How To Improve Interpersonal Skill

There are many kinds of soft skills that humankind has to learn in order to bring progress in their life. Soft skills teach human beings to manage each and every perspective of life. It also helps in dealing with complicated situations. If the organization has employees who lack soft skills, then it is too difficult for the organization to shine in the market and compete with the competitors. Soft skills are the one that brings more business to the organization. So the success of any business or any person mainly depends on soft skills.

You may also be aware that nowadays, many companies know the importance of these skills and thus encourages their employees to participate in any soft skills programs in order to bring improvement in themselves, and in turn, it will benefit the company.

Before we jump into the tips on How to improve interpersonal skills, let’s look at what is the need of having this skill:

Interaction: In our daily life, we have to interact with someone or the other. If you are at home, then you have to interact with your family members and if you go shopping then you have to interact with the shopkeeper and if you are office, then you have to interact with your colleagues and your senior management officials. Interaction cannot be avoided at any point in time and without interaction, the expression of your view is not possible. So for better interaction, you need to develop your interpersonal communication skills.

Networking: The world is full of networking. Every person has contact with someone for some other purpose. Maybe it is for financial purposes, business purposes, or any purpose, you can see networking is present at any time. Without networking, you cannot deal with anything or you cannot run your business. So having interpersonal skills for better networking is very much necessary for every person.

Career: Yes. You heard it right. Interpersonal skill is very much necessary if you want career growth in your life. The people who are in higher positions must be having good interpersonal skills. Not only this skill but developing other soft skills will surely help you to grow in your career life.

Employer’s demand: Nowadays, employers are looking for candidates who are having good interpersonal skills. An employer looks for this quality in the candidates at the time of the interview also. Employers are ready to reject candidates if he or she does not possess interpersonal skills, no matter how skilled he or she is.

So let’s look at the tips of how to improve this interpersonal skill in your life in order to achieve better growth in your personal as well as professional life:

Suggestion: Every person tends to communicate or pass on information to others on daily basis. Instead of just communicating with others, one needs to understand that getting feedback or suggestion is too much necessary because by getting feedback, you will understand whether you are communicating in a good way or not and whether the information you are sharing is up to the mark or not.

Interruption: If someone is talking to you, there should be no interruption from your end. It should not be like you are talking over the people and you are not trying to understand what the opposite person wants to say. Wait for the person to finish speaking about what he wants to speak out and then you can proceed to talk with him. Just interrupting the conversation is not a healthy way of communication. So make sure that there should be no interruption in communication.

Let people finish their sentence: Yes. As I said above, you should not interrupt in between the conversation and you should let the people finish off their sentences. By following this, you are allowing the opponent person to disclose their view on a particular subject and thus the information passed is not incomplete. There is no harm in allowing others to finish off their speaking. Give them their time to speak and once they finish, you can start speaking about your views and opinions on a particular subject.

Understand in your own language: This is good practice to develop interpersonal skills. Suppose, if any person has asked you to do something, then before starting the task, tell the asked task in your own language to that person so that he will come to know that you have understood it correctly. This practice will surely help you to rid of the barrier in communication and it does not lead to any confusion.

Always think before you open your mouth: Yes. You should not blabber the words just like anything without having meaning to them. Every word which comes out of your mouth should have some sort of meaning and it can be well understood by the opponent person. This is possible when you start practicing thinking before you speak. Always be mindful of what you are communicating with others.

Listen: Listening is one of the most important factors in interpersonal skills. Unless you listen clearly, you can’t communicate clearly. So listening is necessary in order to express your views and ideas. Listening is one type of skill that comes under communication skills. Refer to my other post “How to improve communication skills” to get to know the tips on developing this skill.

Eye contact: Connecting with another person during conversation is an utmost important part. There are many factors that one should keep in mind during conversation and having eye contact with the person with whom you are having a conversation is very much necessary. This does not mean that you should stare at the person during the whole conversation because he or she may feel uncomfortable. It is fine if you look somewhere else in between the conversation but don’t ignore having eye contact. Having eye contact during the conversation will create a feeling in the mind of the opponent person that you are actually listening by giving your whole attention to him.

In the beginning, you will not feel comfortable having eye contact but gradually with practice you can able to develop this skill. Even if you are not listening wholeheartedly but if you are having eye contact then even though you are not listening, your mind will bring back your attention to the person who is talking to you.

Body Language: We see people fold their hands or arms while having a conversation. This is not good body language because whenever you are in conversation, your body should be open but not in a closed manner. You should not close your arms or hands because it shows that you are limiting yourself to a certain point. So whenever you are having a conversation, try to feel open and indulge in the communication open-heartedly.

Avoid distraction words: Someone has a habit of using the words like “um”, “Ahh” and other forms of words with which they feel comfortable. But I can say that this is not a good thing during a conversation because it distracts the conversation in between and thus the opponent person will not able to clearly express his views.

Respect for Individual: While having a conversation, make sure that you are respecting the other person's thoughts and opinions. Every individual has a right to express his opinions, suggestion, and thoughts and every person should be treated as important. Don’t be with an assumption that only your opinions matter and that others' opinions are not worth it. If you are in such a mindset, then try to get rid of this thought in order to develop interpersonal skills.

Conclusion:

I hope you will surely follow my tips to improve yourself in terms of developing interpersonal skills. These are not rocket science for which you should possess any technical skills. These are something we do on daily basis but it needs some improvement and it is possible only with daily practice. Try to observe yourself completely, whenever you are in conversation with others and if you see that you are lacking something then try not to repeat it again.