What are interpersonal skills? Definition or Meaning (with Diagrams)

Interpersonal skills are vital in almost every aspect of our lives in building successful relationships, preparing resumes, appearing for interviews, achieving our dream job and job satisfaction in the workplace. 

Being an integral part of the corporate world and presently an active engager in the education industry, I have learnt the interpersonal skills and developed them. I am the same person who was so timid to stand before even a relative and talk, now can communicate with a large audience with public speaking without being hesitated. 

If I can develop interpersonal skills then you too can, what you have to do is just learn and apply them in your own life in day to day’s interaction with others. 

Interpersonal skills are the skills that are applied to communicate or interact with individuals, small groups of people or large audiences.These are the behaviours we portray during exchanging our thoughts, ideas, knowledge, information, feeling and emotions. They are also considered the most important soft skills to be possessed by an individual.

How well we will make our verbal or nonverbal communication depends upon our interpersonal skills.

In this article, you will get a list of interpersonal skills that employers seek from the candidates and a clear understanding on how to write those interpersonal skills in your resume and cover letter to showcase your interpersonal skills in most practical manner to make sure that you are the person the job recruiter is looking for. 

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Interpersonal skills meaning or definition
2. Interpersonal Skills List
3. How to write interpersonal skills in a resume?
4. What are good interpersonal skills for the workplace
5. Interpersonal skills for remote workers
6. Final Thoughts on ‘what are interpersonal skills’

1. Interpersonal skills meaning or definition

In order to understand the meaning or definition of interpersonal skills, Latest break down the term  and understand them one by one,  interpersonal means, ‘Communicating or building relationships between peoples’, and the skill mean, ‘ability to do something well and appropriately’. 

So, the complete meaning of ‘interpersonal skills’ stands as the ability to communicate or build relationships with other people appropriately and effectively.

As we develop these abilities to communicate well with other people we become stronger and effective in interpersonal skills. 

Interpersonal skills are required to exchange the information, thoughts, ideas and feelings between two or more people, a small group of people or a large audience through verbal or non-verbal methods.

 A quality interpersonal skill is portrayed by displaying a strong ability to communicate face to face using words, language and voice with professional and appropriate facial expressions, regular eye contact, right body language and gestures. 

Capability of conveying message effectively and efficiently showcase the excellent interpersonal skill level.

 Some of the common scenarios in a work environment where the interpersonal skills are applied in an industry or organization includes regular communication among employees, communication with team leader or manager, meetings with clients, presentation of report, project discussions, public speaking etc.

Presently as the online work environment is rapidly growing, it became  essential for presenting better performance for successful communication. 

2. Interpersonal Skills List

Here is the list of interpersonal skills that you must develop for performing a better communication. 

1. Verbal communication skills or ability to use right words and language to speak clearly
2. Non-verbal communication skills, which are:  

• communicating with maintaining regular eye contact
• appropriate body language or body movement
• right tone of voice
• displaying smiling and cheerful face
• being serious while the matter is serious
• not touching or scratching body parts
• not interrupting others
• nodding head to display interest in listening
• not being distracted
• being attentive and focused
• keeping yourself calm and relaxed while in pressure
• being careful of touch
• having appealing appearance
• maintaining personal space
• showing right postures

Other interpersonal skills are:

1. Emotional Intelligence or ability to control the emotion
2. Reliability or trusted to provide better performance and quality
3. Active Listening skills means listening to others without interruption
4. Ability to Negotiate well which is achieving win win goal with discussion
5. Problem-solving or Conflict Resolution skills
6. Well Decision-making skill
7. Capability to Communicate with a small or large groups
8. Able to handle Multi Tasks with better performance
9. Assertiveness or remaining calm and cool without being aggressive
10. Having positive attitude
11. Being able to communicate efficiently with individuals
12. Empathy which can be helping or supporting others in need
13. Organization skill that is to provide the best possible service using the available resources, time, place, energy etc. to achieve the goal
14. Self confidence 
15. Strong work ethics and integrity in the work and behavior 
16. Time management or completing the task before the deadline
17. Having a team spirit
18. Being a responsible person
19. Leadership skill to guide and lead other people
20. Self Motivation for performing the work with best effort
21. Being Flexible in the technological changes and other situation and adopting soon
22. Providing quality performance even in pressure 
23. Cooperating with each other with a goal of accomplishing single goal
24. Working collaboratively
25. Able to organize events
26. Rapport builder
27. Ability to manage small or big team
28. Building relationship with others
29. Understanding others nonverbal cues
30. Appreciating others when they deserve to be appreciated
31. Inspiring others to be motivated

3. How to write interpersonal skills in a resume?

First of all, let us understand why interpersonal skills are important in a resume?

