- Geekmaster
- 2021-03-20 10:23:55
- 20 minute(s)
How To Improve Your Interpersonal Skills Without Buttering Your Team Up
Interpersonal skills are not only important, but they also show your ability to use every possible thing as a scope and resource. Lets know why they are important, and how can you improve your interpersonal skills without buttering your team up!
People want to be feel that they have been understood and respected despite the content of a conversation.
Poor interpersonal skills can prevent this from happening and lower the effectiveness of communication. It’s important to develop these skills as they are required in your professional and personal life on a daily basis and a significant proportion of your life consists of interaction.
Not everyone has the innate ability to connect with everyone around instantly, but everyone has the potential to improve their interpersonal skills.
Through learning how to empathize with others, eloquently expressing your thoughts and beliefs, asserting yourself respectfully, understanding how to resolve conflicts and acquiring proper decision-making techniques, you can improve your future interactions with others.
The way you interact with people at your workplace makes all the difference.
The successful ones are always great at interpersonal skills and know exactly how to interact with people of different designations and levels. Since this is an important trait, every individual should try to improve interpersonal skills if he wishes to grow and prosper.
At the whole level, interpersonal skills are very vital in deciding one’s career graph. Therefore, developing these skills is important if you want to be a good leader.
The good news is, effective interpersonal skills can be taught. While some may have a more natural knack for it than others, everyone can learn these skills and how to incorporate them into their daily lives. To get you started, here are seven ways to master interpersonal skills.
Tip #1: Put a Smile On Your Face
If you display a positive attitude during work, then you are showing respect for your work and the organization for which you are working. Portraying a positive attitude is being cheerful, smiling while interacting with team mates and colleagues.
People want to be around others that are friendly and have a positive outlook even when the company may be in a difficult situation.
You don’t have to be incredibly sociable but you must develop some type of positive rapport with your team so that the workplace is pleasant for everybody. Also, offer your assistance to others if you have time to spare.
Having a positive attitude is all about being optimistic in your everyday life.
This optimism will enable you to better handle daily stresses without negatively impacting your mood or the moods of those around you. In a nutshell, having a positive attitude will improve your coping skills. People with a positive attitude are friendly and maintain a calm demeanor. They ensure they are not part of any office gossip and refrain from making a workplace toxic.
If you smile at someone you are speaking to, they naturally become more receptive to what you are saying.
On the other hand, if you’re constantly fidgeting with things, avoid eye contact, mumble or cross your arms, you distance yourself from your listeners and make it more difficult to get people engaged in what you are trying to say. When you smile at another person, a warm, genuine smile, you tell that other person that he or she is attractive, pleasant, likeable, safe and secure in your estimation. A single smile is so powerful that it can often transform a person with low self-esteem, jolting them from negativity to a person with a positive attitude.
Although everyone knows what a positive attitude is, not everyone knows how to go about developing one.
One way is to develop the ability to catch negative thoughts as they pop into your head and replace them with more positive thoughts. As an example, if you’re feeling stressed because you have an impossible amount of work to do in the allotted time, then rather than getting stressed, how about turning it into an exciting opportunity to practice your prioritization skills.
Positivity is infectious and conducive to a harmonious working environment.
Being positive, even when faced with difficult situations, will make tasks easier and you’re more likely to encourage others and boost morale. Steer clear of negative comments, either about your current work colleagues or previous employers. Gossip travels fast… and if you dish it out too much you may find yourself its subject.
Modeling a positive attitude encourages others to follow suit.
Because you spend a significant amount of time interacting with colleagues each day, set the example for how you’d like to see others behave. Positivity increases your spirit, enthusiasm, and drive to succeed. You accomplish more with a positive attitude, especially when those around you behave in a similar manner.
Tip #2: Your Body Speaks
Body language is an essential interpersonal skill and makes up the unspoken aspect of our communication. Nonverbal communication is not just how we move our body, it’s also our facial expressions and voice tone. People who are very gifted nonverbally are able to both control their own body language cues and decode other people’s cues.
Make sure you have a proper posture and gait so that it reveals confidence.
Pick the right kind of attire so that people feel you possess class. Avoid fidgeting, itching your forehead or rubbing your hands as these are all common signs of nervousness and tension. Just as important as the words you are speaking is what your body language is saying. Developing your nonverbal communication enables you to make a good impression, the first time and every time.
