What Are People Skills - Emotional Intelligence, Humility & Listening
What Are People Skills
Technical skills are often thought to be the most important type of skills required to be qualified for a particular job. Although one’s hard skills are undoubtedly a necessary prerequisite to be able to get a foot in the door, it is often your soft skills - also known as “people skills” or interpersonal skills - that determine how your career will pan out. Be it working in a team, collaborating with others on a project, or solving bigger organisational or societal problems, your people skills are imperative for long-term success and play a crucial role in all areas of life. But what are people skills exactly, and how can you go about improving them? Read on to find out.
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What Are Good People Skills?
As the name suggests, people skills are all those skills you employ when dealing with others. These include all the attributes that enable you to work with people in a social setting and conduct yourself appropriately. These may sound obvious and matter of fact, but it’s not always clear how they could be so, especially since many of them overlap and impact each other. So what are some people skills that a person should have? Let’s take a look.
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What Are Good People Skills - Emotional Intelligence
Being emotionally in tune with yourself and others is a social superpower that many people are not privy to. They may feel out of place and incapable of understanding why people react the way they do. But emotional intelligence is more than just ‘reading the room’. It is what helps you tap into the social energy in your everyday conversations, empathise with others, and, perhaps most importantly, regulate your own emotions and actions. Much of it comes from being present in the social situation you’re in and paying attention to other people. Sometimes the latter is all it takes to see the world from someone else’s eyes, exhibit sympathy and form stronger bonds in the long run.
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What Are Good People Skills - Active Listening
Closely tied to emotional intelligence, active listening is one of the most important people skills that you can possess. People can tell when you’re actually listening to them, rather than just pretending to do so. Your body language plays a huge role in establishing a connection with other people and showing them you’re paying attention to what they have to say. Eye contact, body posture, well-timed nods are all little instances that tell the other person that you’re interested in what they’re saying, perhaps even sympathetic to their cause. When you’re genuinely interested in what others have to say, you will also ask thoughtful questions and look to delve deeper into their answers.
See also: Learning To Become An Emotionally Intelligent Team Player
What Are Good People Skills - Teamwork
When considering what are good people skills a person can have, teamwork can never be overlooked. Working with other people in a team towards a common goal teaches a variety of things, such as the importance of fair play, cooperation, competition, sharing responsibilities, giving and taking feedback, as well as fostering stronger relationships. People who are good team players do well in social situations because they can be relied upon by others, for which reason they also tend to have good social influence.
See also: 13+ Courses On Team Building To Achieve Goals Effectively
What Are Good People Skills - Humility
Whether or not one one is learned and successful in one’s endeavours, being humble is the trademark of an individual that is open to learning new things and values the input of others. Humility is an invaluable trait to have. It opens the doors to new opportunities and learning, while acquainting you with your own limitations and shortcomings. Humble people are liked by everyone, not least because they don’t presume or act as though they know everything. Even if they’re masters of their craft, it is prudent to be humble and make room for what others have to say.
See also: How To Develop Your Personality
What Are Good People Skills - Positivity
When considering what are some people skills, many people may understate the importance of positivity. But, the fact of the matter is that all social interactions are predicated on understanding, connection and growth, all of which have positivity at their source. People who are overly cynical or negative in their attitude may end up obstructing the flow of ideas when interacting with others. Although some modicum of self-correction is required in any endeavour, it shouldn’t be allowed to take over the momentum that positivity begets.
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What Are Good People Skills - Patience
Patience is a virtue, perhaps more so when interacting with others. Our interactions with others may not always bear fruit immediately, but if one is positive in one’s intentions, heeds the social clues and is humble in one’s attitude, time will bear the good fruit for them sooner or later. If you want to know what are some people skills that you can develop, and how to go about developing them, start with being patient.
It takes time to learn anything, and mastering the art of being patient will enable you to learn difficult things, which are also often the best things, and let the learning take its time. You may be bored at times, and that is almost to be expected, but as your relationship with boredom changes, so will your capacity to wait and allow the natural progression of things to manifest in due time. Be patient, and will see your rewards redouble.
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What Are Good People Skills - Assertiveness
Being assertive and standing up for yourself, in a respectful and confident manner, is an important element of good people skills. It keeps you honest and true to yourself when responding to other people’s requests, even if it means saying no when you have to. It can also mean asserting your ideas when the time calls for it, when you know they will be of use to others. If you’re wondering what are some people skills that you should develop, assertiveness is a big one.
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What Are Good People Skills - Leadership
Good leaders are hard to come by, and yet, every group has a leader. This is because we all find ourselves in situations where our own leadership qualities are called for. Good leadership means taking on additional responsibilities as well as guiding and helping others in their own tasks. If you want to improve your leadership skills, offer to help others, volunteer to do things beyond what’s assigned to you, and lead your team by example.
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What Are Good People Skills - Strong Communication Skills
When considering what are people skills, good communication skills can never be overlooked; in fact, the two are basically synonymous in common parlance, such is the importance of communication skills. They include participating in social interactions, be they verbal or otherwise, absorbing information, listening actively, and ensuring that what you say is clear and understandable. Good communication skills also mean simplifying complex conversations and clarifying comments made by others. They are important in all fields of study and at all stages of life.
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How To Improve Your People Skills
Now that we’ve seen what are people skills, the question that arises naturally is how can you improve them. Because you’ll most likely have to engage these skills in a social context, you should look to participate as much as you can socially. Volunteer or organise events, take responsibilities, listen to people and understand what they’re truly trying to say, make sure what you say is clear, and be humble in your interactions.
Although patience and positivity can be learned on your own as well, other people skills are more participatory in nature and cannot be honed alone. These skills will be required time and time again in your social as well as your personal life, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice. Just make sure you’re consciously making an effort to better yourself and your interactions with others.
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We hope you now have a better understanding of what are people skills, why it’s necessary to improve them, and how to go about doing so. We all naturally have a sense of how to carry ourselves in social situations, being gregarious creatures that we are, but it’s good to break down these skills, become conscious of them, and look to improve them individually.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
People skills are defined as your interpersonal skills, or your ability to talk to people and deal with social situations effectively.
Some examples of human skills include good communication, leadership, teamwork, humility, and positivity.
Another word for good people skills is “soft skills”.
The skills needed for success in any field include patience, good communication, active listening, assertiveness, and humility.