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In a society where you reside and work, do you agree with the fact that it is noteworthy to look into how is your relationship with the people you are associated with? Do you give this aspect enough attention?
Talking about maintaining cordial relationships with the people around, it is all got to do with how much interest are you taking to build a rapport vs what are you doing to build the relationship. It is important for every individual to understand how to keep up with interpersonal relationships.
This article teaches you about the importance, types and the right way of handling and building interpersonal relationships with the people in your life and the people to come.
What Is Inter-Personal Relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an art of how you analyze and tune your behaviour in the way you approach relationships in terms of communicating, understanding, empathizing, sympathizing and how you reciprocate back to the same in peace and sustain respect, humanity, and etiquette in dealing with all your professional as well as personal relationships.
Over the years, there have been several theories and experiments that have proved the optimistic outcomes of having great interpersonal skills. Having mentioned, one of those theories is the Two Factor Theory by Frederick Herzberg.
The other name to this theory is Motivation-Hygiene Theory and one of its aspects throws light upon how an employee can be dissatisfied if he/she is not able to have a good relationship with his/her peers.
Reason for this theory to be called Hygiene Theory is because your mental hygiene at work is dependent on the interpersonal relationship with the people at your workplace. All you need is the right skills to work on your interpersonal relationships.
Types of Inter-Personal Skills – Add Them To Your Bucket List!
You should know what are those skills that you should possess to be good with inter-personal relationships. It is a vast story to talk of each skill. However, here is a list of the types of Inter-Personal Skills
Skill No 1- The Skill of Verbally Communicating Right
The skill of being able to speak the right thing, at the right time to the right person is a sign of effective communication. It is as simple as being able to express what you feel like in the right manner.
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Skill No 2- The Ability To Gauge Non-Verbal Communication
Gestures is communicating much before beginning to speak. To be able to identify the signs of body language is truly a skill and it comes with constantly observing.
Gestures can be understood by persons facial expressions, the way a person makes hand movements and overall facial expressions. Knowing gestures and reading a persons body language just talks about what is the present emotion of a person and knowing it is important while you are getting to know someone.
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Skill No 3- Effective Listening
Listening plays a crucial role when you have to address a problem or work on a client’s request. Listening does not finish your work, you would have to be active in terms of every detail told to you for you to respectively respond back. Ways to listen better
- Hear out and ensure to understand what you hear
- Pay attention on the body language as well
- Jot down what you think your brain cannot register
- Repeat all that you understood
The best example of effective listening is the game named Chinese whispers.
Skill No 4- Ability To Negotiate
Negotiating is similar to convincing. This is a hard nut to crack and not everyone can do it well. However, negotiating is the ability to convince the opposite person and convince yourself.
The best way to do it is to be reasonable yet clear with your expectations, hear out the other person and be fair and clear with all you want.
Skill No 5- Capability to Solve Problems
Coming to a conclusion only after looking at the possible reasons for the occurrence of the problem is the approach one should adopt.
To effectively solve a problem you need your communication, listening and an understanding for gestures in place. Failing which it will be tough to learn the right skill to solve a problem.
What you can do is, imagine your problem to be a quiz puzzle. Start by looking for the problem, put down everything that you think can work as a solution for you, from the list you put down, select a way to solve the problem and begin with it.
If it does not work, do not get worked up as you have to pick another solution. Keep going and someday you will figure out the best way to solve a problem.
Skill No 6- Being Pro-Actively Assertive
Only when you have the burning passion or spark in you that you are firm on doing something will you be able to get there or for that matter knowing how to put forth your points even if it is a No, one should know it all. Agreed?
Being assertive is considered to be one of the interpersonal skills because it requires will as well as skill. Only when you are sure of what you want to do or what you want to say(your will) you will try your best to accomplish it (the trying is skill). In short, assertiveness is all about your knack of communicating and doing your work or getting it done.
Some of the ways of being assertive is by being confident in what you say, keep your tone in the right control, be open for opinions and be firm in putting across what you want.
Read: How To Overcome Nervousness? 10 Effective Tips To Shine Through
Importance Of Inter Personal Relationship
In Professional Life
1. Exhibits The Quality Of An Organization
When employees in an organization are getting along well, they communicate right and understand their boundaries and the roles that they play to support each other in terms of being good to each other and in delivering what is expected out of them will the organization prosper. In that case, all the credit goes to the employees who understand the importance of interpersonal skills.
2. Improves Team Bond
For a department to run well, it is necessary that in times of conflict, knowledge gap or for any other reasons, one must help the other as a team. This level of maturity and understanding is only possible if everyone in the team has the needed interpersonal skills in them.
3. Helps In Understanding What Is Not Said
Majority of people fail to be good at understanding gestures unless they are made evident. Knowing how to read body language and expressions to be able to gauge a person’s mood at work has relevance.
