10 Essential Interpersonal Skills for Career Development

Interpersonal skills are essential soft skills everyone should possess, especially those seeking jobs either in Nigeria or in the global market space. It is great for career development.

Many job seekers leave out interpersonal skills when updating their skills for CV. They focus on their certificates, years of experience, expertise, etc., and leave out these essential skills for resumes. Hence, leaving some gaps unfilled in their resume.

“Interpersonal skills are defined as the social skill set that facilitates human relations and interaction. They are essential in every aspect of life, including business, place of work, and even neighborhood.

They help you handle complex situations wisely. And as a job seeker, interpersonal skills are valuable skills that can increase your prospect of getting jobs.”

Table of Contents

Top 10 Interpersonal Skills For Workplace and Career Development

Self-Management

Self-management helps you to develop the ability to control your emotions when they are not aligned with the behaviour expected of you in a particular situation.

This skill is more about your ability to control your anger, hide your frustration in a demanding circumstance without losing your balance.

Knowing the right emotion to show at any given time is the real deal of this particular interpersonal skill. There is time to express anger, and there is time wisdom requires you to keep calm and observe.

Putting this interpersonal skill on your CV means that you have been able to put your emotion under the subjection of your will.

Social awareness

How often do you sense the emotional state of people you are interacting with?

Are you able to study an environment and identify key opportunities in that particular environment?

Social awareness tells how much you care for people in your organization. No organization progresses on the accord of an individual. It has always been teamwork.

This implies that the emotional well-being of every team member must be the top priority. By being sensitive to their needs at that particular time and the opportunity each situation brings for progress and learning.

You demonstrate that you are operating at a high level of social awareness. Thus, this should be part of the skills to list on the resume.

Effective verbal communication

This impersonal skill deals with your ability to communicate effectively using a clear and unambiguous expression.

Many people think speaking with a ‘large vocabulary’ is proof of wit and excellent communication skills.

This is false!

An excellent verbal communicator relates to his or her audience with clarity.

In addition to this is speaking clearly for everybody to follow and engage them thoughtfully. When your expression’s content is delivered thoughtfully, you won’t struggle to get people to take you seriously.

In case a question is asked, you don’t rush to give a response. Rather, you take your time to understand the matter correctly and provide the right answer.

When you list your resume’s skill, a recruiter will be interested because you might be the right person to maintain the organization’s image.

Non-verbal communication

Another term for Non-verbal communication is body language.

Some situations might warrant this kind of communication. Maybe you need your boss’s consent to help someone he doesn’t want you to help, being able to study the expression on his face or the tone of his voice is enough to lead you to a conclusion.

Non-verbal communication skill is well underrated. It is an asset for any job seeker and professionals. Understand that the way you sit, gesture, stare at people, consistently reveal your real personality.

This could be to your advantage or disadvantage. Therefore, you will have to watch your non-verbal expression while listing this skill on your resume.

Excellent listening skill

Effective communication is that which is understood by its audience.

For the audience to understand the content of the message, listening is involved. This is what will enable you to interpret the information received and respond appropriately equally.

As an employee in an organization, you will need to take instructions.

How you abide by these instructions will be determined by your ability to listen with keen attention. We seldom talk about this skill. But it is a necessary skill to put on your resume.

Ability to ask questions

Questioning is a relevant art that is not only necessary to seek an explanation of a concept or idea. Beyond this, it serves as a tool to initiate a conversation.

This involves guessing what might interest the other person and asking a question to trigger the person’s response or catch his or her attention.

Questioning involves mastering how to construct smart questions. If asked by an intelligent person, a foolish question might translate to be one of the most technical problems, which would attract the attention of top experts.

Don’t forget to make it one of the skills to list on your resume.

Problem solving

This is quite popular. It has to do with your ability to proffer a solution to a problem.

This has nothing to do with how fast you can solve a particular problem. Instead, it involves the approach you apply in solving a specific problem.

Your employer knows that there is no perfect plan, including the idea you come up with to find a solution to a problem.

Therefore, finding a solution might not really be a big deal but your ability to weigh risk and picking, which is better than others. Problem-solving is an excellent interpersonal skill you should add on your resume.

Good mannerism

This is like the foundation of every other interpersonal skill. It makes them come naturally. With the recent trend of globalization, every organization understands the importance of good mannerisms.

It revolves around the basic understanding of etiquette that translates to different cultures and their expectations.

Mannerism requires sensitivity when dealing with people of different races and cultures. You will have to understand their cultural perspective and avoid anything they might find offensive.

This is a skill to put on your resume, as it is more important than ever.

Assertiveness

Being assertive is about being bold in defending your ideas.

You have mastered the art of speaking and listening. Next, in line with these skills to put on your resume is being assertive. While showing off this particular skill, some people are like to take offense.

Therefore, ensure that you maintain your calm and don’t disrespect anyone while pitching your idea with utmost confidence and aggressiveness.

This will be necessary when you are in a position to instruct others to handle some tasks. Be assertive, and don’t forget to list this skill on your resume.

Responsibility and accountability

These two skills are significant indicators of maturity. They determine how honest you can be with your words. Every employer wants someone that is trustworthy.

Someone that will promise to execute a task at a particular time unfailingly. In addition to this is someone that can admit it whenever he or she is wrong.

This is the real essence of responsibility. You take responsibility for your action and hold yourself accountable for your work to your boss.

This is easy to list on your resume though it appears delicate in real life. Nevertheless, it is an essential skill for you to develop and include on your resume.

You can also read how to write a professional CV for job application.

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About Author

Winlade

Isreal Winlade is a content creator and creative writer with awards and recognition. A graduate of French and winner of Erasmus+ scholarship. He is currently an M.A student in European Literary Culture at the University of Strasbourg, France. Outside class, he is committed to freelance writing, translation from French to English and vice versa, nature photography, debating, and pressing his phone.