Great social skills are a must in today’s hyper-competitive world!
And, we’re not just talking about the workplace but life in general. People with good social skills are more likely to be successful and get ahead in life, be well understood, and generally more liked by those around them.
Are you someone who’s aware that maybe your social skills are lacking, and want a bit of guidance? Social skills are often misunderstood as ‘highbrow etiquette’ – whereas in fact they have mostly to do with the basic ability to be good around people in general.
The good news is they can be easily learned. So let’s dive right in!
To make things even easier, we’ll divide the 7 reasons into
good communication,
emotional intelligence, and
confidence/assertiveness.
Good Social Skills Improve Your Communication
1. Build conversation skills
Have you ever noticed how social anxiety can make it difficult for people to start conversations, and if they do, to keep them going? That’s understandable – after all, it’s not the easiest thing to do when you’re trying to think of clever things to say, especially if you’re feeling anxious and uncomfortable.
By working on your social skills, you’ll be able to get into conversations easily and maintain them, too. It will allow you to get over social anxiety, which means you’ll be expressing your thoughts as well as feelings more openly and clearly.
2. Develop listening skills
People with good social skills are always great listeners or ‘active’ listeners. If you can learn how to be an active listener by way of improving your social skills, you can make others feel comfortable in the conversation, and help them to share their ideas, thoughts, and input with you in a more frank and open way.
Part of developing your social skills set is to learn how to maintain eye contact – for example, using non-verbal queues like nodding when agreeing, or blinking or even clearing your throat when you want to ask someone to clarify something.
Yes, gestures matter! More so than you might think...
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Good Social Skills Will Allow You To Really Develop Your Emotional Intelligence
3. Learn to recognize and regulate your emotions
Did you know that social skills are very closely related to emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand as well as manage not just your own emotions but also those of others. Leaders and decision makers, for example, are expected to have a high level of emotional intelligence to be able to do their jobs effectively – so they can quickly recognize and regulate their emotions in order to understand their team’s emotions ... and subsequent actions.
Developing your emotional intelligence by learning how to recognise and regulate your emotions will allow you to respond in the best way possible in a variety of work and life situations, where you not only make more informed decisions but also motivate and inspire others along the way.
4. Build better health through emotional intelligence
Some “experts” might call this idea downright absurd, but developing your emotional intelligence can help you manage your health and wellbeing better, because you understand how to manage your emotions.
People who aren’t in proper control of their emotions very often suffer from unnecessary health problems, usually driven by stress and anxiety. Typical examples include a compromised immune system, an increased likelihood of heart attacks or strokes, ageing at a faster rate ... and even infertility. If you know how to manage stress, anxiety, and your emotions generally, you will enjoy much better physical and mental health as a result, ... and that starts with acquiring good social skills.
5. Improve your relationships
People who understand their emotions and exercise control over them are always able to clearly express how they feel about something or how others, for example, feel about a specific matter. This is an essential skill to develop because it paves the way for more effective communication, thus, forging stronger, longer-lasting relationships, whether it’s at work or your personal life.
People with great social skills enjoy better relationships as they are more easily able to understand the needs of others, handle objections and conflict effectively, and manage their own emotions.
Good Social Skills Will Develop Confidence And Assertiveness
6. Being assertive helps you reduce stress and communicate better
Knowing how to be assertive is a key component of effective communication. Assertiveness lets you express yourself more effectively and clearly, but more importantly, it teaches you how to stand up for yourself in order to make your point of view known. And, it can help you do so while respecting the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others.
Assertive people enjoy a higher sense of self-esteem, and earn other people’s respect as a result. Believe it or not, this can help lower your stress levels, especially if you’re the kind of person who tends to take on too many responsibilities at one time – either because you have to or because you can’t seem to say “no”...
7. Assertive communication beats non-assertive communication!
Assertiveness is based on mutual respect – it’s actually a very diplomatic style of communication if you think about it. By being assertive, you show others that you have a lot of respect for yourself as you are willing to stand up for what you believe in by expressing your thoughts, viewpoint, and feelings.
And on the other hand, it demonstrates that you’re also fully aware of other people’s rights and are willing to work at it when it comes to resolving conflicts or disagreements. This essential communication skill (through assertiveness) will help you in every aspect of life!
How Easy Is This?
Hopefully, you can take what we’ve said here and put much of it into practice. After all, it sounds pretty commonsense, doesn’t it?
But if you want some structured guidance, we offer a course that’s been developed to tackle these points exactly. Take a look at our in-depth course on
how to improve your social skills to see what you think.
After all, getting your social skills in order (do it one step at a time...) will change your life!
