Interpersonal Skills

What are interpersonal skills?

interpersonal skills are the skills that a person uses to interact with other people. Interpersonal
skills are sometimes also referred to as people skills or communication skills.[1]Interpersonal
skills involve using skills such as active listening[2] and tone of voice, they include delegation and
leadership. It is how well you communicate with someone and how well you behave or carry
yourself. Also they help people further their careers.

Interpersonal skills refers to mental and communicative algorithms applied during

social communications and interaction to reach certain effects or results.[clarification needed] The term
"interpersonal skills" is used often in business contexts to refer to the measure of a person's
ability to operate within business organizations through social communication and interactions.
Interpersonal skills are how people relate to one another.

As an illustration, it is generally understood that communicating respect for other people or

professionals within will enable one to reduce conflict and increase participation or assistance in
obtaining information or completing tasks. For instance, to interrupt someone who is currently
preoccupied with the task of obtaining information needed immediately, it is recommended that
a professional use a deferential approach with language such as, "Excuse me, are you busy? I
have an urgent matter to discuss with you if you have the time at the moment." This allows the
receiving professional to make their own judgement regarding the importance of their current
task versus entering into a discussion with their colleague. While it is generally understood that
interrupting someone with an "urgent" request will often take priority, allowing the receiver of the
message to judge independently the request and agree to further interaction will likely result in a
higher quality interaction. Following these kinds of heuristics to achieve better professional
results generally results in a professional being ranked as one with 'good interpersonal skills.'
Often these evaluations occur in formal and informal settings.

Having positive interpersonal skills increases the productivity in the organization since the
number of conflicts is reduced. In informal situations, it allows communication to be easy and
comfortable. People with good interpersonal skills can generally control the feelings that emerge
in difficult situations and respond appropriately, instead of being overwhelmed by emotion.

Some ways to improve interpersonal skills are to;

• Think positively, and enter the mindset to work well with others and maintain good
relationships.
• Do not criticise others or yourself.

• Be patient.

• Learn to listen, experts recommend listening 80% of the time and only talking 20%.

• Be sensitive to others, this includes not gossiping.

• Have a sense of humour appropriate to your situation. Many people benefit from a good joke.

• Treat others and their experience with respect.

• Praise and compliment people when they deserve it.

• When someone is telling a story, don’t interrupt or try to upstage them with a story of your own.

• Smile – even when you don’t feel like smiling.

• Be cheerful and try to make others smile.

• Look for solutions.

• When someone compliments you, don’t disagree or boast about it – simply say thank-you with
a smile and move on.

• Don’t complain.

• When you’re unhappy, try your best to act happy anyway. You will end up feeling better and so
will the people around you, your mood is contagious.

• Fake it ‘till you make it. If you’re not naturally confident or happy, fake it until you generally
possess the desired characteristics.

• Learn to appreciate, be helpful and not demotivate your team members. Work as a team, not
as an individual. This will achieve better results.

• Treat your team members and colleagues as friends and not as strangers or subordinates.

Beatrice Vincent once said, “The people with whom you work reflect your own attitude. If you
are suspicious, unfriendly and condescending, you will find these unlovely traits echoed all
about you. But if you are on your best behaviour, you will bring out the best in the persons with
whom you are going to spend most of your working hours.”
ry these 10 helpful tips for improving your interpersonal skills:

