Soft skills enhance your technical skills.

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In almost all jobs, your people skills – also known as "soft skills" – have as much of an impact on your success as your technical skills. That's especially true when you're in a management or leadership role.

The importance of having solid people skills transcends industry and profession; so, whether you lead people, aspire to lead people, or work within a team of professionals, you need to apply people skills to achieve your objectives.

So, how good are your people skills? Take this short quiz to assess your current skill levels. Once you've answered these questions, we can then point you toward specific tools and resources that you can use to develop and improve this important area of competency.

How Good Are Your People Skills?
Take the online test below, and click the "Calculate my total" button at the foot of the test to assess your people skills.

Instructions:

For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don't worry if some questions seem to score in the 'wrong direction'. When you are finished, please click the 'Calculate My Total' button at the bottom of the test.

Statement Not at all Rarely Some times Often Very
Often
1 I make sure that I display the same standards of behavior that I expect from other people.
2
When providing feedback, I wait until I've observed enough incidents of a behavior to make a generalized statement that is accurate.
3
I go along with others' decisions rather than inject my ideas into the mix.
4
I say "thank you" to the people I work with.
5
During times of conflict I think about how to preserve the relationship and still get my needs met.
6
While actively talking with someone, I have composed my answer before they have finished speaking.
7
I look out for myself at work and do what is necessary to get ahead.
8
I think about how others perceive a problem or issue.
9
I speak first, and think later.
10
I collaborate with others to solve problems using a variety of problem solving tools and techniques.
11
I cause more harm than good when trying to resolve a conflict.
12
When someone gives me feedback, I ask him or her to provide examples so that I can better understand the issue.
13
I pay attention to other people's body language.
14
Where team agreement is necessary, I figure out the best solution to a problem and then explain why it's the right decision.
15
I study my audiences' needs, decide what I want to say and then figure out the best way to say it.
16
I make sure everyone knows about my contribution to a positive outcome. Total = 0

Score Interpretation
Score Comment
16– 36 Your technical skills may have taken precedence over your people skills in your career to date. You aren't making the most of the relationships you have at work, and this may be limiting your career growth. It's time to assess how you can work better with others in the workplace and develop a more collaborative, understanding, and open approach to getting your needs met – while still achieving team and organizational objectives. (Read below to start.)
37– 58 You recognize that working well with others in the workplace is important; and you are trying to work collaboratively while still making sure your needs are met. There is room for improvement, however, as old habits may creep in during times of stress and pressure. Make a plan to work actively on your people skills so that they form the natural basis for how you approach workplace relationships. (Read below to start.)
59– 80 Your people skills are good. You understand the give and take involved in complex issues involving people. You might not always approach situations perfectly, however you have a sufficiently good understanding to know when and where you need to take steps to rectify things. Keep working on your people skills, and set an example for the rest of your team. And take some time to work on the specific areas below where you lost points. (Read below to start.)

The quiz assesses your skills according to the four main themes below. Review your scores for each theme, and read more where you need to.

Interpersonal Communication Skills
(Statements 6, 9, 13, 15)

Many people spend more time working with other people than they do with processes or products. This means that they need to communicate well with others, and this makes communication skills some of the most important skills in the workplace.

Some of the key communication stumbling block to be aware of include:

•Message barriers: These occur when the person communicating fails to communicate clearly.
If you find that you often confuse people, then a good starting point for fixing this is to figure out what you want to say. Do you want to persuade? Are you trying to motivate? Are you simply informing? Or are you attempting to build a relationship? The purpose of your communication will largely determine what you say and how you say it, and our article on Communications Planning shows you how to prepare for a variety of communication exchanges.
•Receiving barriers: These barriers occur on the receiver's end of the communication, and they typically result from ineffective listening. We hear and understand faster than we speak, and this can lead to boredom and a wandering mind when on the listening end of communication.
To combat this you should try to listen actively to what the speaker is saying. When you engage active listening you respond in a way that makes it clear that you understand the feelings and intent of the speaker. In our article Active Listening, you'll find some useful guidelines to follow when you are on the receiving end of communication.
•Decoding barriers: Here the real message is not fully grasped or translated because of misperceptions, misinterpretations or missing information.
The most common problem here is with mismatched non-verbal communication. A lot of non-verbal communication is unconscious – meaning that the sender isn't aware of the messages he or she is sending, yet these messages can reveal a great deal of someone's true thoughts.
If you can learn to understand people's non-verbal communication, you can improve your people skills significantly. Our article on Body Language will show you how to understand other people's non-verbal communication – and manage your own.
For more on improving your communication skills see the Club Communicate! Learning Stream, and visit our Communication Skills main page.

