There will always be some colleagues and bosses that stand out from the rest. Do you have a special preference to work with a certain boss? Or do you want a particular colleague to be on your team?
There are some people whom we always prefer over others and this is because these people usually have strong interpersonal skills.
Having strong interpersonal skill makes a team comfortable, heard, and supported. While being good at strong interpersonal skills can take you to new heights in your career, lacking it can hold you back.
We at lensa.com want professionals and students to understand the importance of interpersonal skills. We will also discuss how to develop these skills.
What are the interpersonal skills?
Interpersonal skills are any skill that allows someone to have a good relationship with people. This mainly involves being good at interactions with people. For work, it is those skills that allow a person to be able to work well with their boss, colleagues, clients, etc.
Interpersonal skills fundamentally mean to possess social skills that allow one to have meaningful relationships.
Following are the constituents of good interpersonal skills:
- Communication skills
Communication is one of the most important skillsets to possess and as such it makes up one of the most vital components of interpersonal skills. If you look back, most of the conflicts or arguments that may have happened in your life would have been due to miscommunication or misunderstandings.
A person must have both effective oral and written skills to communicate easily with people.
- Empathy
The ability to understand people and their problems is empathy. It is the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another person.
- Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence can be thought of as the king of interpersonal skills. It involves understanding a person and their vulnerabilities. Emotional intelligence deals with understanding people by their verbal and nonverbal cues and also doing something to make them comfortable.
Other vital constituents of interpersonal skills are:
- Persuasion
- Conflict Resolution
- Leadership
- Patience
- Motivation
Why is it important?
In a survey, managers were told to rate the importance of interpersonal skills on a scale of 1 to 5. They rated the importance of having the skill at 4.37. Why it is so important? Well, it’s simple. The workplace consists of people. A team consists of people. Managers, colleagues, and bosses all are people. Where you have to work with people, the interpersonal skills are going to count.
A strong interpersonal skill means you are able to clearly communicate with people and understand them. People will feel comfortable working with you. They will prefer to work with you. Strong interpersonal skills will make handling queries and issues easy. Delegations and handling clients will be a cakewalk.
How to develop interpersonal skills
One is not born with strong interpersonal skills. It can be developed. You just have to focus on the following:
- Improving confidence
Being confident is the first step to mastering interpersonal skills. People will feel comfortable with you if you are comfortable with yourself.
Also, when someone is confident, he/she put their point across in meetings and discussions clearly.
- Getting feedbacks
Always-always ask for feedback. It is not possible to know our strengths and weaknesses by ourselves. Only the people who work with us can tell us where we are lacking. When we know our weaknesses only then we can attempt to improve them.
- Practice active listening
Communication is not just about talking. It is also about listening. Active listening is the key to strengthening your interpersonal skills. When you sincerely listen to what people have to say you will start understanding them better.
Final Thoughts
Interpersonal skill is a critical ingredient for career success. Being good at it can mean having success, growth, and promotion for you.