Your body language says a lot about how you are feeling and can either benefit you or cause problems in your communication with others.
When speaking to an individual or a group, act confident. Keep your shoulders back, raise your head, enunciate properly and maintain eye contact with your listeners. This shows that you truly believe in what you are expressing. One of the easiest ways to express positive body language is to smile!
Effective in-person verbal communication always includes nonverbal communication.
People naturally read your facial expression, body language, pay attention to tone, and others when engaged in communication. So it’s pretty much unavoidable. For instance, nodding your head in a meeting while someone is speaking can be a signal that you’re listening.
🔈 Someone has said
The body. You take it everywhere you go.
And while we do what we can to dress right, eat right, look right and speak correctly, there’s another element that can build or break your brand. It has to do with your body–or how you use what you have. Body language has a direct impact on how we interact with each other, so as you develop better interpersonal skills, know how to send the right signals within a conversation.
The same way spoken words have both positive and negative connotations, body language can help someone understand how a person feels at any given moment.
Negative body language includes things like folding arms, avoiding eye contact, and poor posture. These tend to mean a person is either not listening or disagrees with what is being said. On the other hand, positive body language can be related with consistent eye contact, leaning into the conversation, and even taking notes. These nonverbal cues will make you appear more interested and engaged when communicating with your team members.
The body is like a book. It tells stories that the mouth doesn’t say.
Even if you don’t say your thoughts out loud, sometimes your posture, your facial expression, and the volume or tone of your voice will do the talking for you. Only 7 percent of communication is based on the words that are actually said, while the tone of voice accounts for 38 percent. A whopping 55 percent comes from body language. So, you need to be mindful of your nonverbal cues to communicate effectively.
Tip #3: Lend an Ear
Active listening is when you listen beyond the words being spoken — you understand the message being communicated. During conversations, a lot of the time the listener is thinking about how they’re going to respond rather than concentrating on what the speaker is saying.
If people come to you, give space and listen. People just want to express, and they don’t even bother about solutions form you. They want a good listener. Be a good listener.
If you aren’t able to listen effectively, messages can become distorted, and miscommunications can arise. There is a difference between listening and hearing. Listening requires the ability to take both verbal and non-verbal communication and extract a message from it, while the hearing is merely allowing sound to enter your ears without interpreting it further.
Active listening is not “listening to respond”, but is instead a practice of listening to understand the full message being communicated.
While hearing happens automatically, active listening requires silence, concentration, and your full attention. Not only does this help you understand and act accordingly, it also helps the speaker to feel more at ease and heard, which contributes to a better exchange. This is a very critical interpersonal communication skill to master.
Another key to active listening is keeping an open mind.
It’s important that when listening to coworkers that you do not mentally criticize them or jump to conclusions. This also includes not becoming a sentence-grabber or finisher. Work to try to picture what the speaker is trying to saying and be attentive when conversing with coworkers. It will greatly enhance interpersonal communication skills.
This can be one of the toughest interpersonal skills to develop, especially in a work setting.
Everyone wants their opinion to be heard and most of the time they feel it’s the only right answer. But when you actively listen to your co-workers, or your employees if you’re a leader, you may find they have a great deal of insight to share.
Many of us overlook the importance of listening. Talking is easier than listening because you get to be in control and in the center of attention.
The difference between a poor communicator and an excellent communicator is how they listen. A poor communicator will be impatient for their turn to speak while an excellent communicator will use the extra processing time to digest what the other person is saying and learn the vital points to carry a productive conversation.
Tip #4: Weather The Storm
Problem solving is the essence of what leaders exist to do. As leaders, the goal is to minimize the occurrence of problems — which means we must be courageous enough to tackle them head-on before circumstances force our hand. We must be resilient in our quest to create and sustain momentum for the organization and people we serve.
Conflict is inevitable in any workplace. At one point or another, you will have to deal with disagreements.
There are different ways to resolve conflict. One is through constructive criticism. If you find a person’s work problematic, you can treat it as an opportunity to help the person improve instead of instantly shooting it down. Mediating between two people is another way to address a problem. To be a mediator, you need to be fair and hear both sides of the issue before coming up with a solution.
There are several people, who work hard day and night to take the organization at the great level of success. The occurrence of conflicts is also a common occurrence in a workplace.
