Do you think you’re qualified for a particular job, fit to lead a team, or entitled to a promotion because you have extensive experience and highly developed technical skills? Well, it turns out that while those things are crucial to your professional success, it’s imperative that you also have great soft skills–more commonly known as “people skills.”
People skills are, in short, the various attributes and competencies that allow one to play well with others. While on the surface these may be summed up by notions such as ‘likeability,’ or having a ‘good personality,’ when you start to look at what makes one ‘likable,’ for instance, you’ve opened Pandora ‘s Box.” But more often than not, these attributes come in the form of effective, accurate and persuasive communication, he says.
People skills come down to how people interact with each other, from a verbal and/or non-verbal perspective; they are non-technical in nature. When we think of people skills, words such as personality, empathy, and tonality come to mind.
The people skills and attributes you’ll need to succeed at work:
1. The ability to relate to others. Having the ability to relate to others and their position or viewpoint is crucial in business. By having a well-rounded personality and set of experiences, it’s usually possible to relate to almost anyone. Sometimes being able to relate to others simply means that you’re willing to agree to disagree with mutual respect; letting them know you understand their position.
2. Strong communication This is the most fundamental people skill because it encompasses your persona and ability to get along with other colleagues, persuade others to listen to your ideas, and much more. If you have a gift for the spoken and written word, you will always put your best foot forward. Being articulate is highly prized in today’s workplace, when time is at a premium and technology requires constant communication.
3. Patience with others. If you’re patient with others and can keep a level head in stressful situations, it will definitely be noticed by management and perceived as a very strong asset.
4. The ability to trust others. You can only accelerate your career if you’re trustworthy. Without it, you can’t get projects done or get cooperation, no one can operate in a vacuum for long.
5. Knowing how and when to show empathy. Having the ability to place yourself in someone else’s shoes is a key people skill. Offer support, sympathy and feedback in your daily business life, it will bring you positive emotional returns – part of ‘corporate karma. If you contribute to a dehumanized company, both you and your employer will have limited growth potential.
6. Active listening skills. Hearing someone and actively listening to them are two different things. Most people hear someone speak and start to form a response in their mind (or worse, starting talking) before the person finishes what they’re saying. The key is to actively listen, which takes more time but produces better results. It means you listen without interruption and then take the time to think and form a response before replying. It takes practice, but it pays off.
7. Good judgment. Good judgment is a key people skill that comes directly from learning, listening to others and observing the world around you. It allows you to wisely select friends and associates, determine reactions and responses, and make sound decisions.
Pay attention to your intuition, it often has something valuable to say.
8. The ability to persuade others. There’s a good chance that at some point in your career you’ll have to sell others on your ideas, products or services. Whether you’re up for a promotion, pitching a project, or selling clothing in a retail store, you need to be able to form a strong, convincing argument for why you, or your products, are the very best, or the “right” one.
9. Negotiation skills. Good negotiating skills are beneficial with both internal and external discussions. Internally, job offers and salary discussions greatly benefit from solid negotiating, as well as when it’s time to pitch a new idea or sway coworkers to your way of thinking. Externally, both vendors and customers often require negotiations and you can really become the hero when you are successful in either scenario.
10. The ability to keep an open mind. To create trust and respect in others, people need to know that their point of view and feedback will be considered and used. Being known as someone who keeps an open mind also makes you more approachable and easier to work with.
11. A great sense of humor. Who doesn’t enjoy laughing? It’s ‘the great diffuser’ of tension and conflict. If you can jam the system of tension or routine with levity, you will thrive in your job.
12. Knowing your audience. Knowing what, how, and when to say things to others is critical. For example, if someone just loss their job, it’s probably not a good idea to talk about your promotion. This seems trivial, but it’s one of the primary reasons why people encounter communication breakdowns with each other.
13. Honesty The saying, “honesty is the best policy” is not only true, it’s essential in building trust among your colleagues. Once you lose it, it’s almost impossible to regain.
14. Awareness of body language. The importance of body language cannot be emphasized enough, since it makes up the majority of how we communicate with others. The reality is, we’re communicating with people all the time even when we’re not speaking. Being mindful of what our gestures, expressions, voice, and appearance are communicating can greatly help or harm our people skills.
15. Proactive problem solving. Work is a series of problem solving situations, but if you’re proactive, you’ll take the pressure off your boss and colleagues. This is a great people skill to have in the workplace.
16. Leadership skills. If you can motivate a team and help those around you do their best work, you’ll be more successful even if you’re not in management.
17. Good manners. “Using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ goes a long way in the realm of people skills. While seemingly obvious, some need little reminders. Keeping a post it with a smile or another icon can remind us that work is more than getting something accomplished, it’s how we get it accomplished.
18. The ability to be supportive and motivate others. People want others to believe in them, regardless of how successful they might be. By showing support in the form of encouragement, you can put someone back on track or keep them headed in the right direction.
19. Transparency : If you spend each day in a workplace full of dishonest people, double standards and a lack of communication, it's time to dust off your resume and look for a better job. A transparent workplace, on the other hand, features benefits that can lead to happier employees and even increased production. The key to transparent workplaces is openness between supervisors and employees. A transparent workplace shares many traits with a functional marriage or strong friendship. Communication is not only important among co-workers, but is a key to healthy relationships between supervisors and their employees. When the leader of a workplace acts in a transparent manner, the workplace and its employees benefit in several ways, according to Forbes. The results may be faster problem solving, better teamwork, healthy working relationships, trust and, ultimately, improved performance. Conversely, performance can suffer from a lack of transparency from the employer.
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