Improve your interpersonal skills for a more rewarding career

Every business organization is comprised of a team of professionals working together to achieve common business goals. Whether you are working remotely from home or freelancing while traveling across the country, you will always be a part of a business team. It does not matter if your team comprises just two people or two hundred; you will always need good interpersonal skills to get along with your team members.

What are interpersonal skills?

Your interpersonal skills are the qualities and behaviors that you employ to interact with those around you. Throughout your career, you will use a myriad of micro skills to collaborate with your colleagues to complete projects. These skills are what enable you to have a good rapport with your teams and your superiors.

What happens when you don’t improve your interpersonal skills?

Did you know that your interpersonal skills will affect the careers and lives of those who work with you? If you are a horrible manager who lacks empathy, your team members will be unhappy at work and probably leave the toxic work environment that you have created. If you don’t practice active listening in the workplace, you will likely be unaware of many things. This will cause you to waste a lot of time in the workplace.

What are the benefits of developing interpersonal skills?

There are many reasons why you must develop and improve interpersonal skills in the workplace. Good interpersonal skills will allow you to get along well with your coworkers and supervisors. This will, in time, motivate you to take on additional responsibilities at work and work with different teams. A professional who is good at working with others is more likely to be considered for promotion by a manager. Interpersonal skills will also give your confidence a boost.

What are some interpersonal skills that you should develop?

There are many kinds of interpersonal skills that are valuable for professionals. If you are planning to advance in your career, you should develop interpersonal skills such as leadership, teamwork, and conflict resolution. Interpersonal skills such as communication, confidence, and negotiation will help you if you work in a sales role. Emotional intelligence, active listening, and adaptability are some great interpersonal skills for a marketing role.

How can you improve your interpersonal skills?

Interpersonal skills can be nurtured by making some small changes to the way you do things in the workplace. Here are five things you can do to improve your interpersonal skills:

Communicate well

When you have to communicate a certain idea to your team, ensure that everyone is on the same page. Don’t leave one person out of the loop. You don’t want to create issues within the team by oversharing information with one person and completely blocking information from another.

Listen attentively

One of the biggest communication mistakes professionals make in the workplace is speaking more than they listen. If you want to cultivate your interpersonal skills, you should first learn to listen actively. This will help you understand things better in the team dynamic.

Practice being flexible

When you are working with a team of diverse individuals, you need to be flexible. Not everyone will see things your way, and not everyone will have the capability to perform at the same quality. Understand that your team members have different needs and try to be flexible when dealing with them.

Follow your words through

You have to follow through with your words when you want to build trust with your team members. If you promise them that you are going to implement a certain strategy or procedure to make their work easier, you need to keep your word. This will help you build a better and more trusting relationship with your team.

Be empathetic

It is important for you to understand the feelings and thoughts of your team members when you are a leader. If the members of your team are expressing that they are unhappy with the work or are demanding something passionately, you must understand their reasoning before you suggest solutions.