Managing Differences
(Statements 3, 5, 8, 11)

People can seem to disagree about almost anything – what caused a problem, how to solve it, what values are right, what values are wrong, what goals should be pursued; the list goes on! On top of this, you have the personal, non-job-related differences between people that lead to obvious differences in outlook and approach.

Because of this, respecting and managing the differences between people can be one of the most important skills you can develop! Indeed, it can be a huge advantage if you learn to celebrate and enjoy differences, and make them work to your advantage.

Key to this is recognizing that, in many cases, conflict is not "bad". In fact, conflict often causes significant, positive change. It spawns creative and novel approaches to problem solving, and can actually improve organizational performance if managed properly. In our article on Resolving Team Conflict, we discuss how you can build stronger teams by facing and embracing personal differences. And then, with our Conflict Resolution tool, we outline how to use the Interest-Based Relational (IBR) approach for solving interpersonal issues. Both of these articles outline how you can emerge from conflict with strong and healthy relationships.

When resolving conflict, it helps a lot if you can understand other people's needs and points of view – this can often help you find solutions that may otherwise not have occurred to you. And when you take the time to understand another person's perspective, you are demonstrating your willingness to work together to find a solution. Our articles on Empathy at Work and Perceptual Positions can help you develop this aspect of people skills. These help you to adopt different vantage points when resolving differences.

Finally, you need to be appropriately assertive if you're going to manage differences effectively. Aggression is clearly counter-productive if you're trying to resolve conflict, but also, if you fail to recognize your own needs in a situation, you run the risk of agreeing to a solution that works against your own interests. Again, it's important to remember that differences aren't necessarily negative, so suppressing your thoughts and ideas just to come to an easy agreement isn't effective or efficient. You can read more about assertiveness in the article here. And our piece "Yes to the Person, No to the Task" is a useful approach to use in everyday situations where you need to manage differences assertively and effectively.

Managing Agreement
(Statements 2, 10, 12, 14)

While managing differences may be an obvious application of people skills, managing agreement may not seem to be. However, helping people come to an agreement with one-another is important, and requires a great deal of skill!

"Synergy" is one of the most important things that you're looking for with teamwork. This is where the team's output is better or greater than the sum of each individual's input. To achieve synergy, you need to get people working together collaboratively.

If you've ever participated in a team decision-making process, you probably realize that reaching a decision by yourself can be much more straightforward! The problem with individual decision-making, though, is that you miss out on all of the insights that other people can give. With strong people skills, you don't need to back away from collaborative situations: you can approach team meetings with a genuinely positive attitude!

Tip:
When you're engaging in group decision-making, make sure you avoid the common pitfalls. See our article on Groupthink for more! Part of this involves feeling comfortable with different kinds of questions, and with when to use them, and how. In our article on Questioning Techniques, we look at open and closed questions, as well as other common types of question that you can use to keep conversation flowing and get the specific information you need.

As well as this, it's useful to have a good selection of problem solving tools in your arsenal. When you are confident in your ability to find solutions you will be more likely to participate in these conversations and add value to your team. In our article Opening Closed Minds, we show you how to get your point across effectively, so that you can reach the agreement you are seeking. These types of tools will give you the confidence you need to confront differences, knowing that you can also manage the agreement side of the equation.

Another aspect of managing agreement relates to feedback. When given poorly, people reject feedback: it's viewed as destructive criticism, and it can damage relationships. Delivered well, however, feedback can lead to an improved understanding of one another's needs and perspectives, as well as improving performance and productivity. We look at this in detail in our article, Giving and Receiving Feedback. Also, in our article looking at the Johari Window we outline a great technique for increasing interpersonal understanding through self-disclosure.

The bottom line is that, to develop strong people skills, you need to be able to accept what others are saying and learn from this. Not only will this help you personally, it will help you relate openly and honestly with others.

Personal Integrity
(Statements 1, 4, 7, 16)

Integrity is the cornerstone of people skills. Integrity means basic honesty and truthfulness when dealing with others. It also means working with people openly, and in such a way that people's interests aren't compromised for the sake of the team or the organization.

Basic courtesies like saying “thank you" often, and giving credit where it is due, are the types of people-oriented behaviors that can make all of the difference to other people. Whether you are in a leadership position or not, recognizing your teammates' contributions and acknowledging their efforts will go a long way towards creating a positive, harmonious, and productive team climate. Our articles on Rewarding Your Team, Leading by Example, and Ethical Leadership are all great resources that help you learn how to behave with integrity on a daily basis.

