Group Discussions: Understanding The Expectations

Once you get through the entrance test, the next thing that you face is the group discussion, which is followed by interview round. In this article, I will shed some light on what is the expectation of the judges from your group discussion. How can you tackle it, and how can you make the right impression through your group discussion.

What is the Purpose Behind the Group Discussion (GD)?

Though by the time of GD, you have proven your excellence in reasoning, awareness and judgment, that is not all that a manager should excel in. Expectations are always higher on a higher level. And shall be from your future. You will need to prove your verbal skills, leadership, persuasiveness, confidence and your ability to work with an absolute power as a team player. This is probably the most difficult part of MBA selection process, as you are thrown against each other, to prove you excellence spontaneously, against competitive minds which might also have a better experience than what you have.

Expectations and How To Deal With Them:

Leadership Skills: Your role as a profession is going to be that of a manager. And hence expectations are to see a tilt towards leadership. If you have it in your grain, it will be easy for you to go through this level. Otherwise, you can try to get through this by inculcating the skill, through mock sessions.

Communication Skills: How good are you in communication? Expectations from you are to show your communication skills the best. Which basically judges the clarity of thoughts that you carry, your usage of language, aptness and timeliness of expressions used by you. And most important of all, how well do you listen and understand other’s point of view. As a manager, this is a crucial factor that you must have to keep the team successfully growing. SO if you don’t have this ability, you can probably take up a job while preparing for MBA, and take some practical help from your work environment. Otherwise, observe, analyze, and learn to perform good on this aspect.

Interpersonal/Team Player: How well do you go with your co-participants? Your emotional maturity to your balance, everything is under a keen observation of the judges. You have to be people centric, more understanding and receptive, while also being a good judge, a good advisor, with a caliber o proposing a good argument, that aims to be more fruitful and witty than caustic.

Confidence and Verbal Skills Moving Hand in Hand: A good verbal skill and confidence, both are the judging basics. Neither only confidence, not just a good verbal skill works here. You have to show an expertise in both. You can start communicating and delivering your thoughts in your day-to-day life more confidently, and it will seep into your behavior.

Group discussions are an important selection criteria of MBA entrance. I hope understanding the reason behind a GD and the expectations will help you achieve your aim better.