Nine Things You Should Know About Interpersonal Skills

Meaning (definition) of interpersonal skills: The important set of skills that help us effectively get/work along other people, at work or elsewhere.

1. The best tip about having great interpersonal skills (people skills) is to make people feel good, which we do by getting into the other person's shoes (empathy).

2. They will accept you if you will accept them first.

3. To deal with people, understand yourself and the others first: Sun Tzu wrote in 'The Art of war', 'know thyself, know thy enemy, and you shall win every war.'

4. Get people to drop their guards by dropping your aggressive stance. Be quietly assertive, but never loudly aggressive.

5. 'Give and take' is how our world works. You do something useful for others, and they will pay back in kind. 'Giving' most often also means 'giving praise, giving respect, giving credit, expressing gratitude (thank you) etc.'

6. The secret of networking: The most successful networks are based on a foundation of value, people from various fields helping other out. Networking is not about you knowing a lot of people, but about a lot of people knowing how useful you are.

This will become more important as you seek higher positions in the working field.

7. The other secret of networking: They should also like us.

8. Building rapport: We build rapport by,

- Being considerate to other person's 'feelings' or 'situation', and

- Finding a common ground of shared interests.

9. Really listen to the other person: They say there is a huge difference between 'I heard you' and 'I agree with you'.

Thank you for reading.
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