Using Your Unique People Skills for Impact & Influence
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Maybe the key to connectedness with others is understanding how we uniquely connect with others through communication. (Read this article to learn more about developing communication skills.) Using your unique people skills for impact involves leveraging your interpersonal abilities and communicating to make a positive difference in various aspects of your life, including your personal relationships, career, and community involvement.
How can you find your unique skills? Here are 12 areas to dig deeper to help you discover and make the most of your natural skills:
Self-awareness: Understand your strengths and weaknesses in people skills. Reflect on your communication style, emotional intelligence, empathy, and other interpersonal qualities. Identify areas where you can improve. Consider taking the CliftonStrengths Assessment to discover your strengths.
Active Listening: One of the most critical people skills is active listening. Pay close attention to what others say, ask clarifying questions, maintain eye contact, and demonstrate that you value their thoughts and feelings. Active listening helps build trust and rapport.
Empathy: Put yourself in others' shoes and try to understand their perspectives, feelings, and needs. Empathy can help you relate better to people and respond with more compassion and consideration.
Effective Communication: Work on enhancing your communication skills, including clear and concise speaking, being aware of nonverbal cues (body language, facial expressions), and adapting your communication style to the needs of the person or group you are interacting with.
Conflict Resolution: Develop the ability to navigate and constructively resolve conflicts. Avoiding or escalating conflicts can harm relationships and hinder impact. Learning to mediate, negotiate, and find win-win solutions can be highly impactful.
Networking: Build and maintain a strong network of professional and personal contacts. Effective networking can open doors, provide support, and create individual and professional growth opportunities.
Leadership: If you have leadership qualities, use them to inspire and guide others toward shared goals. Effective leadership can significantly impact teams, organizations, and communities.
Mentorship and Coaching: Share your knowledge and skills with others through mentorship and coaching. Helping others develop their potential can be a powerful way to create a positive impact.
Emotional Intelligence: Cultivate emotional intelligence by understanding and managing your emotions and recognizing and responding to the feelings of others. This skill is essential for building strong relationships and creating a positive atmosphere. Take this Emotional Intelligence Assessment to gain insight into your blind spots.
Volunteer and Give Back: Use your people skills to contribute to your community by volunteering or participating in charitable activities. You can have a meaningful impact by positively influencing the lives of those in need.
Advocacy and Activism: If you're passionate about something, use your people skills to advocate for change and raise awareness. Effective advocacy and activism often rely on building support and mobilizing people around the common goal. There is a lot to advocate for these days.
Personal Growth: Continuously develop people skills through learning, feedback, and self-improvement. Books, courses, workshops, and seeking guidance from mentors can help you hone your abilities. One of my favorite books is Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges.
Developing your people skills is an ongoing process that takes a lot of practice to see results. In my experience, the more I listen, the more data I can collect to help. The more data I collect, the more I understand where they are coming from. The more you practice and refine these skills, the greater your ability to create positive change in the lives of individuals you encounter and influence.
Jesus was personal; make it personal.