You never know how your light talk might offend someone if they are not in the right frame of mind. Learning interpersonal skills will teach you how to read people’s body language. If not to a great extent, you will get a fair idea.
4. You Get To Know What To Talk When
Well, having a small quotient of interpersonal skills in you is a must when you are at work. Everything cannot be said to everyone. One must be smart to know, what they can talk about to whom and when you are addressing an issue, giving feedback or seeking permission you should learn the right way to do so.
5. Acquaintance To Multiple Perspectives
No doubt you get a heap of learning when you have the right interpersonal skills! Besides this, you get to understand how to listen to people actively, how to be kind when a person is not in a state to thinking straight, you understand the importance of being punctual and know what it feels like to respect and be respected.
This learning helps you become all the more enlightened on how to look at different situations differently by keeping your ears and eyes wide open and shutting all the doors of pre-conceived notions and judgments.
In Personal Life
1. Improves The Quality Of Your Relationships
The quality of your relationship be it with your family or friends is sure to get better when you understand that they need your time, love and respect. You would be wondering as to how is it linked to interpersonal skills. It has a direct connection through empathy. Only when you know how to empathize will you understand every emotion.
2. Your People Feel Heard
Active listening and effective communication is a part of interpersonal skills. When you start to practice these qualities in your personal life, your people will feel secure and comfortable to approach you as they are assured that you are a good listener and will give them the best suggestions.
Ways To Help Yourself Build Inter-Personal Skills And Relationships – Do Good For Your Good!
Now you have got all that you needed to know about all the interpersonal skills and its relevance in your personal and professional life. You must build on it one by one. Here are ways that will take you through a guide ride on building interpersonal relationships by sharpening those skills that can make it happen. Here you go!
1. Start Meeting New People
Exposure gives learning and when that learning is put to use that gives a scope to develop and change from being better to the best. Having said, when you meet new people you will get to gain out of the way they express themselves, how they carry themselves and when you get to interact you tend to get new ideas on how to look at the same thing in a different way.
Meet new people to improve your communication, get used to active listening and last but not the least you get to polish your body language.
2. Close Yourself From Being Shy
If you want to venture out into building at least one strong interpersonal skill you have to walk past the shy person in you. Inter-Personal skills have all got to do with your style of building relationships. Therefore, you have to break through being shy and at least attempt to open up although you are still feeling it from within.
Keep your goal in mind and tell your inner self that I have to cover being shy or stop being shy in order to achieve my goal of building interpersonal skills. Practice it by having a random conversation with a peer or stand in front of the mirror and talk to yourself.
3. For Communication – Start To Practice
Since communication is verbal and non-verbal. Check on which part of the communication needs more of your attention and follow these tips accordingly
Write down random lines and say them by looking at yourself in the mirror, you will be able to check on your tone, your body language, whether you are able to look into the eye or not. Do it until you feel you are doing it well. Repeat the same standing before someone you are comfortable with.
Get enrolled in forums where you get to express yourself. In the beginning, you may feel like in a spot but eventually, you will get accustomed to it.
Makes sure to talk to a friend who has great communication skills. Try doing this at least twice a week.
4. Listen With Curiosity
The moment someone comes to talk to you, just listen to them by keeping in mind that you are on the quest of improving your listening skills and just imagine yourself in their shoes had you gone to them seeking for a solution, wouldn’t you expect the same attention?
Call a friend and listen or strike a conversation with someone in order to get a chance to listen. Start listening to podcasts or audio clips that have knowledgeable information and make a note of the best points you learned.
5. Mentors Give You The Best Help
There is no harm in asking for help if you need it. What’s important is that you reach out to the right set of people. Approach people who are good with their interpersonal skills, ask them to give you tips on how should you work on yourself.
6. Time Is The Best Investment
Take out about half an hour every day or invest ten minutes every three hours during the day to work on your self-development. Your plan for improvement could be in terms of communication or being bolder in being assertive, look up for videos and read books that give you a chance to explore on your requirement.
7. Be Sportive To Feedback
If you really want to achieve your aim you have to be ready for the little bitter times too. Yes, taking a criticism may be okay for some while it might be discouraging for few. You have to understand that the criticism today will help you tomorrow so bear with it for now and open yourself to the feedback that is given to you and see how can you do the same thing in a better way.
To summarize the nitty gritty of inter-personal relationships and how they change our life, it is never too late to begin if you find them compelling enough. Touch base on all the skills that you need to get acquainted with and make up for a great interpersonal relationship with your relatives, colleagues, subordinates and managers.
Interpersonal relationships majorly is a part of soft skills. If you practice and master interpersonal skills, half your job of having the required soft skills in you is accomplished. Be good at your interpersonal relationships to sow the seeds for success in life.
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