Interpersonal skills are crucial for each member of the team as it improves communication and helps to foster stronger relationships. We’ll explore what interpersonal skills are, why they’re important and how they can be developed and improved upon.
What are interpersonal skills?
Interpersonal skills are skills that help people connect with others and define their inner self. Another word for interpersonal skills is soft skills. Just as important as hard skills and sometimes considered as more important by employers, interpersonal skills are an essential skill for the workplace.
Interpersonal skills examples
Examples of interpersonal skills include:
- Communication - Interpersonal communication skills can take form in both verbal and written forms. Being able to successfully do both is essential for working collaboratively and being a key team player.
- Empathy - Having empathetic team members helps to build a stronger team and improve performance. Empathy can take form as kindness, compassion, sensitivity, respect amongst others.
- Leadership - This involves being able to delegate responsibilities, make decisions and support others.
- Conflict management - Being able to effectively manage conflict without escalating situations is crucial for ensuring the day to day runs smoothly.
- Teamwork - Being able to work with others, communicate effectively, listen, and identify when your help may be needed is a strong interpersonal skill to have.
The importance of interpersonal skills
A few reasons interpersonal skills are important is:
- Foster productivity – Through developing positive relationships with colleagues, someone can better manage tasks and communicate when they need support or need clarity on a task.
- Enhanced social awareness - Interpersonal skills tend to show that you care for others around you. Emotional intelligence, paired with strategic experience can help you better navigate conflict and uncomfortable situations and enables you to make better decisions.
- Development of leadership skills - Strong leaders can encourage others to embrace interpersonal skills, build trust and communicate effectively.
How to improve interpersonal skills
When looking to improve your interpersonal skills there are a few things you should do:
Identify your goals
When identifying your goals you should consider your strengths and weaknesses and what interpersonal skills you would like to develop. For example, you may find that you lack certain leadership skills. As a result, you should use the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time specific) to set achievable goals.
Identify your values
Understanding what your values are can help you stay consistent and identify the interpersonal skills that matter to you the most.
Make note of successful interactions
By observing other successful interactions with colleagues, clients, customers and managers, you can pick out traits and actions that could help you boost your skills. Assess their tone, gestures, stance and word choice. You could even ask for advice or tips on how to handle certain situations or improve on this skill.
Find ways to practice
Finding a mentor could be a great way to practice improving your interpersonal skills. They may be able to provide you with feedback or carry out role play scenarios where specific skills may be required.
Research training courses
A good way to build on your skills is to follow a training course that outlines practical methods for you to practice and boost interpersonal skills.
Reflect on your skills and amend your improvement plan where necessary
Taking the time to pause and reflect on your progress is an excellent way to develop quickly. You could set a reminder or event in your calendar to remind yourself to reflect on this. You could even take an assessment where necessary to help you properly assess your progress.
Knowing where you have succeeded and where you still need improvement will allow you to make changes to your development plan that help you further develop.
Think about the language you use
The way you talk to friends and colleagues will be completely different. Consider your tone of voice and word choice when speaking to colleagues, managers and senior leadership.
Practice active listening
Active listening should be practiced to ensure full understanding of what someone is saying, rather than thinking ahead to your response. Many people tend to plan their reply while the other person is still speaking, which can lead to missing crucial information. To avoid this, focus fully on the speaker by maintaining eye contact, nodding or using brief verbal cues (like “I see” or “That makes sense”), and avoiding interruptions. Once they’ve finished speaking, you can paraphrase or summarise what you’ve heard to confirm understanding before responding.
How do you demonstrate good interpersonal skills?
You can demonstrate good interpersonal skills by:
- Showing empathy - Ask clarifying questions, don’t interrupt people while they’re speaking, and pay attention when people are talking to you.
- Communicate clearly - Be polite, use a positive language and speak clearly.
- Be respectful - Treating others how you would like to be treated is crucial when building relationships and demonstrating interpersonal skills.
- Be mindful of your emotions - Be aware of the non-verbal signals you display such as, body language, facial expressions and posture, especially during stressful situations.
- Build and maintain relationships - Collaborate with team members, learn how to handle disagreements and actively engage with colleagues.
- Actively seek self-improvement - Being open to feedback and openly seeking it is important as it showcases that you not only exhibit interpersonal skills but wish to develop them further.
Interpersonal skills are vital for building strong relationships, fostering collaboration, and enhancing workplace performance. By actively developing and demonstrating these skills, you can contribute more meaningfully to teams and grow both personally and professionally.
FAQs
Are communication skills and interpersonal skills the same?
No, interpersonal skills encompass a broad range of soft skills, whereas communication is a type of interpersonal skill.
Can you put interpersonal skills on a resume?
Yes, it’s a good idea to add interpersonal skills onto your resume as these are key skills employers look for when hiring. Rather than just listing these skills you should intertwine these skills into your experience breakdown and CV overview.
