Interpersonal Skills
What are ‘interpersonal skills’
Interpersonal skills describe the ways people interact with each other. Organisations like to have employees with good interpersonal skills because it:
- reduces workplace friction
- increases productivity
- creates happier work environments
- reduces management time spent dealing with issues arising from interpersonal conflict
- engenders proactive attitudes where employees are looking for ways to improve all areas of the business
- reduces mistakes and need for rework
- reduced complaints
- increases company revenue
There are 2 main components to developing interpersonal skills:
Emotional Intelligence
This aspect is about a persons abilty, capacity and skill to manage their emotions and attitudes under various situations. Our emotional state at any given time is a large determining factor in how we interact with other people. Anger, boredom, distrust, fear, lack of confidence, low self worth, frustration are all emotional states that will negatively effect the relationship between people.
Emotional intelligence is a measure of how well a person is able to be consciously aware of their emotional state at any time and their ability to assess and make changes appropriate to the situation.
Communication Skills
The second part to having good interpersonal skills is good old fashioned communication skills such as:
- the abilty to listen
- control over vocal charaistics such as speed, pitch, volume, pronunciation and overall tone
- using language and tone that creates trust
- building rapport at all times
- using effective questionning to clarify meaning, avoid misconceptions and uncover what is behind what people say
- managing conflict
Improving Interpersonal Skills
As experts in developing emotional intelligence skills and communication skills, Alive & Kicking offer a number of solutions to help individuals and organisations develop interpersonal skills.
