When most people think about vital workplace skills, they often focus on those hard, technical abilities they use to perform their job duties. However, there are many non-technical skills that can be just as crucial for employment success. In fact, those soft skills can often be the determining factor in hiring decisions, since employers are almost always focused on finding candidates who have the interpersonal skills needed to work well with others. But what are interpersonal skills and why are they so important?

In this article, we'll answer that question and provide some examples of interpersonal skills that employers prioritize. We'll also offer some tips that can help you improve your own people skills and explain how you can highlight those abilities during your job search.

What are interpersonal skills?

Interpersonal skills include all those abilities you use whenever you're successfully interacting with other people – whether in or outside of the workplace. These abilities are soft skills that are sometimes referred to as people skills. Unlike hard technical talents that are learned via formal training and education, your interpersonal skills tend to be learned and improved over time as your personality traits and social skills are developed through life experience and regular use.

You've developed a learned set of behaviors and social strategies that you use when you interact with the people you encounter. For example, interactions with family members probably involve certain behavioral patterns that you've fallen into over the course of your life. Many of those communication skills and attitudes are likely to play a role in your workplace interactions as well.

It's important to recognize and understand your own interpersonal skills so that you learn to emphasize your most positive traits and social abilities when you interact with others. By learning about your own personality and instinctive behaviors, you can practice the most important skills and work to improve any weaknesses that might negatively impact your relationships with others.

Why do interpersonal skills matter to employers?

No matter what job you hold in the workplace, you'll need some level of interpersonal skills if you want to succeed. These abilities can be vital for helping you build trust, understand others' needs and desires, and work effectively within any team setting. They're also critical for consistently delivering quality customer service, enjoying meaningful interactions with superiors, and avoiding unnecessary conflict.

In fact, these skills are so important in the workplace that employers are always on the lookout for candidates who demonstrate those competencies. Today's companies need employees who know how to collaborate with others, serve customer needs, and contribute to workplace harmony. If you're competing with ten other equally qualified candidates for a position, there's a good chance that your interpersonal skills could be the determining factor in whether you get an interview or job offer.

Related reading: How to Advance Your Career (plus 10 Insightful Tips)

Examples of interpersonal skills for the workplace

It's one thing to understand what interpersonal skills are. You also need to understand which interpersonal skills can help you enjoy better outcomes in any work environment. Below, we'll examine a variety of the most important interpersonal skills for workplace success.

Communication

All interpersonal relations rely on effective communication skills. Without the ability to communicate ideas, emotions, and information, it would be almost impossible for any two people to enjoy any type of positive interaction. At work, you need to be able to communicate with your superiors, coworkers, and customers in an effective and meaningful way. Those communication skills are necessary for ensuring that you're all on the same page, helping to prevent misunderstandings that can quickly turn into conflict.

Related reading: 11 Best Communication Skills for Your Resume (With Examples)

Active listening

Active listening is another key interpersonal skill. This type of listening goes well beyond the act of hearing what others say. When you actively listen, you hear their words and make a conscious effort to understand their underlying perspective, feelings, and message. To use this skill, you need to be able to give others your full attention, listen to their words without judgment, and avoid the urge to interrupt them. Instead, you let them speak and then use clarifying questions to ensure that you fully understand them.

Relationship building

The ability to create, develop, and strengthen relationships is also an essential interpersonal skill for the workplace. Being focused on relationship development requires you to use a whole host of other interpersonal skills – ranging from networking and negotiation to social intelligence and intrapersonal skills – or have the ability to use your own self-awareness to make better decisions that improve your performance. Being able to build strong relationships at work will help you to contribute to a more team-oriented workplace culture that achieves common goals.