Key Points:
With well-developed people skills, you can communicate effectively on an interpersonal level; manage conflict positively; work productively with others to find solutions and reach agreement; and work with integrity and ethics to motivate and inspire others.

These are all skills that can be learned and developed. Even the most technically-oriented worker can begin to incorporate people skills in his or her work setting.

Best of all, people skills are not limited to the workplace. When worked on actively, they will enrich all aspects of your professional and personal life. This is just one of hundreds of skill-building tools and resources on this site

Human Resources Team Development Ideas: Interpersonal Skills and Effective Work Teams
Tara Cellars, Yahoo! Contributor Network
May 10, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
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Post a commentInterpersonal Skills and Effective Work Teams
In any work setting it is important to understand that interpersonal skills influence how everyone will work together or not and possibly cause conflict. Interpersonal skills are defined as the "skills used when communicating with other people" ("Interpersonal," 1997). Some examples of interpersonal skills include: comprehending what others say, voicing your thoughts effectively, giving and receiving constructive criticism for others, being influential to others, initiating proper conflict resolution, working with others, changing pace when unproductiveness occurs (Business Wire, 2006). If you do not have the adequate skills listed communication will be very hard and frustrating to not only you but others in your work environment. Therefore it is imperative that all companies address the need for interpersonal skills in its employees by both proper training and grouping the right people together in work teams. Conflict will rise and work will not get completed in a timely manner unless our employees have the right interpersonal skills.

In order to build proper work team cohesion there are many items that need to be addressed. Cohesion is defined as "the act or state of cohering, uniting, or sticking together" ("Cohesion," n.d.). In other words team cohesion means that the group works together effectively and cooperatively. These items include: a common purpose and goal, trust between team members, roles and responsibilities, efficient communication, diversity, and a balance between the relationships in the team and the task at hand (Fisher, 1995). Group cohesion is extremely important to any company because if work teams are not working effectively the company suffers through both the aspects of time and money.

The interpersonal skills that are important to team cohesion are the aforementioned examples of interpersonal skills with the addition of assertiveness, persuasion, empathy, sensitivity, and diplomacy (Business Wire, 2006 & CNET Networks, 2007). The reason why I feel each of these is important for team cohesion is explained individually in this paragraph. Comprehension of what other team members say is important in the successfulness of the group because if this is not done, the group suffers from repetition and also work will not be done properly because there is miscommunication. Voicing your ideas is important because it will help the group complete the work with as many ideas as possible. You cannot be afraid to tell others what you feel or think will work best because then that option is not available to the group. Constructive criticism is important for everyone because it is a learning opportunity. You must be influential because it assists others in motivation. You must be able to work well with others or obviously you will try to do the whole project by yourself, and this just cannot work in a group or team setting because others will feel like you are trying to outdo them. Then this causes hostility and the unwillingness to work with you in the future. Someone has to be the motivator of the team when they get off subject or everyone will not get anything done.

Assertiveness is necessary at times because you will need to get your point across in a forceful manner and show others that you will not back down. If you do not then you will get run over and your ideas which are probably good will be thrown right out the window. You must be able to persuade others to get the job done in a timely manner and also in an efficient one. Persuasion is a nice more gentle way to motivate than assertiveness, but since their will be diversity within the group, we must understand that everyone is motivated in different ways. Empathy is important because we must not assume that everyone has the same background or same feelings about certain topics. Sensitivity is about the same as empathy we need to understand that life happens. Unexpected events might come up for group member, such as a death in the family or a child being sick. We must understand this. Diplomacy is essential because negotiation between members is highly important. We have to bring ideas together not just say that one way is the best. The diversity is the best way to assure that our team work is not one sided.

Organizations are becoming progressively group oriented. The purposes of developing teams within the workplace are to get more work done more efficiently and more quickly. Another purpose of work teams is to build relationships and a better corporate culture. Teams can help create cohesion between both management and employees through incorporating both in teams. When one manager oversees the group, it brings the employees within the group much closer to the manager. They come to find out that the managers are people just like they are which helps instill cooperation between them. I think that it is a great idea to have managers and lower level employees work together more in order to form good working relationships within the company.

In the long run more working teams and better interpersonal skills will set that company above the rest because they will be more productive and also a happier and healthier place to work. It is imperative for all companies to understand the importance of interpersonal skills training and how they assist in a better working environment. You cannot just expect people to work together effectively if they are not trained properly. Interpersonal skills are necessary to conduct business within the company and outside of the company. Organizations are now beginning to realize the importance of effective work teams and the need for employees with great interpersonal skills. Companies need to be the forefathers of the start of this great frontier. It will give them a competitive advantage above the rest.

