Interpersonal Skills
Mehak Sarwar
Management Coach
IFPMC-LONDON
Interpersonal skills are the ability to form the correct responses based on accurately interpreting the information or signals given to you. These skills are the combination of your personality and your innate ability to interact with others. However, sometimes being a “people” person comes naturally to some whilst others may have to practice. As it’s a soft skill, there’s no textbook way to improve your interpersonal skills but just by completing a few exercises a day like: acknowledging and showing gratitude to your fellow employees or support staff, giving verbal affirmations or nodding when conversing with someone, engaging eye contact to whomever you are talking to, etc.; can help cultivate those people skills.
Interpersonal skills is an umbrella term. Some skills which are included within this umbrella term are:
- Active listening: Through verbal communication or open body language, showing you’re actively listening gives a higher probability of people coming to you when they’re in need of someone hear them
- Patience: Having patience when talking or dealing with someone can make you more pleasant to be around and it shows your employer or fellow employees that you’re able to adapt your communication styles to many different types of people
- Empathy: Being empathetic towards someone can improve your relationships with other colleagues. Additionally, when trying to solve a problem, it can help give an extra layer of understanding and a person-orientated approach when there’s an issue at hand
- Dependability: Dependable people tend to be trusted by fellow employees because if anything arises, it is known that these people are going to be there to help
- Collaboration: Being able to work well with others can better the work environment, professional relationships and the product or service being created
Interpersonal skills or “social intelligence” are important because a business is a system with many components that, like a clock, all have a responsibility to work together in order for the business to thrive. If one sector or department is not able to work well together, it has a ripple effect on the rest of the company.
In conclusion, the way you communicate and cooperate with others can have an impact on your business. When done well, it can create a healthy efficient work environment and further help solve the complex or trivial daily challenges that every company faces.
