One thing that constantly surprises me is the inability of people to deal with other people. Sometimes they are deliberately rude, sometimes they don’t understand how to interact, and sometimes they just aren’t paying attention. Whatever the case may be, if you don’t develop your interpersonal skills carefully, you’re doing yourself a huge injustice.
You see, everything in this world is about people. There’s not one thing that isn’t, unless perhaps you intend to be a recluse atop a mountain in Tibet. Regardless of your chosen field or profession, people are an everyday feature, and your interactions can work for you or against you.
An interesting feature of interpersonal skills is that they’re often the most underdeveloped skill for each of us. People are happy to spend time and money improving technical and management skills, but usually the largest committment to interpersonal skills comes in the form of a “soft skills” day long course every few years. Why bother?
If you’re going to do it, do it right. Dedicate some serious time to considering how you can develop your skill at communicating with others. Pay attention to the daily interactions you have, and think carefully about how you can make them more beneficial for you, and the other people involved. Remember, every time an employee spends time complaining about an interaction with you or another employee, productivity is lost. Effective communication with others can absolutely minimise that loss.
This concept is so vital, yet overlooked by so many people. It doesn’t matter what profession or life path you’ve chosen, the ability to effectively communicate with others is what determines your level of success.
Great post!