References

Business Wire. (2006, March 22). Comprehensive interpersonal skills training program helps bring out the best in yourself. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from Factiva database

CNET Networks. (2007). Interpersonal communication. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from BNET Web site: http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/interpersonal+communication.html

Cohesion. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved April 19, 2007, from Dictionary.com Web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cohesion

Fisher, K. (1995). Tips for teams: A ready reference for solving common team problems. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Interpersonal. (1997). In Dictionary of Human Resources & Personnel Management, Peter Collin Publishing. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.xreferplus.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=868833&secid=.2.-

You've just finished a phone call with a potential client, and she's agreed to a face-to-face sales meeting with someone at your company.

But who is the right person to send to this important meeting? You have two possibilities: First, there's Joe, who loves to talk and has lots of friends at work. He's definitely a "people person." Then there's Amy, who is quieter and always seems to be able to sense the emotional needs of others. She's not as outgoing as Joe, but she's far more intuitive.

The right choice – or wrong choice – could mean winning or losing this important deal.

Many managers face situations like this on a regular basis. Interpersonal skills are critical for keeping your team motivated and getting them to do their best work. With good use of interpersonal skills, you can increase your team's happiness and engagement in what they're doing, and improve your organization's productivity.

The idea of the "Four Dimensions of Relational Work" can help you match team members' natural aptitudes and skills to specific tasks or projects. In this article, we'll explore how best to use this model to build your team and assign tasks and projects to the people able to do the best job.

What Are the Four Dimensions?
The four dimensions were identified by Timothy Butler, Director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School, and James Waldroop, a founding principal of the consulting firm Peregrine Partners.

Butler and Waldroop analyzed the psychological tests of over 7,000 business professionals and published their findings in their 2004 article, "Understanding 'People' People." According to their findings, the Four Dimensions of Relational Work are:

1.Influence.
2.Interpersonal facilitation.
3.Relational creativity.
4.Team leadership.
Many of us are strong in at least one of these areas – but we may be strong in several areas, or in none of them.

It's not relevant which area is stronger. What is relevant is that if we, or our team members, have a strength in one area, we should try to match their work to that strength.

Butler and Waldroop argue that a good match will make both the manager and the team happier, because everyone will be using their natural strengths. This should also improve the team's performance and productivity.

Let's examine each of the Four Dimensions in greater detail:

1. Influence
People who are strong in this dimension enjoy being able to influence others. They're great at negotiating and persuading, and they love having knowledge and ideas that they can share. Influencers are also good at creating networks: they excel at making strategic friendships and connections.

Influencers don't always have to be in a sales role to use this strength effectively. Perhaps a team member always seems able to "lift" tired colleagues. Or maybe a manager can be relied on to persuade clients to give his team a little more time on a deadline. Both are effective influencers.

2. Interpersonal Facilitation
Team members who are strong in this area are often "behind the scenes" workers. They're good at sensing people's emotions and motivations. They're also skilled at helping others cope with emotional issues and conflict.

For instance, if you suspect that someone you're dealing with has a "hidden agenda" during group meetings, then you may need to ask for help from someone on your team who is strong in interpersonal facilitation. A person with strong intuition will likely have some insight into what is motivating this other team member.

3. Relational Creativity
People who are strong in this dimension are masters at using pictures and words to create emotion, build relationships, or motivate others to act.

Remember that relational creativity is different from influencing. Influencing involves person-to-person interaction, while relational creativity occurs from a distance. An example is a corporate copywriter who writes such a moving speech that the CEO is able to inspire the entire company to meet an aggressive deadline.

4. Team Leadership
Team members who are strong in team leadership succeed through their interactions with others.

This area also might sound like the influencing dimension, but there's an important difference. Influencers thrive on the end result and the role they play in closing a deal. But team leaders thrive on working through other people to accomplish goals, and they're more interested in the people and processes necessary to reach the goal.

Tip:
You can also apply the Four Dimensions of Relational Work to yourself when thinking about your own career development. For example, if you're strong in interpersonal facilitation, you may decide to pursue a career that uses that strength. Assessing the Four Dimensions
It's generally easy to evaluate technical skills when you're recruiting or reviewing a team member's work history. However, identifying someone's interpersonal skills and strengths takes more effort.

Use the following tips to help you to assess your current team members, or to ensure that you're hiring the right person for a position.