If you are a part of such environment, you may tend to think about how fast you solve the problem or conflict, but the problem is this may not be the right way to think. The best way is thinking of the ways to resolve the problems as it reduces the time, and you can solve it much effectively. Once you are done evaluating the ways to solve the problem, you must proceed further and apply all the solutions to the problem to solve it.
Conflicts can create a lot of extreme emotions, but if you’re able to keep your emotions under control, you’ll have a more clear-headed approach to the situation.
Allow all parties involved to speak their mind, and be an active listener when you aren’t speaking. Sometimes the most difficult conflicts are just a result of miscommunication. Try to keep an open mind and view the problem from another person’s point of view. Through respectful discussion, the conflict should be able to be resolved.
It is obvious that with a workplace that hosts so many people, there will be gossips, conflicts, and fights.
To develop your interpersonal skills further, you need to be more of an angel than a devil. Try to sort things out in the office in case of an argument and try to keep people on a good note with each other. The major thing to avoid is gossips as it can create a negative image of you in front of people. Stay away from gossips as much as you can and never entertain anyone, who is involved in it either.
Not everyone is like you, so try to accept people for who they are. You will get a good perspective so that you will know how to handle them.
Instead of judging, you can get to know people. A new member of the team needs good welcome and acceptance. If there’s an uncomfortable person in your team, invite them and make them comfortable. Struggling people, be it professionally or personally, needs more support and acceptance from colleagues. The point is, be good to everyone around you. This aspect is an essential interpersonal skill.
Tip #5: Go For Broke
Even when you are aware of the best ways to communicate, you cannot bring these to life unless you possess confidence. That is the reason why you need to boost your confidence to that level which is not easy. Individuals suffer from low self-esteem or self-image when they have faced a lot of failures in succession.
Assertiveness is when you confidently express your needs and opinions in a fair and calm way whilst considering the needs and views of other people.
People are more likely to like and respect you if you’re assertive in your communication rather than passive or aggressive. They will also trust you more and conversation will flow more smoothly. Being assertive isn’t about being forceful, but it is about being able to stand up for both yourself and others in a way that others can respect. To be assertive you need to be open and forthright as to your needs whilst respecting the needs, rights, and views of others.
Mastering assertiveness will help you get your point calmly across in conversations without upsetting others.
This is one of the most important interpersonal communication skills for leaders. Self-confidence leads to assertiveness. Low self-esteem or lack of confidence causes passive and aggressive behaviors. In addition, being assertive means respecting the input of others too. Keep this in mind.
Confidence is shown to increase the level of trust other people have in you.
This one can be tough when you’re starting out in the profession but with time, hard work, and consistent preparation, everyone can achieve this goal. Clients, colleagues, partners have one thing in common — they will all think more highly of you if you exude confidence.
No one likes it when a speaker beats around the bush and delays getting to the point.
Regardless of the situation, these type of delays waste a great deal of time in a setting where people are trying to get their work accomplished and reach key deadline. Whenever there is a concern or issue, always be direct and straightforward so people know what you want and what needs to be done. If you skirt around the conversation or delay your point, it will be difficult for others to take you seriously.
Being confident about your own ideas will compel others to listen to you.
You need to build the right level of self-confidence to be effective in communicating your thoughts and approaching different situations. Self-confidence is also key to leadership. Even if you’re just starting out, you need to have some leadership skills to encourage others, address conflicts, and provide positive reinforcement to the team.
Tip #6: Dare to Share
Whether it is your workplace or just a get together at home, the most important thing that connects people to you is when they see that you care and are, actually, interested in knowing what they think and has been going on with them.
Talking and listening to the views of others is a great deal, you never know which idea may find its feet in your work and take it to the next level.
Teamwork is always better than a work done individually. If you co-operate, you get the co-operation back, and you must ask the inputs and opinions of your team mates and colleagues at your workplace. A social harmony is required not only in the society, which you live in but also at the workplace where you work.
While communication skills is an important part of interpersonal relationship skills, there are other aspects that matter equally.
One such thing is sharing. You need to share things, views, ideas and thoughts with your colleagues to ensure that your bond strengthens and your professional relationship goes to the next level. Brainstorming happens best when everyone is willing to reveal what they actually think.
A good way of building trust at work is to let colleagues know that you value their skills.
Show this by asking for their help on certain tasks and projects. Also, let them know when they’ve done a good job so they understand that they’re appreciated. Similarly, you will be working with the same people daily so it’s likely that you will learn about their personal lives. Get to know what’s important for them as this helps build positive relationships.