1. Smile. Few people want to be around someone who is always down in the dumps. Do
your best to be friendly and upbeat with your coworkers. Maintain a positive, cheerful
attitude about work and about life. Smile often. The positive energy you radiate will draw
others to you. 
2. Be appreciative. Find one positive thing about everyone you work with and let them
hear it. Be generous with praise and kind words of encouragement. Say thank you when
someone helps you. Make colleagues feel welcome when they call or stop by your
office. If you let others know that they are appreciated, they’ll want to give you their
best. 
3. Pay attention to others. Observe what’s going on in other people’s lives.
Acknowledge their happy milestones, and express concern and sympathy for difficult
situations such as an illness or death. Make eye contact and address people by their first
names. Ask others for their opinions. 
4. Practice active listening. To actively listen is to demonstrate that you intend to hear
and understand another’s point of view. It means restating, in your own words, what the
other person has said. In this way, you know that you understood their meaning and they
know that your responses are more than lip service. Your coworkers will appreciate
knowing that you really do listen to what they have to say. 
5. Bring people together. Create an environment that encourages others to work
together. Treat everyone equally, and don't play favorites. Avoid talking about others
behind their backs. Follow up on other people's suggestions or requests. When you
make a statement or announcement, check to see that you have been understood. If
folks see you as someone solid and fair, they will grow to trust you. 
6. Resolve conflicts. Take a step beyond simply bringing people together, and become
someone who resolves conflicts when they arise. Learn how to be an effective mediator.
If coworkers bicker over personal or professional disagreements, arrange to sit down
with both parties and help sort out their differences. By taking on such a leadership role,
you will garner respect and admiration from those around you. 
7. Communicate clearly. Pay close attention to both what you say and how you say it. A
clear and effective communicator avoids misunderstandings with coworkers, collegues,
and associates. Verbal eloquence projects an image of intelligence and maturity, no
matter what your age. If you tend to blurt out anything that comes to mind, people won’t
put much weight on your words or opinions. 
8. Humor them. Don’t be afraid to be funny or clever. Most people are drawn to a person
that can make them laugh. Use your sense of humor as an effective tool to lower
barriers and gain people’s affection. 
9. See it from their side. Empathy means being able to put yourself in someone else’s
shoes and understand how they feel. Try to view situations and responses from another
person’s perspective. This can be accomplished through staying in touch with your own
emotions; those who are cut off from their own feelings are often unable to empathize
with others. 
10. Don't complain. There is nothing worse than a chronic complainer or whiner. If you
simply have to vent about something, save it for your diary. If you must verbalize your
grievances, vent to your personal friends and family, and keep it short. Spare those
around you, or else you’ll get a bad reputation.
11. Assertiveness Training
12. Tailored and In-House Assertiveness Training
13.
Or rather as we like to think of it 'The Art of Saying No' 

Our Assertiveness Training work can be tailored as an in-house programme to address specific Assertiveness
issues within your company. 

(Click here to send individuals on our One and Two Day

Open Assertiveness Skills Courses)
14. Assertiveness Training Objectives
15.
16. * Ensure Small Problems don't become Big Ones
* Offers lots of ways of Being Direct
* Help people to Close Deals
* Make it easier to Get Tough when you need to
* Stop Bullying
* Manage Difficult Staff
* Get out of Difficult Situations
* Change the way you are Treated
* Deal with Difficult Feelings
17. Assertiveness Training - The Art of Saying No
18.
There you go, you've just said yes to something you know
you should have said no to. 

How did it happen this time? 

How did they get that one past you again? 

It could be that your company have a culture where being 'nice' is applauded and encouraged but gets people
into difficulties when they need to be a bit tougher or more assertive with clients or customers. 

It could be that if you have a call centre you might need assertiveness training for your staff to be clearer and
more assertive with your customers without alienating them and giving them a hard time. 

It may even be that there are pockets of bullying or what appears to be bullying and you need assertiveness
training for some of your people to be able to deal with the
bullies more effectively. 

In a healthy professional workplace we have to be able to

set clear boundaries around work demands and pressures. 
19. Tailored Assertiveness Training
20.
A Tailored Assertiveness Training Programme can help
 delegates discover what works for them, without resorting to difficult behaviour themselves. 

Working in small groups, two experienced facilitators use game-play, role-play and other experiential processes
to get each individual to see exactly what is possible for them in order to feel better about themselves and their
situation. 

Whatever the assertiveness issue or issues, we can create a tailored assertiveness training programme for your
company designed to help delegates appropriately manage workload, time pressure and people pressure 

Tailored specifically to each group "The Art of Saying No" is Assertiveness Training designed to reach the issues
ordinary assertiveness training can't touch. 
21. Assertiveness Training

Business Networking Skills

Tailored and In-House Business Networking Skills

Our Business Networking Training can be tailored as an in-house programme to address specific issues within your
company. 