Interpersonal skills play an important role in developing and maintaining relationships and every workplace needs these social skills for building teams that can establish great relationships for wording together with a common goal to achieve. 

The job is performed by some special set of technical skills but the interpersonal skills make sure how effectively and productively the job will be performed. 

Therefore, wisely mentioning the interpersonal skills in the resume can make you stand out in a crowd.

Now the next question is, how to write the interpersonal skills in a resume?

In order to demonstrate your interpersonal skills or social skills in the most effective manner, the first thing that you need to do is, understanding the actual requirement of the employer. Once you detect the necessary interpersonal skills required for the job position, it will be much easier to demonstrate them in the right way to grab the attention of the employer.

To understand the required interpersonal skills for the job role:

1. you need to read the job description carefully and attentively. 
2. Go for a thorough research about the organization or the company and gain insights about the actual job patterns and try to understand what kind of interpersonal skills will be fitted for that job.
3. Make your research on their website or from the employees of that organization.
4. Read the job description of related jobs of other organizations or companies.

Once you understand the actual needful interpersonal skills the employer is seeking from the candidates, now it is the time to customize your resume according to that.

To display your interpersonal skills in resume, follow these guides:

1. Present first the interpersonal skills that are demanded by the employer. 
2. You can add your interpersonal skills in the skill section.
3. Interpersonal skills can also be displayed in the experience section, by presenting the real scenario in your previous job experience, where you applied your interpersonal skills to cause better productivity. 
4. Make sure the presentation of your interpersonal skills are eye catchy and impressive.
5. Do not fill the precious space of your resume with non-relevant interpersonal skills. 

4. What are good interpersonal skills for the workplace

Interpersonal skills are extremely important for every workplace, since they enhance productivity and promote the work experience. 

Here are some of the interpersonal skills required in the workplaces:

• Ability of Relationship building
• Understanding others’ feeling and emotions
• Having a spirit of Cooperating
• Humble and cool Attitude
• Respectful behavior to others
• Active Listening skill
• Great verbal communication skill
• Strong understanding of nonverbal Communications like Eye contact, Facial expressions,  Body language, Gestures, and Physical contact like shaking hands
• A Clear Communicator
• Being punctual about time
• Friendly and respectful attitude
• Having flexible and positive attitude
• Appropriate dressing and appearance
• Ready to take responsibility and accountability

5. Interpersonal skills for remote workers

If you are working remotely then in order to perform great work as a remorse worker, you need to brush up some essential interpersonal skills. 

Here are some of the interpersonal skills for remote workers to consider:

• Develop your written communication skill
• Carry a spirit of collaboration
• Give complete focus without distraction
• Time management is vital
• Be flexible and adapt the changes 
• Be Proactive and go extra mile
• Be respectful of time differences

6. Final Thoughts on ‘what are interpersonal skills’

Interpersonal skills are essential for becoming a successful person in your career in any industry. You may be proficient in many technical skills but the poor interpersonal skills are capable enough to prevent the growth of your career life. 

• Interpersonal skills are important for building personal relationships and workplace relationships. 
• They are vital to effectively communicate, interact, and work with individuals, small or large groups.
• In order to be ‘good with people’ you need to develop your interpersonal skills. 
• Success in your professional and personal life depends on interpersonal skills.
• These skills affect our career, parenting, education, friendships. 

Most importantly, interpersonal skills can be developed by following some simple guides:

• Go through some theoretical studies to gain the knowledge of interpersonal skills.
• Learn from other successful people.
• Watch YouTube videos of prominent people and observe them.
• Gather honest feedback from your friends and family about your interpersonal skills.
• Detect your weaknesses and strengthen them.
• Be willing to be a lifelong learner. 

Let me know your suggestion in the comment section below for adding more life to this article and helping others to grow.

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