Imagine living a life on your own, shying away from the rest of the world. This seems impossible as majority of what you do every single day is to interact and communicate with people in one way or another. People interact in just about any situation, yet because every individual has a unique personality, the ability to deal with others also varies from one person to another.
People interaction may not be an easy skill to acquire but everybody requires it, nonetheless. Mastery of people skill is challenging to individuals because every person has a unique and different personality. You have a characteristic that is not exactly similar with that of the others. You have various personal preferences, ideas and opinions, and varying personalities. You will find that it is easier to acquire something and achieve personal goals if you simply know how to talk to the people around you or develop relationships with them.
What People Skills is About?
Developing people skills is not just about making a lot of friends. You cannot expect everyone to become your friend or even to like you. Rather, it is about proper interaction or socialization in both personal and professional aspects, benefiting your personal and work goals and fulfilling your needs. You may have encountered some people who have a way of dealing with different types of individuals with different personalities effectively. These individuals have mastered people skill over time and experience.
People skill is not only for a select few; anyone can acquire and develop this personal ability with constant practice and application. Yet, it takes sustained practice and a constant application of the skill with good exposure to become effective at it.
Pre-Requisites in Developing People Skills
People skills involve many other basic skills or competencies to become a truly people-oriented individual. But these basic skills are gradual in development. Communication skill, for example, is a basic ability that every person must be able to develop before learning higher levels of skills such as dealing with conflict. The following skills form part of mastering people skills:
Communication Skill
Communication skill is the ability to be able to effectively relay your message to other people and be understood easily by them. It is about being able to deliver a message effectively.
Listening Skill
Listening ability is a basic requirement of effective communication. A person must not only learn how to talk to others, but also to listen and comprehend with is being said.
Persuasion Skill
Developing the ability to persuade and influence people in a good way makes it easy to build and enhance good people skills.
Personality
Considering the fact that people have different personalities, learning how to understand and adjust to various personality types would make you an effective people-oriented person.
Conflict
In your encounter with people every day, expect to have differences in opinions and views with them. Be prepared to deal with such situations by learning the skill of handling conflicts.
Negotiation Skill
When you have leveled up and mastered the basic skills, it will be easier for you to learn the ability to negotiate and compromise with other people.
All these abovementioned skills serve as pre-requisites in building effective people skills. When you finally learn how to effectively communicate your message with good listening, handling different people becomes easier and by doing so, you will also easily achieve many things that you wish to attain, especially on a professional aspect.
Interpersonal Communication
Since people skill is about being able to relate and deal with people effectively in both the personal and professional level, it is also a concept of interpersonal communication. However, as mentioned, the goal of acquiring such skill is not merely to gain friends and acquaintances. But rather, it is about having interpersonal skills as well. This simply means that with good people abilities, you also possess good interpersonal abilities. Whether you intend to build relationships with people or simply need to handle matters with them without having to create a connection, you need the right people skills. It also follows that you are an effective person if you are able to handle various situations with different people well, in both your personal as well as your professional life.