Team building is the most important quality you need in your workplace. Make your team an inviting place for everyone.
Welcome, everyone, to your team. Don’t make the new addition to your team as an outsider. It’s a bad interpersonal skill you should avoid. Inspire a good team-spirit in your team. Encourage them to speak freely and say what they have to say. Instead, don’t make your team a chain-of-command type but make it an ‘everyone’s equal’ type. People will look up to you in your team.
By being more inclusive, it eliminates tension on a team and helps coworkers get to know each other better.
Going out of your way to talk with employees you don’t know as well can help create a new bond and resource for employees to go to. Company culture grows when employees seek out other employees when looking for an answer or training for a new skill. As an organization, all interactions with coworkers should be treated with trust and respect.
People with poor interpersonal skills tend to be isolationists. Even if you’re very skilled at your job, you can be better at it if you include others in what you’re doing.
Teamwork and cooperation tend to make those around you feel welcomed and important. You don’t have to delegate portions of your current project to someone else, just talk to them about it. Not only will they feel included, you may gain insight that makes the end product even better than it would have been without their input.
Tip #7: Sweeten The Pot
Recognizing and appreciating great work is vital when it comes to improving interpersonal skills. As a leader, take the time to appreciate your team’s hard work on a daily basis. You’ll feel good giving it and the coworker will feel equally good for receiving it.
Appreciating people for their efforts is a wonderful quality for having good interpersonal skills.
No matter the result, just go and appreciate people around you for their efforts, for their trying and performance. Thank them for their contribution to the team, even if it is small. Appreciations whenever and wherever possible from you is important.
Be a mentor to people who are struggling to land their feet. Encourage people to do their best and bring out the best in them.
If you are new to your office, join hands with people who are new like you. They will have fear, hesitations, and other emotional roller coaster rides like every other fresher. Encourage them. Support them as you grow. It will gain you more respect.
Throughout the day, people do all sorts of things for you that you may not take time to appreciate.
Maybe they did a good job on a project you assigned them, pointed out a spelling error in a brief you wrote, or even just held a door for you. Regardless, taking the time to say thank you, can motivate your colleagues to want to work with you more frequently.
Show appreciation for co-workers by sincere praise and recognition. Appreciation keeps people motivated and productive.
In order to lead effectively, you need to be aware of the balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for each of those you lead and, particularly, what are the things that they love. You can then use different rewards for different people, perhaps providing some with more challenging work as a reward for achieving goals, and others with additional time off or money.
Employee recognition isn’t just a good idea in terms of employee morale; but a significant driver of employee engagement. A good leader understands the value of rewarding employees.
Employees don’t just work for a paycheck. It takes much more than that to keep employees aligned with your company objectives and going that extra mile. Employees need to know that their work — and more importantly, their efforts — are acknowledged and appreciated. Leaders need to be perceptive in this area and take the time to reward and recognize employees where appropriate.
Wrapping Up
We live in a social world, and everyone is interconnected. To navigate this network of people with different thoughts, ideas, emotions, and experiences, we need the right interpersonal skills. It’s the only way to grow, thrive, and succeed in whatever field we choose.
Most of us wish to grow and be leaders in our field.
Leaders need to possess the ability to understand and interact with each employee as well as understand his skills and weaknesses. Progress is thus hinged on interpersonal skills and if you follow the above suggestions, you will be able to acquire better interpersonal skills which will help you to grow.
Interpersonal skills are vital in any modern work environment.
People who fail to possess these skills fail to grow. The modern work culture relies greatly on team effort and a person who lacks the ability to interact with colleagues can never make a great team player.
Hopefully, you don’t have to spend time and effort.
Just see clearly, and you will find that these tips are basic qualities that everyone should possess. Interpersonal Skills are just fancy words to cover these basic personalities and characteristics that every person should cultivate as they grow.
Nonetheless, it’s important to practice these skills whenever you can as the best way to improve is by applying them as much as possible.
This is a great list to get you started in improving your interpersonal skills. As you incorporate these tactics, you’ll find that you’re better able to relate to others and work more efficiently with your team. Even the best communicators in your firm could probably use a brush up on one or two of these skills. Feel free to share this list with your colleagues. Because, hey, sharing is a great interpersonal skill!
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