What Are Interpersonal Skills?

Interpersonal skills are essential for any line of work. Regardless of your position, your ability to communicate, lead, listen, and collaborate on a team will impact your day-to-day work experience. Employers are likely to value such skills ahead of any qualifications you might bring to the table. For that reason, it is important to grow in these areas.  

By Timothy Mably

Certain transferable skills are relevant across all fields of work, like interpersonal skills. Such attributes showcase a person’s ability to communicate and collaborate within a professional setting. For that reason, they might be the most important qualities a hiring manager looks for in a potential employee. Unlike typical soft skills, interpersonal skills indicate someone can function as both a leader and a team player. 

Regardless of your experience or past accomplishments, interpersonal skills can rank higher than any qualifications on your resume. The way you engage and interact with your boss and your coworkers will either set you up for success or contribute to a negative work atmosphere for everyone.

During an interview, your interpersonal skills will be the first thing on display. This includes simple etiquette such as eye contact and your ability to both listen and ask questions, which indicate intentionality to better understand a role. However, interpersonal skills also extend to other areas of professionalism and remain relevant throughout your time in a position. Whether you demonstrate good communication or lack these skills, it will impact those around you and your own day-to-day work experience.

The LinkedIn Learning 2020 Workplace Learning Report emphasized the importance of interpersonal skills, referring to them as “essential.” The top five soft skills included creativity, collaboration, persuasion, and emotional intelligence as foundational areas which all professionals should be trying to grow in. Each trait corresponds to interpersonal attributes in some form.

1) Creativity

2) Persuasion

3) Collaboration

4) Adaptability

5) Emotional Intelligence

Communication

There are good reasons why they say communication is everything. Clear and healthy communication can spark productivity, establish good rapport, and efficiently resolve conflict in the workplace. Poor communication can minimize productivity as misunderstandings get in the way of a project, setting a negative precedent which could quickly morph into conflict.

In a LinkedIn Learning course on interpersonal communication, business administration Professor Dorie Clark points out that in today’s world of constant communication through email, social media, and conference calls, there may be more ways to connect with others — but there’s also greater opportunity for misunderstanding. 

Clark goes on to reference research conducted by Coqual which found that the most important component of “executive presence” is strong communication skills. “If you can master that, people see you differently. Everything you do becomes easier because people are more likely to support you and want to help you.” In the data collected, 28% of senior executives described communication as a key part of leadership skills, the ability to command a room, and the ability to read others.

Listening

Strong communication skills also involve strong listening skills. Whether you are functioning in a leadership role or are collaborating on a team, attentively listening to others around you can be crucial. However, listening to your colleagues doesn’t just pertain to the content of a conversation. 

LinkedIn Learning author Brenda Bailey-Hughes explains, “Listening is not just an auditory process. Much of the meaning of a message comes from the nonverbal cues a speaker gives us, facial expressions, body language, tone of voice. So are you good at noticing and interpreting those body language signals?”

Simply being aware of whether you are good at reading others based on their tone and body language can be a helpful step in the right direction. As previously mentioned by Coqual’s research, the ability to read colleagues, customers, and others you encounter through work can contribute to your interpersonal skills and overarching leadership qualities.

Leadership and Teamwork

Although most people tend to recognize that leaders are made over time as opposed to being born that way, we don’t often operate in that mentality. For that reason, the idea of becoming a leader might seem intimidating at first. However, leading a group of people and working within a team doesn’t just pertain to extroverted personalities. Anyone can strengthen their communication skills and take on both leadership and collaborative qualities in the process.

True leadership does not pretend to be without error or room for improvement. Instead, a leader in the workplace will present an example for coworkers to follow. This begins through establishing relationships with colleagues and intentionally engaging in a positive professional culture while setting a standard to emulate.

“When you practice getting better at receiving feedback, you're not only driving your own learning and growth, you're creating a mindset that allows you to give better feedback to others,” says LinkedIn Learning author Linda Croyle. In her course, Croyle teaches that leading in a professional setting can directly tie into how you function as a team with coworkers.

"...you're not only driving your own learning and growth, you're creating a mindset that allows you to give better feedback to others."

Effective communication can be the result of openness with a supervisor or colleagues. By remaining open to constructive criticism and feedback, we consider areas where we falter. Such critique can range from general advice to specific suggestions.  

Maintaining a level of openness with those around you can relieve tension, reduce potential for conflict, and create learning experiences for those in a workplace. In this sense, while you are refining your leadership ability and collective interpersonal skills, you are also participating in a team effort. As Croyle goes on to say, “Be the example for your team to see how essential it is to one's growth to solicit and positively accept feedback.”  

Ultimately, interpersonal skills are relationship-based skills that carry over into all lines of work. Regardless of your life stage, previous employment, or past achievements, you will benefit from continually evaluating and strengthening how you communicate with others. Not only will you grow professionally, but you will also give those around you an example worth following. 

(Editing by Onjeinika Brooks)