What is the way for steady career growth? It is your impressive interpersonal skills that will help you grow.
According to a survey, 81% of recruiters consider interpersonal skills more important than any other skill.
“Soft Skills get little respect, but will make or break your career” – Peggy Klaus
Before moving ahead to its role in your career, let us have a brief introduction.
What are soft skills?
The term soft skills were first introduced by the US Army in the 1960s. It is a set of personality traits to denote your relationship in a social environment.
It includes communication skills, personal habits, social skills, emotional empathy.
Also, language skills, leadership quality, time management skills, and teamwork.
Now, let us break its meaning into a professional aspect.
What kind of a manager would you prefer? One with zero emotional empathy or the one who understands you and empathizes.
Most of us will choose the second one.
Because we are humans, not robots. We need a certain level of emotional empathy from people around us.
This is where your interpersonal skills come into play.
Soft skills are also known as common skills. It includes the following skills preferred in all professions.
You might wonder why these skills are so important for success?
Let us take an example, suppose you’re cooking a curry. You somehow forget to add turmeric into it.
What will be the consequence?
The curry will not have a good color and might taste a bit different too.
Even if little, every ingredient is essential for a delightful recipe. Similar is the case with the success recipe.
Interpersonal skills will help you build healthy relationships and an impressive personality.
Now, let us see how different soft skills help you grow in any particular job or industry.
Top 10 interpersonal skills to have on your resume preferred by recruiters/employers
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Empathy
When you think of a company’s most valuable asset, what comes to your mind?
Customers are lifelines for a business and its growth.
To understand the customers, you will often try to fit in their shoes.
Sales, customer service, Educator, Nursing, a career in NGOs, Corporate Social Responsibility, Therapists, Entrepreneur. These fields need you to be empathetic to serve people better.
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Public Speaking
When you are attracting people with what and how you speak, you can’t afford to be a bad public speaker.
Speaking in public is the most effective among interpersonal skills.
Sales, consultancy, tutoring, Public relations, Speakers, Managers, Lawyers, Counselling.
These are some of the fields that need good public speaking skills.
“70% of jobs today involve some kind of public speaking” (Read the full study)
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Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Like public speaking, most jobs need these skills.
Every industry is trying to solve one or another problem.
So you need to have the ability to identify those problems (critical-thinking).
And come up with solutions (problem-solving) as well.
Both these skills go hand in hand. If you are not a critical-thinker, you may never catch hold of a problem.
And if you lack problem-solving, what is the use of identifying a problem?
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Listening Skills
Complimentary to public speaking is listening skills. Why do you have to be a good listener?
Because when you listen, you understand better.
Listening skills are important when you try to understand others perspectives. It is the key to great communication.
Healthcare, consultancy, therapists, judge, teaching. These are some industries that require you to have a firm hold on your listening skills.
“Less than 2% of the population has had formal education on how to listen. “ (Read More)
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Leadership
No one is a born leader. We grow and learn in the process.
Leadership is not only significant for your career but your life as well.
Do you know what differentiates a leader from a follower? The courage to execute and faith.
A leader starts and inspires others to follow. Leadership is a quality to reach to the top-management as Managers and CEOs.
If you want to land there, develop the leadership quality in you.
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Creativity
Creativity is in high demand nowadays.
Making videos or preparing excellent marketing strategies, creativity is a common friend.
Careers that involve creating demands creativity.
Marketing, sales, execution, advertising, film industry, designing, and writing. These are some among many fields that need out of the box creativity.
“Trying new things makes you more creative”
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Team Work
You don’t always work alone, right? Hence, teamwork is an ability you must own to succeed.
Good teamwork occurs when each one of the team gets an equal chance to perform.
And when does that happen? When there is smooth coordination and communication.
So, interpersonal skills are often dependent on each other.
If you communicate well, you will end up doing a fair amount of teamwork.
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Self- motivation
“We want an individual who is a self-starter”.
Read this in hundreds of job postings?
Self-starters are people who take ownership. They execute plans without much supervision.
If you are self-motivated to perform your duties, you are a perfect match for jobs like this.
Self-starters are passionate, dedicated, and hardworking individuals.
Freelancing, education sector, events management. These are fields that offer great opportunities for self-starters.
“Push yourselves, because no one else is doing that for you”
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Digital literacy
Technology seems to develop even faster than the speed of light.
With the digital revolution, recruiters prefer candidates who are ‘digitally’ literate.
There are many jobs based on digital platforms.
Digital marketing, social media managers, audio and video productions, cloud computing.
These are some fields that need you to be tech-savvy and adapting.
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Time-management
We all have to agree that time management is something we all struggle with.
Even after so much multitasking, we always run short of time.
Time management is a skill achieved when you learn to prioritize things or tasks to do.
Make a routine. Make short-term goals and be focused.
Jobs that involve a strict timeline demand impressive time management skills.
“10-12 minutes invested in planning your day will save at least 2 hours of wasted time and effort throughout the day.”
In conclusion, interpersonal skills are significant for your career growth.
You may get a job based on your professional skills. But learning and upskilling requires interpersonal skills.
We grow when we try out different things and network with people.
In growth, change is inevitable. So, start improving your interpersonal skills today.
