The majority of our activities in life necessitate interaction with other people.  It is vital to be good at getting along with others if you want to be successful in your work or have meaningful connections.  While many people believe that interpersonal skills are something that you are either born with or not, the truth is that they can be developed.

At CFI, our focus is on helping you advance your career.  With that objective in mind, we’ve designed this guide to help you:

  • Be aware of the importance of interpersonal skills
  • Highlight your skills in a way that helps you get a job and advance your career
  • Assess your interpersonal abilities and develop a plan to improve them
  • Technical Skills vs Soft Skills

The natural impulse when writing a job application is to focus on technical talents.  It’s only natural, given that most job descriptions emphasise certain talents such as accounting, finance, Excel, financial modelling, and other relevant abilities.

Despite talking about all of the technical abilities required, most hiring managers base their decisions on soft skills.  According to a new LinkedIn poll of 291 hiring managers, interpersonal skills are becoming more crucial while also becoming more difficult to discover. 59% of managers said it’s difficult to locate workers with the proper soft skills.

How to Weave Interpersonal Skills into Your Cover Letter

Soft abilities should be highlighted in your cover letter rather than your resume. The rationale for this is that tales and examples, which fit more readily into a cover letter, are the ideal way to exhibit interpersonal abilities.

Here are some tips for including these skills in your cover letter:

  • Identify three or four traits from the list provided below that you want to focus on
  • Recall a story or example from the past that demonstrates how you possess those traits
  • Connect the examples you use to the job you’re applying for It’s literally as easy as that! If you follow the three steps above, then you’ll be able to naturally and elegantly incorporate soft skills into your cover letter and increase your chances of getting hired.

List of Interpersonal Skills for Your Resume

If you’re looking for ideas and examples, here is a list of the most common interpersonal skills:

  • Awareness (of yourself and others)
  • Caring about other people
  • Collaborating and working well together with others
  • Comforting people when they need it
  • Clear communication skills
  • Conflict management and resolution skills
  • Constructive feedback (ways people can improve)
  • Diplomacy (handling affairs without hostility)
  • Empathy for others
  • Encouraging and inspiring people to do their best
  • Flexibility in thinking and operating style
  • Humor and lightheartedness
  • Inspiring and motivating others to active greatness
  • Listening well
  • Mentoring and coaching team members
  • Networking and building relationships
  • Nonverbal cues and body language
  • Patience when dealing with others
  • Public speaking and presentation skills
  • Respect for everyone, no matter who they are
  • Sensitivity toward the preferences and wishes of others
  • Socializing skills
  • Being good at team building and at building trust
  • Tolerance and respect for team members

How to Assess Your I-Skills

Everything begins with self-awareness. Simply reading this post will make you more aware of your interpersonal abilities in the future.

Pay special attention to your behaviour and how others perceive or react to it whenever you’re in a group setting or a circumstance that requires conversation, emotion, decisions, and human interaction from now on.

Repeat this procedure until you have a firm grasp of how you behave in social situations.

Need Help?