Related reading: Relationship Building: How to Build Good Relationships at Work

Positivity

A positive mindset may be one of the most important interpersonal skills since most people tend to react well to positivity. Are you optimistic in life and hopeful for positive outcomes? Do you tend to avoid negativity and instead strive to focus on opportunity and possibilities? If so, that's a powerful character trait that can serve you well in your interactions in the workplace. The good news is that this is a trait that can be developed and cultivated – that is, if you're consciously choosing to focus on being optimistic.

Empathy

Empathy is a component of your emotional intelligence and reflects your ability to put yourself in another person's shoes and understand their feelings and needs. This compassionate approach to interpersonal relationships can enable you to build greater trust and rapport with colleagues, subordinates, clients, and other stakeholders. It's also a vital interpersonal skill for any positive workplace environment.

Conflict resolution

Many job candidates neglect this vital interpersonal skill, especially when it comes to the skill section of their resume. Nevertheless, conflict resolution is a key skill for successful interactions with others. Conflict is all but inevitable in the workplace, and the ability to resolve disagreements in a productive way can help you to avoid workplace disruption. People with this skill are usually adept at active listening, problem-solving, and empathy.

Related reading: 7 Best Problem-Solving Skills for Your Resume + Examples

Reliability

Are you dependable? Can employers, customers, and coworkers rely on you to meet their needs? Dependability is a critical interpersonal skill that all employers appreciate. After all, they want you to be on time, dedicated to your role, and faithful to your commitments. When you are, they're more likely to entrust you with greater responsibility and authority.

Teamwork

Your ability to effectively work within a team will always be an attractive skill for employers. This ability requires you to effectively combine other interpersonal skills like active listening, adaptability, empathy, and communication to collaborate with others in pursuit of a shared goal. Team players tend to get noticed by supervisors and leaders, and often end up on the fast track to career advancement.

Tips for improving your interpersonal skills

Chances are that you already possess some measure of each of these critical interpersonal skills. Still, you may be wondering whether you can improve those abilities. The good news is that these types of abilities can be developed and strengthened. The following tips can help you improve those skills.

  • Start by examining your current interpersonal skills to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Are you always choosing and using the right words, emotions, and body language when you interact with others? Take note of any times when you might have received better results with a different interpersonal approach.

  • Ask coworkers, friends, and family members to critique your people skills. Make sure that you use active listening to take in that feedback and avoid the temptation to defend yourself.

  • Take note of others in your workplace who seem to have superior interpersonal skills. Try to identify their strategy for interacting with others so that you can adopt their techniques.

  • Get a mentor who can provide you with an honest assessment of your interpersonal skills and offer advice to help you make improvements.

  • Set goals for self-improvement and develop a plan to practice the skills that need improvement. For example, if you need to improve your active listening skills, make a commitment to practicing that form of deep listening during all your interactions at work.

Highlight your interpersonal skills during your job search

Of course, you'll need to do more than just improve your interpersonal skills. You'll also need to know how to convey those skills to employers to improve your chances of landing great jobs. There are several key things you can do to make sure that employers know about your interpersonal skills.

  1. Add some of these interpersonal skills to your resume. You can insert several into the skills section and add one or two to the achievement statements you include in your work experience section. For those achievement statements, make sure that you use real numbers to show how you used those skills to add value to the company's bottom line.

  2. You can also include interpersonal skills in your cover letter. However, you'll likely want to talk about a single skill in that letter, focusing on it as a primary interpersonal strength.

  3. Finally, you can use these interpersonal skills during your interview. Make sure that you communicate effectively, use active listening while the interviewer is speaking, show up on time, and maintain a positive attitude throughout the experience.

Related reading: 47 Accomplishment Examples for Your Resume: Expert Picks

Develop your interpersonal skills to boost your career!

So, what are personal skills? As it turns out, they're some of the most important skills needed for long-term career success! When you develop and strengthen these critical people skills, you can more effectively interact with others, collaborate to meet your company's goals, and enjoy more positive, long-term relationships.

Now that you know what interpersonal skills are, it's time to make sure that your resume effectively conveys your people skills to employers. Get your free resume review today!

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