Your career development lies in two things, your hard skills and soft skills. People mostly focus on their hard skills, leaving out their soft skills and, more specifically, their interpersonal skills. It is not an exaggeration. We need interpersonal skills on a regular basis to engage, communicate and connect with others in social situations. It is not just about communication. Rather, it is about how your smarty uses the situation, a person’s characteristics, and your behavior to construct effective and compelling arguments and dialogues to make others do what you desire.
Interpersonal skills are especially helpful when your job demands you to work with a group of people. In every company nowadays, every project and every decision is made with the consensus of every group member. Working in teams means that you must embrace their strengths and weaknesses. It is tough to work with people with flaws. Therefore, interpersonal skills enable healthy and productive transformation in the work culture of the group. Hence, interpersonal skill is an essential tool for the growth of your career.
Following are some of the interpersonal skills that can help you to excel in your career.
- Interpersonal skills training develops emotional intelligence in a person
It is essential in every scenario, whether you are in school, college, or working in a corporate. Emotional intelligence allows you to read between the lines. It helps you see what is hidden. People and society are complex. They do not always say what they mean. Therefore, with emotional intelligence, you can identify and decode their verbal messages with cues such as their body language, tone of voice, and gestures.
This is beneficial when you are dealing with a coworker who has anxiety issues or is emotionally vulnerable. Once you know about a person, put yourself in their shoes. Only then will you be able to connect with them. In the workplace, teamwork and collaboration is the key to achieving common goals.
- Interpersonal skills equip a person with ways to resolve a conflict
In every workplace, there are people with different ideas, beliefs, and goals. There are instances where these cannot coexist with each other, and thus a conflict erupts. In such cases, these employees can waste a lot of essential time debating with each other. These conflicts can lead nowhere. Hence to bring back the worker to work in unison, you have to have adequate diplomatic arguments that can establish a common ground.
The faster the employee leaves their issues behind, the faster they can focus on their work. Therefore, interpersonal skills can help to increase the overall productivity of employees.
- With interpersonal skills training, you also learn the art of negotiation.
You cannot achieve anything in this world without negotiating. People want the best for themselves and would love to leave you with nothing. It is up to you to take care of yourself. Hence, you must be assertive enough to put forward your genuine demands, whether it is your manager or a client.
For instance, you are working in a company, and you believe that with years of service and hard work and the number of skills and knowledge you possess, you are not getting remunerated enough. In these situations, you have to have interpersonal skills to hold on to your ground and state your demand for a pay raise. Your HR will try to put you down, but if you are assertive enough, you can get your demand fulfilled.
- The art of persuasion
It is a fact that you are not an expert in everything. Some people do something better than you. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but it is the truth. Sometimes you need to ask others to help you out with your work. People may not be very generous to comply with your request. Therefore, it is essential that you make compelling arguments to persuade them to do what you ask for.
The art of persuasion involves the use of others' emotions. However, persuasion is not an easy task and requires a long time to build rapport. If you have a negative image around the company, then it is hard for others to believe in you. Thus, it is a long process.
- Communication is a two-way process.
This means that not only you must talk, but also you need to allow others to talk as well. Some people hog the entire conversation with just them talking nonstop, leaving no room for others to put forth their opinions and thoughts. In the long run, people will try to avoid interacting with people who do not even bother to listen to what others have to say.
Therefore, listening is a very crucial element of building relationships. Listening comes with patience. Not only are you being generous to the speaker, but also you are updating your knowledge and information as well. This helps you to make more informed decisions. Listening actively and not always speaking first can save you from saying things that would have otherwise made you embarrassed.
Conclusion
Some people are indeed natural at this game, but with proper interpersonal skill training and practice, one can hone this skill. One such online platform that teaches this art is Orator Academy. It has many renowned educators who have years of personal experience working in corporate environments. They have experience working with a very diverse group of individuals and know how different people behave, act, and respond in different scenarios. Therefore, after years of working hard to work with people, they know how to deal with tough people.
Their classes give you hands-on exercises and in-class activities that are based on real-life scenarios. They do not believe in teaching from textbooks, as books get obsolete in no time. They also identify their student's weak points and give suggestions to improve on them. Their classes are interactive. Orator's Academy's classes are the window to the real world. With their interpersonal training, you will be better equipped to handle your workplace issues with ease.
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