Boost Your Professional Life with This Skill

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Once in our life, we’ve certainly had a boss and coworker that was our absolute favorite. But do you exactly know why they are your favorite? What was it about working with them that made you wish everyone else in the office were a bit more like them? Why did you enjoy working with them? There’s a big chance it’s because of how they were. Maybe they were really easy to work with or maybe they always made you feel heard and supported when you worked with them. In other words, they had great interpersonal skills. Unfortunately, not all of your coworkers will possess this skill. Fortunately for you, with the right tips and tricks, you can turn into one of those coworkers and bosses that you liked.

Interpersonal skills, in the simplest words ever, are your people skills. In a bit more complicated terms, they are behaviors that a person uses to build good rapport with others. Good interpersonal skills allow you to work well with people, whether it be your boss, coworkers, clients, or customers. Interpersonal skills include possessing good communication and emotional intelligence.

Believe it or not, not everyone will have good communication skills. Maybe even you have trouble with it, too. Think back to all the conflicts you’ve had with people over something insignificant. Those conflicts could have easily been talked through with the help of effective communication. Effective oral communication means being able to be get your point heard loud and clear. It means using appropriate body language while being able to coherently express your thoughts. Even written communication needs clear and brief for it to be considered effective.

The same goes for emotional intelligence. In my opinion, high emotional intelligence is the crowning jewel of it all. I believe that no matter how good your communication skills are, if you lack empathy, then it’s just not a complete package. You should be able to imagine yourself in a person’s shoes and assess how they would feel when put in a situation. That way, you can respond by treating them with compassion and empathy. Being sensitive to other people’s emotions are very important when working with a team.

So why are good interpersonal skills important for your career? Well, simply because it will help the team function better. When a team works well together, you can achieve more. This would also mean more recommendations from the people you’ve worked with. Think about it like this: If you had the chance to endorse one colleague and you had to choose between the one you really liked versus the one that was just plain mean, who would you endorse? It would be the one you liked, right? And it wouldn’t be just because of their skills, but also because of how much of a pleasure it is working with them. When more people want to work for you because of your technical and interpersonal skills, many doors will surely be opened for your career.