MENTAL ALERTNESS AND CONSISTENCY

By Our Special Correspondent

Mental alertness and consistency are two other important at tributes for a well-balanced and impressive personality.

Mental alertness

Alertness means your preparedness and quick under-standing. You should be able to understand the questions put to you in the minimum possible time. This includes quickness of thought and observation, grasping the other person’s viewpoint, response by means of readiness with suitable replies and presence of mind. This includes:

· Quickness of thinking

· Quickness in grasping another’s point of view

· Quickness in response

· Quickness in reaching conclusions and taking decisions

· Readiness with suitable answers

· Relaxed attitude and presence of mind

· Metal agility and quickness of observation

Alertness is an important quality in an officer that enables him to control an organization or people. The interview board tests the mental alertness of the candidate through various ways: by asking confusing questions, interrupting when the candidate is trying to impress his point of view so that his chain of thought breaks, or even by asking odd questions. Alertness here does not mean answering spontaneously and without the application of all of one’s mental faculties. It means quick understanding of the problem or the question being asked and quick response to the same. The candidate should be mentally vigilant and possess a quick and sharp observation power. He should not betray nervousness or a confused attitude.

Points to be noted

· To develop mental alertness you need to have concentration and to give complete attention to detail. To facilitate this, you can form the habit of concentrating on radio news bulletins and comprehending each of the news items. As news items are relayed at a high speed, your efforts to comprehend them will help you develop your powers of concentration and mental alertness. “The one prudence in life is concentration,” says Ralph Waldo Emerson.

· To develop presence of mind, you need acute observation powers. For this, you should minutely watch things around you. “It is close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life,” says Samuel Smiles.

· As soon as a question is asked, try to understand it quickly and reply naturally.

The following illustration will explain what is meant by mental alertness:

Consistency

Another point closely related to mental alertness is consistency. It involves firmness of opinion, mature thinking and an attitude not guided by emotions or external impressions. Your opinion should not change and you should try to stand firmly by what you have initially expressed till the end of the interview. The interview board tries to judge your consistency by putting a question in the beginning and repeating it later in a different form. Suppose you are asked about your opinion on any recent policy of the government. If you had earlier replied in its favour, stand by your first viewpoint and do not change it event if you are criticized or not appreciated by any of the interview board’s member or even by the chairman himself. You should be consistent throughout not only in your opinion but also in your temper, actions and thoughts. Do not change your viewpoint just to please the members or the chairman but he firm.

The members of the interview board might try to run rings around you by asking you confusing questions and in the end pose the first question again, worded somewhat differently. Here your mental alertness and consistency of thought are tested. If you change your opinion, it will depict your wavering attitude and lack of maturity and consistency. Therefore, up to the last leg of your interview process, try to firmly adhere to the first opinion expressed by you.

Consistency includes the following attributes:

·Consistency in temper

· Consistency in action

· Consistency of opinion

· Consistency in thinking