(Click here to send individuals on our Open Business Networking Skills Course)

Business Networking Training Objectives

* Building Relationships
* Joining and Leaving Groups
* Opening Gambits and Small Talk
* Using Open Questions
* Finding Common Ground
* Using Personal Disclosure
* Creating Trust
* Talking Up your Business
* Becoming a Networking 'Node'
* Networking Conventions
* Rule Breaking
* Building Confidence

Business Networking Skills

Here are some reasons why a Tailored Business Networking

Skills course may be suitable for your company: 

You have groups of people who attend conferences, seminars,

social events and other networking gatherings where it is
essential they 'mix and mingle' and make good contacts. 

You have people who are uncomfortable in social settings and yet you need them to be able to talk articulately about your
business and get themselves known. 

You have highly skilled staff who have to network; they need to create their own contacts in order to build the business,
but they simply don't have the requisite skills to flourish in that often difficult environment. 

Business Networking gets a bad press

A lot of people think business networking is all about 'selling yourself' or 'working a room', whereas, for our money,
networking isn't about that at all. It's about relationship
building and making yourself and your company attractive to
people in a way they hadn't realised before. It's about
developing your business, not cramming it down someone's
throat. 

However, not everyone thinks they have good networking skills.

They look at other people who appear to be at ease in the
networking arena, and think, "Born socialiser. I could never do
that." 

As far as we're concerned, yes, you can. Good business

networking skills can be learnt and are far easier than you
might think. 

At Impact Factory, our networking skills workshops won't turn

you into an obnoxious double-glazing-type salesperson (they do
get a hard time, don't they?). They are designed to develop
skills you already have, tease out those areas where you do
feel comfortable and confident and teach you simple techniques
that will make networking fun, even. 

The maxim really is true that 'it's you they buy' so we take time
to look at you and your outstanding qualities. Everyone on an
Impact Factory networking workshop gets input from their
peers on what they can already see that would make you a
good networker. 

Since we know that most people just hate being in a situation

where they might make a fool of themselves - saying or doing
the 'wrong' thing, we explore some of the conventions and
'rules' about business networking. Then we look at breaking
them! 

Most importantly, we aim to make you feel far more in charge

of the networking arena than you do now, so you can actually
enjoy the process rather than endure it. 

If you need your people to feel more confident in the Business Networking Skills arena we can tailor a programme to meet
those specific needs.

Business Networking Skills

   

. Interpersonal Team Norms

 Author: Tom Siebold.  Tom  is a writer and consultant in Minneapolis.  He is editor of two websites: 1 College
Grazing -- Free college planning tools for college bound students, 2. Teachers on Target -- Free professional
development ideas and classroom activities.

Objective: To identify interpersonal skills that support team success

  How the author has used the activity: Successful teams find a way to interact in a productive and effective way.
I like to use this activity to encourage participants to not only identify interpersonal skills that lead to team success,
but also to make a commitment to core interpersonal norms.
  Activity: Divide into small groups. Each group should have a Team Interaction Chart (see below). The groups
are directed to do four tasks:
A. Make a list of key interpersonal skills that teams must practice in order to be successful (one example is listed
on the Chart).
B. From the skills listed in column one on the Chart, the group should write three core team interaction norms (one
example is given on the Chart).
C. Have the group brainstorm to identify things that individuals can do to practice or reinforce each norm.
D. Have a spokesperson share the small group's interpersonal norms with the full group. From the norms presented,
the full group can compile a master list of team interpersonal norms. This list should be printed and subsequently
given to all team members. The team may even want to have a poster made of the norms to be placed in the team
meeting room.

  Team Interaction Chart

Key Interpersonal Skills Norms Some things to work on
Example: “Think before you “Listen to learn” “Be aware on NOT interrupting as
speak.” others speak.”
1.    
2.    
3.    
4.    

  Added thoughts or considerations: It is always a challenge to translate training content into actual behavior
change. This activity moves from brainstorming to concrete behavior.