•Listen carefully - For example, when you ask a job candidate to explain the best moment at her last job, listen closely. If she talks about when she influenced a key decision, she might be strong in the influence dimension. Remember, influencers love to impact and shape decisions, so also try to find out if she's ever served on a committee or executive board.
•Structure your conversation around a specific skill - For instance, if you need to find a new team member who is strong in interpersonal facilitation, then structure your interview or performance appraisal around that skill. Ask the candidate to describe how he would resolve a conflict between two other colleagues. You could even try role playing.
•Ask when the person experiences "flow" - Finding someone skilled at relational creativity can be difficult. This is because someone may be strong in this area, but has never had a job, project, or task that used this strength. Ask your team member or candidate to describe a time when she experienced flow. If her task at that time was creative, she might be strong in relational creativity.
•Notice how the person makes you feel - It's often easy to identify a person skilled in team leadership, even if he has never held a management position. Pay attention to how you feel when talking to this person, and how that person interacts with other members of his team. If he gets people excited and motivated about their work, or about the opportunities that the organization faces, then he might excel at team leadership.
Rewarding Your Team
As well as using the four dimensions to build your team, and assign tasks and projects to the most appropriate people, you can also use the model to reward your team effectively. Relational work is often ignored or undervalued. But these interpersonal traits are what make the organization function effectively.

It's important to compensate your team members for these skills, because the more they're rewarded, the more they'll use those skills.

Start by educating your team members about their own dimension. You could do this in informal, one-on-one conversations or during their performance appraisals. Try to connect some type of compensation to their skill, and make sure they understand that they'll be rewarded for using their strengths.

You can also reward team members by giving them work that uses their strength. This may require you to create a new role, or mean simply reshaping the role that a person has now. It doesn't have to be a huge change; adding tasks or projects that use people's strengths can influence dramatically how satisfied they are with their jobs – and with the organization.

Tip 1:
To help ensure balance, try to structure your teams so that all four dimensions are represented by someone. (Of course, this may not be a suitable approach for all teams - so use your best judgment.)

Tip 2:
When you look for people to fill each dimension, don't make decisions based on job titles, because team members may not currently be in roles or positions that use their strengths. Key Points
The Four Dimensions of Relational Work can help you understand team members' interpersonal strengths, as well as your own strengths. The four dimensions are influence, interpersonal facilitation, relational creativity, and team leadership.

Matching people's strongest dimensions with the work they do benefits everyone. When you and your team are using your strengths, you're all more satisfied and excited about what you're doing – and your organization benefits from improved productivity and engagement. This is just one of hundreds of skill-building tools

Interpersonal skills has to do with how you relate to others. These include:

- Communication Skills
- Negotiation Skills
- Assertiveness
- Manners
- Conflict Resolution
- Team Building
- Strategic Thinking

and many more.

Improving interpersonal skills can be very helpful for all areas of your life: in friendships, romantic relationships, with classmates, work colleagues, and even while running errands.

Enjoying good interpersonal skills is all around very helpful in life. Nevertheless, some of these skills may not come naturally to you and you may need to work on improving a few of them. The first step to improve these skills is to take a look at yourself and the nature of your current relationships.

You can first ask yourself if you believe you are well-liked. Also, ask friends and family members how they perceive you. Do they think you are respectful, caring, assertive, confident? Is the image people have of you consistent to what you thought of yourself?

Knowing what parts of your personality are coming off the strongest is crucial in your plan to making further improvements on your interpersonal skills: if you do not make this initial assessment, you won't know what you need to work on.

One of the easiest things to improve your relationships is to adopt a more positive attitude. A smile is contagious, and can go a long way in making other people feel comfortable around you.

Also, show others that you care about them and are interested in their thoughts and feelings. Ask questions. Remember names and specific details about them. If you are in a work team, remember to at least listen to and consider others' thoughts and ideas.

Be generous with praise, but remember to also be sincere. This goes along with being a good listener. Doing this, not only gives validation, but can really improve conflict resolution.

Put yourself in other peoples shoes. This can help both you and the other person get along and learn from each other. If you can see an issue from their perspective, you will get a clearer and broader understanding the present situation. This shows that you are respectful of others.

Finding a common ground with people really improves relationships, whether at work or personal. This can bridge the gap in thinking, and create a natural relationship that flows easily. Because, once you understand someone, it is much easier to get along with them.

In reality, not all techniques work with all people. But in general, people want to feel validated and listened to. Using the old adage, treating people like you want to be treated almost always works. You will find, after a while, that it will become easier.

Once you know how to improve interpersonal skills it will be second nature. Not only that, but this will go a long way in improving your career, your love life, and your friendships.

Learning the right set of interpersonal skills can help you get ahead at work, stand out at school, become closer to your partner, and improve your overall relationships.

Learn free tips and useful information at: http://InterpersonalSkillsOnline.com

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