Introduction:
If you are a student about to enter the corporate world or a working professional newly employed, you must have come across the phrase ‘interpersonal skills’ more times than is digestible. You must be wondering, why is this thing so important? Why does everyone keep talking about it as if there is no progress in the workplace without this?
If you have questions like these simmering under the surface of your brain, this is the right place for you to stop and seek answers. In this blog, you will learn what these ‘interpersonal skills’ really are, and what is their importance in the workplace.
Interpersonal Skills at the Workplace:
Interpersonal skills, also known as soft skills, are those skills that have to do with interactions with other people. This is the reason they are sometimes also called people skills. Every employee is expected to have these basic skills in order to prosper in the workplace, and anybody lacking them can potentially suffer consequences. While technical and vocational skills are required for performing specific tasks, interpersonal skills are vital for building positive relationships, promoting collaboration, and thereby fostering a healthy work environment.
Also Read: Soft Skills – A guide on how to upskill yourself
Interpersonal Skills and their Importance:
Communication:
This is a primary interpersonal skill and a lot of other skills depend on it. Communication plays an essential role everywhere, and without it a human life attains a sickly pallor. Lack of communication in a workplace can be disastrous to an employee’s career. Being able to express yourself clearly is crucial to avoid misunderstandings, enhance teamwork, and to enjoy good relations with your colleagues and supervisors.
Empathy:
Empathy is also one of the central soft skills at the workplace, which helps in creating a more inclusive and supportive workplace culture. If you are an empathetic person who is able to understand the perspective of your fellow workers, it can greatly enhance your chances of resolving conflicts and building trust among your team members. It will also make you a better person to be around.
Active Listening:
Active listening shows that you are genuinely interested in the ideas of others, and are willing to walk the extra mile to understand your fellow colleagues and managers better. If you are in a meeting, and are listening attentively, it would also improve the quality of the points you raise there. As a manager, you will have a better understanding of your team members, and that would foster trust and openness in your team.
Conflict Resolution:
Conflicts are common in any human interaction. Conflicts at the workplace can be tricky to deal with because of their stakes. If you don’t have good conflict resolution skills, even small conflicts will cause major maelstroms. Individuals who have cultivated a capacity for conflict resolution can easily figure out the points of disagreement and find common ground. They are more likely to stumble upon a mutually beneficial resolution to a conflict.
Persuasion and Influence:
If you want to know the importance of a particular soft skill, just check the catalogs of a bookstore or a library. You will find hundreds of books written on persuasion and influence over the past few years, and they are frequently bossing the bestseller lists. Convincing other people and gaining their support is invaluable in a work environment. Whether you are a marketing manager trying to boost up sales or a project manager handling your team, persuasion skills are a necessary part of your interpersonal toolkit.
Teamwork:
No project or venture undertaken by an organization is carried through on the shoulders of individuals. Teams are what makes these things possible. Teamwork is one of the most important soft skills at the workplace. People who are good at teamwork can share responsibilities, bring their individual strengths to bear on the collective endeavor, and thus work together to achieve common objectives.
Also Read: Emotional Intelligence – Its Significance and Importance at the Workplace
Tips for Developing Interpersonal Skills:
A person who lacks interpersonal skills at the workplace can develop them over time. Following are some of the tips that have helped people to enhance these skills, making them take leaps in their career they never thought were possible.
Observe Others:
You can find people in your office who seem to have mastered these soft skills. Learn from them by observing how they talk to their colleagues and supervisors, paying special attention to their body language and their tone of voice. Observe how if they find themselves in situations of conflict do they resolve the matter. Talk to them about your incompetence in this area and remain open to their feedback. Doing this will accelerate your soft skills development.
Reflect on your Interactions:
After an interaction, make sure that you take a step back and reflect on how you conducted yourself. If you see a point where you need improvement, make a mental note of it, and carry on your reflection. Also remember to notice points where you feel you were good and try to carry it to your next interaction. Once you know all the places where you went wrong, you can try to figure out ways to improve them next time.
Manage Stress and Anxiety:
Suppose you learn the basics of interpersonal skills that would help you thrive at the workplace. You now seem ready to apply what you have learned. But, as soon as you are about to apply your skills at persuasion, your stomach sinks and your voice starts dancing to the rhythm of your anxiety. What happened? You didn’t factor in the influence of stress and anxiety on your interpersonal interactions. Try to learn stress-management techniques if you want to excel in the domain of interpersonal skills at the workplace. If you don’t, you will fail when the stakes get high.
Learn with DT Evolve:
So, are you trying to work on your interpersonal skills? If you are looking for resources that will help you start your journey on this path, DT Evolve has multiple courses for you. One such course is on the soft skill of active listening. As a great listener, you can improve your reactive habits, define your listening mindset, amplify your curiosity and add value. Here’s a link to the course, Be a Better Listener.
Conclusion:
In this blog, we learned what interpersonal skills at the workplace are, and why they are so important. We reflected on the importance of every crucial soft skill like Communication, Empathy, Conflict Resolution, Persuasion and so on. We finally talked about some of the best tips that will help you develop interpersonal skills at a brisk pace. These included Observing others, reflecting on your interactions and managing stress.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Having good interpersonal skills can help you to resolve conflicts gracefully, to persuade and influence your team or your supervisor, develop empathy and teamwork.
The most important soft skills include communication (both verbal and non-verbal), empathy, active listening, conflict resolution, and skills of persuasion.
A manager needs to have strong people/soft skills in order to foster meaningful relationships with her team, to help navigate setbacks and to motivate employees working under her lead.
The three most important interpersonal (or soft) skills are communication, teamwork and conflict resolution in a work environment.
In order to develop interpersonal skills in the workplace, make sure you observe others, reflect on your interactions, and are able to manage anxiety and stress without much difficulty.
Work ethics include qualities like perseverance, loyalty, commitment and so on. If one has good soft skills like communication, empathy, active listening and teamwork, it shows that this person is loyal and committed.
Interpersonal skills, also known as soft skills, are those skills that have to do with interactions with other people. This is the reason they are sometimes also called people skills. They include communication, empathy, teamwork, etc.
In order to enhance teamwork, your soft skills repertoire should include assertiveness, negotiation skills, conflict resolution and basic emotional intelligence.