Definition: Interpersonal skills are a set of abilities that facilitate the relationship with other individuals. They enable the person to establish an engaging connection with their peers.
What Does Interpersonal Skills Mean?
Interpersonal skills are highly valued in personal, business and work scenarios. They allow the individual to establish a positive relationship with the people around him and this facilitates opportunities to improve the productiveness of the tasks he is currently working on. Some of these skills are: conflict resolution, critical and assertive thinking, motivational speaking, listening abilities, team leadership, empowerment, decision-making capabilities and negotiation, among other critical skills that constitute the whole set of interpersonal skills.
It is kind of easy to identify a person with this set of skills since they will have high credibility and a healthy reputation among their peers and co-workers, in the case of business and work environments. They are highly productive in sales and deal-making scenarios since the engagement produced by these skills are more likely to create a positive atmosphere and bonding between the parties involved. They also play a crucial role in team-working experiences because they allow the individual to get the most out of the team, since he has the ability to deal with conflicts positively and productively.
Example
Fruit Designs Co. is a company that produces trendy T-shirts for young women. Currently, the company is launching a new line of T-shirts and the work environment has been very stressful since the deadlines are really tight. One of the designers recently had a conflict with the person in charge of printing the design samples since the sample was not properly printed and the designer wasn’t consulted before the work was presented.
This resulted in a bad review for his work because of this mistake. This conflict created tension between both departments (the Design Department and the Printing Department) and the head of the company identified that their productivity was being affected because of it. Since he didn’t want to address the issue personally he designated Mr. Lopez, his Human Resources Specialist to solve the conflict and bring the parties to an understanding.
Mr. Lopez is recognized among his co-workers as a person with great interpersonal skills and he has resolved conflicts in the workplace many times in the past. He employed these skills to resolve the conflict and both departments resumed their past productiveness, in fact, they worked so well after working things out with Mr. Lopez that they were rewarded for their outstanding performance. This shows how valuable interpersonal skills are within the workplace.
