In simple language, interpersonal skill means interaction between people. We all start doing it from the moment we are born and as we grow up, we get more skilled at communicating our wants, needs, feelings and thoughts.
We also learn to interpret other people in turn, so that in adulthood we are aware of what influence our behaviour has on others. We often find that people with good interpersonal skills are easy to deal with.
They relate to other people smoothly, they seem to know the right things to say and they make communication in general an easy process. They sometimes do not mind making fools of themselves. Moreover, the more comfortable they are with themselves, the more comfortable we are in being with them.
Image Source: interpersonalwellness.com
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It is quite possible for everyone to develop effective interpersonal skills with a little effort. You can learn how to deal with the feelings that arise in difficult situations instead of being overwhelmed by them. Nobody lives a life free of feelings. Everyone has moments where they feel less than capable.
Interpersonal skills refer to mental and communicative algorithms applied during social communications and interaction to reach certain effects or results.
The term “interpersonal skills” is used often in business contexts to refer to the measure of a person’s ability to operate within business organizations through social communication and interactions. Interpersonal skills are concerned with how people relate to one another.
All teachers need and use a variety of interpersonal skills in every aspect of their work. The difficult thing, however, is to teach these skills to other people. Very often, they are learned through the process of observing older and more experienced colleagues at work.
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The problem arises when those colleagues demonstrate that they do not have particular interpersonal skills often because those colleagues were given no formal training either and so the cycle of events continues.
Along with the practice of interpersonal skills, one needs a set of values, a series of attitudes, all of which contribute to the ‘human’ element of interpersonal behaviour.
We cannot afford to train others and ourselves in a range of skills alone. The interpersonally skilled person is one who demonstrates humane, caring qualities. According to Rogers, a basic cluster of such necessary qualities may be identified as warmth, genuineness, empathy, and unconditional positive regard.