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5 Forbidden faults to avoid in a Group Discussion

The dream letter is in your hand, a brief smile appears at the corner of your lips and you run to your friends and relatives with the letter sharing your success. They say, ‘Great! You made it.' Did you really?


By now you start to realize that only half the battle is won. The fight is deadlier ahead. The ‘Call Letter' is just an invitation to take that challenge. Yes. You guessed it right. I am talking about group discussion—one of the most crucial aspects to evaluate knowledge, efficiency, communication skill, people management ability and team co-ordination effectiveness of a future manager.


More often than not, even the most promising candidate walks out of the room with a drooping head failing to get through. Did we ever ask us why? If not, here is the chance to know why.


Attributes selectors evaluate a candidate during a group discussion

  • Ability to work in a team
  • Communication skill
  • Leadership traits
  • Reasoning ability
  • Assertiveness
  • Compatibility to differences
  • Conflict resolution
  • Ability to think independently
  • Knowledge

What candidates should avoid during a group discussion

  • Getting Emotional: Never take things personally in a group discussion or even in your future professional life. Emotion will drive you away from the subject. You will end up doing personal attack which may de-motivate the entire group.
  • Bring Quality: The idea here is to contribute to your team meaningfully with quality discussion and not with irrelevant information. This will rate for your team player ability.
  • Statistical Sin: While a few statistical citations will make your candidature more promising but too much of it may annoy the group and the selectors. Use it wherever relevant but don't abuse it.
  • Talk Sensibly: Don't talk simply because you have to. Besides checking your language skills what selectors are interested to evaluate is your ability to make the group come to a unanimous conclusion as this is what matters in your future managerial role.
  • Be Assertive: Drive the group in the right direction as this will display your leadership ability which is the most desired aspect in a manager.

Hope this helps. Stay tuned to discover more.