Why Interpersonal Skills Are Important: With 9 Examples

Interpersonal skills are a set of abilities or strengths that enable you to communicate, build, and maintain relationships with others. Some people possess impressive interpersonal skills, or what we call “people skills”.

Think of that one person you know who becomes besties with a stranger after five minutes; they connect with people easily. The rest of us struggle to relate or sustain connections with people.

Regardless of where you are in your interpersonal relationships, there may be one or two areas for improvement. I wrote about skills that promote interpersonal relationships, so this is like a sequel to that; check that out here. In this article, we’ll discuss why interpersonal skills are important and 9 examples of skills that everyone should have.

Why Interpersonal Skills are Important

There’s not much we can do without other humans, so the world was created. Here are a few reasons why interpersonal skills are essential to life:

Peaceful living

Don’t you love peace? Great interpersonal skills improve your chances of living at peace with people around you, which is the best way to live. When you connect with people, demonstrate empathy and emotional intelligence, you’ll butt heads less and create a peaceful environment around you for the most part.

Productivity

Whatever we want to achieve in life will require some input from people, whether it’s physical, spiritual, or emotional. Your ability to relate to people boosts your productivity and performance. You’ll get things done faster when you interact and learn from others.

Social and emotional well-being

Interpersonal relationships are directly proportional to our social, mental, and emotional well-being (sorry if you missed math class). And we’re able to form quality relationships with great interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills influence how we perform socially and how we regulate ourselves emotionally.

Relationship building

Loners are sad people. Everyone needs someone to lean on. Everyone needs a community where they feel loved, valued, or respected. Interpersonal relationships allow us to form healthy relationships with people in our lives, from neighbors to work colleagues to our best friends and spouse. We need interpersonal skills to build and sustain relationships.

Examples of Interpersonal Skills

Now that we’ve established that we need great relationships to enjoy life. Here are some interpersonal skills that will help with that:

Active listening

There’s listening to respond, and there’s active listening. The latter involves paying close attention to the words being spoken to understand and get a clear insight into the other person’s perspective.

To listen actively, you ask questions about vague areas. You can also summarize what the person is saying and seek confirmation so you aren’t making any wrong assumptions.

For instance: “If I understand correctly, you’re saying that people choose to be poor because of the decisions they make daily, right?”

Leadership

We don’t need to occupy a position and slap a title on our names to become leaders. All it takes is the willingness to take initiative and offer direction. In your family, workplace, or relationship, you can demonstrate leadership skills by rising up to responsibility rather than running away from it.

For instance, someone comes to see your workplace, and the person supposed to attend to them isn’t around. Instead of acting aloof, you walk up to them and find out what they need. You handle it if possible, or simply communicate the next steps and inform the appropriate party involved subsequently.

When you take the initiative to act instead of waiting on someone else, you’re taking responsibility. That’s what makes you a leader. Everyone is a leader in their space, whether of one or a million people.

Collaboration

What is collaboration? It’s joining forces with another person to create or achieve something. Let’s say you’re a content creator and you connected with another creator at an event and decided to create some content together, that’s collaboration. You’re both bringing your resources, skills, and even audiences together. Collaboration is a skill you need to thrive, especially in your career.

Teamwork

How do you function in a team or group? I prefer doing things solo, but there’s so much you can do alone, so the ability to work in a team is absolutely essential to multiplying results. Perhaps the biggest test of your interpersonal relationships is teamwork, how you communicate and contribute to the productivity of the team, says a lot about you.

Conflict resolution

Speaking of teamwork, working with people may attract uncomfortable situations or conflict. A little conflict doesn’t mean you should cut yourself off from everyone. It’s an opportunity to discuss, understand varying opinions, and make compromises. Whether you’re a team member or a leader, your ability to resolve conflict will enhance the well-being of your team.

Negotiation

Sounds like a business term, but we negotiate daily. We negotiate with our friends, spouse, family, and work colleagues. I like to think of negotiation as offering the best-case scenario for both you and the person involved. If you’re only thinking of yourself, the other person can smell it.

When negotiating, ask yourself what conditions will be optimal for you and the other person. Whether it's pricing and value offered to a client, or where and when to meet up with your best friend, negotiating works best when you think of how best you can serve the other person while also meeting your needs.

Mediation

When people come to you with complaints about another person, do you make the situation better or worse? Whether it’s your two friends, work colleagues, or a friend and their spouse, the ability to mediate conflict involving others without taking sides and making it more complex is an amazing interpersonal skill to have in your pack.

Motivation

Motivation is the ability to propel or inspire yourself and other people towards positive action. When you inspire others to act independently and take responsibility for their lives and outcomes through your words and behaviour, that’s quite impressive.

When people around you are motivated to take action based on their relationship or a conversation with you, you’re doing a lot of things right.

Empathy

Nothing forms a deeper connection with other humans than when they feel heard, seen, and understood. Put yourself in people’s shoes and validate their emotions and struggles, even when you don’t agree with their reactions. They’re more likely to open up to your solution when you understand and validate their struggles.

Finally, Beloved Reader

You need interpersonal skills. I need interpersonal skills. We all need interpersonal skills. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to make consistent, intentional efforts to ensure that your relationships are healthy, productive, and peaceful for the most part.