Your ability to get along with your coworkers is the key to professional advancement. Find out how your interpersonal skills determine how far your career will go.
Many of us have boasted about how fantastic our interpersonal skills are on our CV’s.
Thus, we’re “excellent communicators”, and “great team players”.
While these are valid talents to boast of, the extent to which you get along with others in the workplace is crucial.
In fact, research shows that having a positive relationship with colleagues is a deciding factor in career progression.
Additionally, studies often equate emotional intelligence with interpersonal skills, and for good reason.
Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to process your feelings, and manage those of other people.
According to research data, people who show a high degree of emotional intelligence also express sophisticated interpersonal relationships.
Interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence
These abilities are beneficial in the workplace as they’re core attributes of leadership.
Effective and influential leaders notice and manage negative triggers in the workplace. By doing so, good management can navigate work-related stress in their team, and focus on proper problem solving.
Additionally, interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence are valuable resources for identifying the unique talents of each of their team members. Studies support the positive link between employees feeling valued at work, and higher professional engagement.
Furthermore, these talents enable a fluid response to difficult situations that result in decisive, and oftentimes innovative problem solving.
Therefore, those with the above skills identify and deconstruct a conflict. Then, they allocate the right people and resources to neutralise the issue.
Colleagues and leaders with low interpersonal skills have a negative and damaging effect on their team.
According to a nationwide survey in the U.S, researchers found that:
“Interpersonal skills include the leader’s ability to build strong relationships internally and externally, and to motivate others.
“The most effective leaders adjust their behaviour to reflect the needs of the situation and the people they are working with.”
The survey also found that interpersonal skills become more and more important as a person climbs the command chain.
Therefore, while practical experience is a fundamental aspect of fulfilling a job role, how well someone respects and interacts with others is an indicator of how far they’ll progress.
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