Why Interpersonal Savvy Is The Secret To Your Success
Have you ever been in a situation when a position you’ve had your eye on for a while comes available, and you thought you were a shoo-in? You’ve done all the work prove that you are ready, you interview and BAM, you don’t get the job? When you ask why you didn’t get the role, the feedback is that you’re not ready because you need a bit more polish or something similar.
Well, if this sounds familiar, today’s post is for you. Today we’re going to talk about a leadership competency that prevents some of the best and brightest from getting the job their dreams; interpersonal savvy.
What is interpersonal savvy?
Interpersonal savvy is the ability to build and maintain solid working relationships with your peers, direct reports and others. They’re the people or soft skills we use daily when interacting with others.
In particular, some of the most important people skills are verbal and nonverbal communication skills, including listening skills. Additionally, it’s relationship building, teamwork, and collaboration, as well as dependability and adaptability.
Why does interpersonal savvy matter?
Being interpersonally savvy is critical because if you desire to be a successful entrepreneur, have some degree of success in corporate America, or want to experience some degree of success in your home or personal life, you need to know how to get along with others.
As a leader, if you want to build a high performing team with high morale, you must have good interpersonal skills. If you want to attract and retain great talent, you must good interpersonal skills.
In short, interpersonal skills can affect the morale, financial performance and of a company, a business or department.
When you have great people skills
1. You’re able to build rapport and get along well with others.
Pretty self-explanatory. It means you’re able to communicate, have good conversations and good relationships with people at a variety of different levels, regardless of their ethnicity, their title, where they come from, their economic status or any of that. You’re able to build rapport and get along well with others.
2. You’re able to build strong working relationships with a variety of people within the organization at a variety of levels.
As a leader in my organization, I need to be able to get along with people on the front line, my peers and my manager who’s the actual president of the organization. They’re all at different levels, but I have a very good working relationship with all three.
3. You’re able to diffuse situations with relative ease.
Whenever there’s conflict, you don’t get caught up in the emotion of the moment. You can step into a situation, assess it, and see both sides. Then, you can also get people on the same page so that everyone can express their thoughts and their feelings, and come to a conclusion about the next steps.
4. You have high emotional intelligence
You can identify your emotions in the moment, manage them, and also manage the emotions of others.
When you lack people skills
1. You’re not able to develop a rapport and build strong relationships with others.
2. You’re quick to get angry or frustrated.
3. You have poor verbal and nonverbal communication skills.
4. You have poor active listening skills.
5. You’re not politically savvy, which the ability to understand the politics involved in a situation or an organization, being able to manage those politics and sidestepping to achieve a positive outcome.
6. You’re not a team player
7. You’re not very well-liked.
How to Develop Interpersonal Savvy
Here is the fun part. Let’s talk about how you can develop your people skills.
1: Compile a list of people skills
At the bottom of this post, you can download a list of people skills.
2: Look through the list and determine where you perform well and where you have opportunities to improve.
Once you understand where you do well and where you have an opportunity, make it a point to continue to do those things that you do well.
3: Create an action plan
For those things that you don’t do so well or where you might need some development, create an action plan by identifying those skills and activities that you should engage in to improve.
4: Enlist the help of others
Since people skills are about how you interact with others and being able to build relationships, ask for feedback from the people around you, both professionally and personally, about your performance in a particular area.
5: Keep developing
Developing people skills is a lifelong endeavor. It doesn’t stop. You don’t learn the skill and then you’re perfect for the rest of your life. There are times that we slide back into old behaviors. Keep moving forward
Summary
- Interpersonal savvy is one’s ability to develop and maintain strong working relationships with direct reports, managers, and peers. Interpersonal savvy simply means having good people skills.
- To be successful at work, at home, and in life, you have to be able to get along with others.
- Having good people skills can determine your personal financial success as well as the financial success of your company.
Next Steps
A list of the most valuable people skills corporations look for has been created for you. Download the list below, assess your skills, create an action plan and start developing!
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