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List of Interpersonal Skills

Dhanashree Patane
'You only become what you mold yourself to be'. This list of interpersonal skills is a concave orbit for nurturing skills that are born within you.
Interpersonal skills are simply a reflection of your inner self. The subconscious mind is where these values are conceived, which animate your social and personal outlook. These skills are not taught deliberately, they develop gradually right from our birth.
They concrete with observing and learning through our upbringing, social environment, and through abilities to define the good, bad, and ugly, in our lives.
Basic interpersonal or social skills can be portrayed as communication skills, soft skills, they define how we carry ourselves, the way we talk, the kind of respect we have for ourselves and others around us.
Our abilities are to listen and understand. These skills are precisely the riggers of our attitude. The qualities of listening, leadership, understanding, appreciation, and interacting with others, contribute to interpersonal skills.

How do Interpersonal Skills Help You?

  • Assertive communication skills make you approachable and positive, give you a better image at work and in your career, help you grow, and reduce stress and conflicts.
  • They make you comfortable and leave you with a sense of ease to new exposures and interactions with people
  • You will have a better self control, and the ability to make quick and apt decisions, with good interpersonal skills.
  • Building social skills will gradually help in enhancing your relationships with the world around.

List of Interpersonal Skills
Positive personalities and interpersonal communication skills are a requirement in most of the organizations and companies today. Go through these roots of development, you can improve or implement these ideas within yourself.

Generous Greetings

Be a sport and greet whenever you enter your organization or any other social event, it creates a cheerful and lively impression. In corporate offices, it is mandatory to do so, however, even if nobody else bothers to, you do it.
Wish your colleagues, whenever there is an occasion, and if you work in a multi-cultural environment, make sure you exchange wishes. People would appreciate your respect and wisdom of thought.

Facial Expressions and Body Language

Reflect a positive image and attitude when talking or meeting people. Always keep a smile on your face! Nobody likes a sulky, depressive and odd face.
Stand and sit confidently, don't sulk or stand with a hunch. Stop twiddling with your hair, toe-tapping and fidgeting, maintain a decent body language. Make eye contact while talking to somebody, as it creates an impressive and confident mark. Relax and even if you are stressed with an important meeting, take a deep breath. Don't be nervous and stay calm.

Listen Actively

Be a good listener when anyone is talking to you. Show them it is valued and that you understand what they have to say.
It creates a wiser ear of you to listen first. There will be more to communicate when you have captured the unspoken elements while listening with attention, rather than mere lip service.

Initiate Communication

Communication is the most important in our lives, and a mute attitude is very much like bad attitude. Do not feel shy or scared to initiate communication, always approach with a positive feeling.
Have a clear, courteous and effective speech. Impressive communication portrays a matured and intelligent persona.

Know what you talk

Words may break or make a situation. So, be careful of the words you use when communicating. Use appropriate words that do not draw misunderstanding.

Criticize with Care

Criticize only when required, and make sure your criticism is constructive, not destructive. Also be open to criticism, learn from your mistakes, and make improvement plans.

Manage anger constructively

Anger is a powerful emotion. You need to recognize and understand this emotion well, then channel it to handle any situation or achieve your goals.

Appreciate and Value

A compliment can make one's day great. Be generous and appreciate good work, even if your ego distracts you from doing so. Be kind to thank anybody in return of a favor or help.

Humor

Humor changes a depressive environment. Lighting a few sparks of humor at a workplace projects a lighter side of you making people start liking you.

Empathize and Acknowledge

Be kind and acknowledge the others' views. Sure you have your own view about a certain issue or thing, however, give equal importance to their views also.
Empathy is not only to give words of comfort, it is to feel the other person's problems the way he feels about them. This will give the other person a view of your emotional spaces. This can be possible once you learn to connect to your inner self, and then you will easily learn to connect to the other person.

Encourage teamwork

Teamwork is working towards a common goal, which requires qualities like motivation, responsibility, and co-operation. The more you make yourself ready for the teamwork; these qualities will be honed and will be an addition to your character.

Be the Pacifier, But Do Not Fall in Conflicts

People will appreciate if you help in de-tangling situations or issues. However, it is not wise to interfere in others problems always. It depends on how critical the issue and the situation are as well.
Be a good judge, be diplomatic, and fair. Try to keep away from falling in debates and conflicts.

Don't Be a Box of Complaints and Regrets

We all have problems, but it is not decent to complain and whine about a certain thing or situation always. You are free to discuss your problems, however, learn to draw the line.
Do not bring your personal problems to work and drag your colleagues in search for solutions. You can write off your grievances in a diary, if you feel like throwing off somewhere, or talk to your close family and friends.

Contacts and Network

Good interpersonal skills will bring out the best in your communication, drawing more people closer to you and appreciating you. Make new contacts and build a valuable human network, in your personal, social and professional lives.
You can add more values and virtues to your interpersonal skills list. Everybody has a different mind, and hence, the perception. What really matters is to learn and enhance these skills within you, for a satisfying voyage of life.