By making efforts to speak up at list
once in every group discussion, you will become a better public speaker, more
confident in your own thoughts, and recognised as a leader by your peers.
·
Sitting in the front row helps in building self-confidence. In
schools, offices and public assemblies around the world, people constantly
strive to sit at the back rows. Most people prefer sitting at the back because
they are afraid of being noticed. This reflects a lack of self-confidence.
·
Physical fitness has a huge effect on self-confidence. If you
are out of shape, you will feel insecure, unattractive and less energetic. By
working out, you improve your self appearance, energies yourself and accomplish
something positive. Having the discipline to work out not only makes you feel
better; it creates positive momentum that you can carry throughoutthe rest of
the day.
Importance of Self-confidence
·
Self-confident is essential to success in many aspects of the
individual’s life. It is the key factor in business success. This is because a
confident person knows how to balance risk. He/she can borrow money from banks
to run the business and pay back the dept.
·
Self- confidence involves doing what you believe to be right
decision, even if others criticise you for it, being willingly to take risks
and go to the extra mile to achieve better things, admitting your mistakes and
vowing to learn from them.
·
Self-confidence also allows an individual to increase his/her
level of control in situations that are important. As your self-confident grows
your excitement and energy will help you to be in a control. People may have
confident in other people or forces beyond their control. For instance, one
might have confident that he/she will pass well the final exams.Self-confident
enable an individual to gain confidence from both happiness and sadness.
·
Self-confident is generated not only in achievement, ability and
success but also from adversity and failure. It is difficult to understand
happiness unless you have experiences sadness. You cannot appreciate light
unless you have been in the dark.
·
Self-confident also promotes individual’s personality in terms
of dressing and communication skills. Good and attractive dressing and
communication skills affect the way someone feels about him/herself. It changes
the way you feel about yourself and interact with other people.
Exercise 1
A. Answer the following questions by writing “T” for correct
statement and “F” for incorrect statement.
·
People with high confident typically have a lot of fear of the
unknown, but stand up for what they belief in.
·
Self-worth is a valid sense of attaining joy, power or peace.
·
Oversleeping is one of the aspects of building self-confidence
·
People who always prefer to sit at the back have an aspect of
self-confidence
·
Doing what you believe to be right even when others criticise
you shows you are less confident.
·
Self-confident can be supported on how ones wears.
·
People with self-confident walk slowly
·
Positive relationships enlighten us in choosing and strengthen
our relationships with our spouse, children and companies.
·
Team work is only found in places where there are educated
people
·
Good leader always seek for leadership
Exercise 2
B. Answer the following questions.
Write short notes on the following terms;Good leadershipTeamwork
·
Explain the importance of good leadership
·
Mention and explain the leadership styles“Teamwork is important
for any organisation to achieve its goals” Discuss.
·
With concrete examples, examine the quality of good leadership in
Tanzania.
·
Explain the importance of self-confidence
C. Answer the
following questions by filling in the blanks with the correct answer.
·
------------ is the state of having meaningful love, supportive
and cooperative relationships between two or more people.
·
------------- means faith in one’s own abilities.
·
A total measure on how one value himself/herself and gives
priority to his/her own needs and happiness is --------------
·
------------- is interpersonal influence implementing in a
situation and directed through the communication process so as to achieve
specified goals.