Technique 1.75 People Skills

(use soft skills to hand your technical skills)

Introduction

in almost all jobs, your soft skills (sometimes called human or behavioural or people skills) are just as important as your technical skills, especially as you climb the organisational ladder and moved into management/leadership roles. They will have as much impact on your success as your technical skills. The importance of having good people skills transcends industry and profession. They are important whether you lead people, aspire to lead people, work within a team, etc.. You need these people skills to achieve your objectives (private, professional, organisational, etc)

This short questionnaire will assess how good your current people skills are. Once you have completed the questionnaire, it will identify specific tools and resources that can be used to develop and improve this important area

Questionnaire

Take the test below and add up your total of the test to assess your people skills

Instructions:

For each statement, tick in the answer column the category that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be); don't worry if some questions seem to score strangely.

When you are finished, please add your score at the bottom of the test

No
Statement
Answer
   
not at all
rarely
sometimes
often
very often
1 I make sure that I display the same standards of behaviour that I expect from other people          
2 When providing feedback, I wait until I have observed enough incidents of behaviour to make a generalised statement that is accurate          
3 I go along with others' decisions rather than inject my ideas into the mix          
4 I say "thank you" to people I work with          
5 During times of conflict I think about how to serve the relationship and still get my needs met          
6 While actively talking with someone, I have composed my answer before they have finished speaking          
7 I look out for myself at work and do what is necessary to get ahead          
8 I think about how others perceive a problem or issue          
9 I speak first, and think later          
10 I collaborate with others to solve problems using a variety of problem-solving tools and techniques          
11 I cause more harm than good when trying to resolve a conflict          
12 When somebody gives me feedback, I ask him or her to provide examples so that I can better understand the issue          
13 I pay attention to other people's body language          
14 When team agreement is necessary, I figure out the best solution to a problem and then explain why it's the right decision          
15 I study my audiences' needs, decide what I want to say and then figure out the best way to say it          
16 I make sure everybody knows about my contribution to a positive outcome          
  Total number of ticks          
  Score
1
2
3
4
5
  Total (number of ticks X score)          

Score interpretation

Score
Comments
16-36
Your technical skills may have taken precedence over your people skills in your career to date. You are not making the most of your relationships at work, and this may be limiting your career growth. It's time to assess how you can work better with others in the workplace and develop a more collaborative, understanding, and open approach to getting your needs met - while still achieving team and organisational objectives (see below to start)
37-56
You recognise that working well with others in the workplace is important and you are trying to work collaboratively while still making sure your needs are met. There is room for improvement, however, as old habits may creep in during times of stress and pressure. Make a plan to work actively on your people skills so that they form the natural basis how you approach workplace relationships (see below to start)
59-80
Your people skills are good. You understand the give-and-take involved in complex issues involving people. You might not always approach situations perfectly, however, you have a sufficiently good understanding to know when and where you need to take steps to rectify things. Keep working on your people skills and set an example for the rest of your team. And take some time to work on the specific areas below where you lost points (see below to start)

NB The questionnaire assesses your soft skills according to the 4 main themes below

Review your scores from each theme and read more where you need to improve

Interpersonal communication skills (statements 6, 9, 13 & 15)

Many people spend more time working with other people than they do with processes or products. This means that they need to communicate well with others, and this makes communication skills some of the most important skills in the workplace. so you should try to listen actively to what the speaker is saying. When you engage in active listening you respond in a way that makes it clear that you understand the feelings and the intent of the speaker

Some key communication blocks are

- message barriers (this occurs when people communicating fail to communicate clearly. If you find that you are often confusing people, then a good starting point for fixing this is to figure out what you want to say, ie do you want to persuade? Are you trying to motivate? Are you simply informing? Or are you attempting to build a relationship? The purpose of your communication should largely dictate what you say and how you say it.)

- receiving barriers (this occurs on the receiver's end of the communication, from ineffective listening, ie we hear and understand faster than we speak, and this can lead to boredom and a wandering mind when on the listening end of communications. To combat this, you should try to listen actively to what the speaker is saying. When you engage active listening, you respond in a way that makes it clear that you understand the feeling and the intent of the speaker)

- decoding barriers (this occurs when the real message is not fully grasped or translated because of misperceptions, misinterpretations or missing information. The most common problem here is with mismatched non-verbal communication. A lot of non-verbal communication is unconscious - meaning that the sender isn't aware of the messages he or she is receiving. Yet these messages can reveal a great deal of someone's true thoughts. If you can learn to understand people's non-verbal communications, you can improve your people skills significantly.)

Managing differences (statements 3, 5, 8 & 11)

People can seem to disagree about almost anything, ie what caused the problem, how to solve it, what values are right, what values are wrong, what goal should be pursued, etc. Also you can have personal, non-job-related differences between people that lead to obvious differences in outlook and approach. Owing to this, respecting and managing differences between people can be one of the most important skills you can develop. It is a huge advantage if you can learn to celebrate and enjoy differences, and make them work to your advantage.

It is important to recognise that in many cases, conflict can be of benefit as it often causes significant, positive change; it spawns creativity and knowledge approaches to problem solving and can improve organisational performance when managed properly. When resolving conflict, you need to understand the other people's needs and points of view. This can often assist in finding solutions that may otherwise not have obvious to you. When you take time to understand another person's point of view, you are demonstrating your willingness to work together to find a solution. Also you need to be appropriately assertive if you're going to manage differences effectively. This is different from aggression which is usually counter-productive if trying to resolve a conflict. However, you need to recognise your own needs in a situation and not run the risk of agreeing to a solution that works against your own interests.

NB Need to remember that differences are not necessarily negative, so suppressing your thoughts and ideas in order to come to an easy agreement is neither effective or efficient; in fact it can be counter-productive

Managing agreement (statements 2,10,12 & 14)

Similarly to managing differences, managing agreement needs people skills: orchestrating consensus can be vital and often requires a very high skill level. Synergy is important when looking for team work. This is when the team's output is greater than the sum of each individual's input. To achieve synergy, you need to get people working together collaboratively. Team decision-making processes can be complicated but there is more chance of collecting all the insights that team members can give and less chance of missing something. This involves strong people skills including approaching team meetings with a genuinely positive attitude.

Linked with this is feedback. When feedback is given poorly, people reject it as viewed as destructive criticism that can damage relationships. On the other hand, if delivered well, feedback can help improve understanding of one another's needs and perspectives that will lead to improved performance and productivity.

In developing strong people skills you need to be willing to accept what others are saying and learn from this. This will help you develop personally and improve your relationship with others

Personal integrity (statements 1, 4, 7 & 16)

Integrity is the cornerstone of people skills as it is about basic honesty and truthfulness when dealing with others. Also it means working with people openly and in such a way that people's individual interests are put aside for the sake of the team or the organisation. Basic courtesies like please and thank you, and giving credit where it is due are all part of the process, ie people-orientated behaviours that can make a difference to other people. Acknowledging others' contributions, efforts, etc helps to create a positive, harmonious and productive team climate

Key points

With well-developed people skills, you can communicate effectively on an interpersonal level; manage conflict positively; work productively with others to find solutions and reach agreements; work with integrity and ethics to motivate and inspire others. All these skills can be learned and developed and are not limited to the workplace as they are applicable to your professional and personal life outside

(source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/articles/newTMM_36.htm)

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