Interpersonal communication skills help you streamline the steps needed to turn goals into reality.
Good interpersonal communication makes tough decisions easier to resolve and helps to spark goal-oriented conversations. It also involves showing your intent verbally and visually, which makes you feel more driven (which makes you happier, even when success isn’t right around the corner).
Interpersonal communication involves making small, social efforts to directly affect major decisions happening in the workplace or personal life.
Read on to see just how immensely strong communicating interpersonally can impact your overall success in life!
1. Interpersonal Communication Skills Teach You to Work Smarter
Your boss cares more about visible skills than hard work.
Yes, you read that right. Hard work isn’t the means to an end; it’s just a means to more hard work.
Be smart; work smart!
Spend your energy on a combination of high-investment tasks and interpersonal communication, and you’ll see outstandingly awesome results!
A little goes a long way. This doesn’t mean you can chat with everybody instead of doing your job, but it does mean your boss seeing results is just as important as making those results happen!
You’ll love seeing your efforts go further and finding ways to spend that extra time you saved by utilizing these interpersonal communication tips.
Look for opportunities to show the team your worth. When someone drops the ball and you want more responsibility, go for it! When it goes great, talk to the boss about interest in similar future opportunities. If the opportunity is more work than it’s worth, just do a stellar job on something you’re already working on and put your name on it.
Dale Carnegie Training offers corporate solutions to use your emotional intelligence when seeking growth or leadership opportunities.
2. You’ll Have More Friends
If you want high-level rewards, it’s good to show a healthy amount of confidence and exchange thoughts over lunch.
Maybe Judy annoys the you-know-what out of you, but if you bring up something you like talking about, it’ll be a subtle Alpha moment and will improve your end-of-day mood (and, accordingly, your mood the next day, and so on).
Furthermore, a lot of ladder-climbing happens outside the workplace. There is a classic episode of Friends where one of the female leads, Rachel, pretends she is a smoker to be involved in decision-making happening outside the office doors with higher-ups who frequently smoke at work.
This is a great example of leveraging interpersonal communication skills.
Now, we certainly wouldn’t suggest harming your body in any way to achieve better interpersonal communication skills, but you can use your breaks, lunches, happy hours, and team-building sessions to collaborate and grow your reputation. Simply initiate a conversation or invite a few like-minded individuals to a happy hour, perhaps making it a weekly thing.
Don’t bring up work too often, but subtly weave ideas into conversation while being sure to ask your coworkers questions. This will spark interest.
Also, talk about what you like to do outside of work; this is a surprisingly effective way to spark new ideas and build the networks you’ll need for projects down the road.
The Feminine Collective shares some ways interpersonal communication affects your relationships at work and at home.
3. Better Interpersonal Communication Leads to Higher Pay
Having good interpersonal communication skills shows your personal investment in the company.
You have to utilize strong interpersonal communication skills to build lasting relationships with coworkers and clients. Most jobs have regular reviews of employee work, and bosses use your interpersonal communication skills to get a better picture of what you’re like as an employee. Good employees are expected to possess soft skills (as well as meeting job requirements).
You also show the ole’ boss how invested you are in your future there. People who lack interest and drive tend to display worse soft skills, and communicating interpersonally is a critical soft skill.
When review time comes, good communication skills will help you show what a great job you’ve done and can turn a bad review into an interview for a promotion!
Also, hard work and good communication will show everyone you work with that you’re interested in your work life and in the company.
4. Interpersonal Communication Skills Leave a Strong First Impression
Strong interpersonal communication is an interview ‘win.’
A strong first impression will affect your job and your ability to achieve general goals for years to come. A smile, a strong handshake, a statement of introduction, and a display of interest all tell people more than an interview could.
Conover Co. talks more about the importance of building relationships and managing them in the workplace.
In fact, it helps to think of an interview, or a similar encounter, as a first date. The other person is deciding what you can offer them long-term, and every bit of body language and verbiage affects their expectations positively or negatively.
Beyond that, you can still prove a lot more, but many recruiters say this is most important.
These skills will make people fall in love with you
Studies show that people who have satisfying relationships have strong communication skills and are more likely to gain leadership roles. This means you are letting your best qualities shine without hesitation when you interact with others.
Are you currently single and thinking, “What about me?”
That’s okay; you don’t have to be in a relationship to make people love you or climb the ladder. There are many other kinds of relationships you can create and use for networking without a romantic partner.
Practicing introductions and collaborations in and outside the workplace works both your hard and soft skills, which come through in an interview or any setting.
Eye contact and the right hello can help you find love and success?! The only thing you have to lose is a great opportunity.
5. They Help You Feel Happier About Work
We all know bad days are inevitable, but that doesn’t mean you have to be miserable all the time.
Climbing the corporate ladder, or becoming a business owner, means taking a lot of time to build and combine experience and communication.
Research shows that even if you don’t love your job or the people you work with, talking to them will make you feel better overall about it. This is due to our brains being hardwired to pair up and find a tribe.
We also instinctively explore our power and role in a group when using interpersonal communication skills. When you go home each day, you will note your daily victories in the direction of those conversations.
Are you feeling unhappy at work despite trying these interpersonal communication tips?
Your strong communication can help you see which relationships (or jobs) are most likely to change your life for the better. You might have to simply put clues together, seeing that your boss doesn’t reward these skills as heavily as a friend’s boss at a similar job.
If this is the case, don’t stay stuck. Use your skills to find a job or career that you deserve.
Looking for more exceptional tips on how to communicate effectively and better connect with others? Check out this game-changing video by the brilliant Doc Barham.
