How to Improve Interpersonal Skills with Social Intelligence?

All relationships are based on that all-important ‘connect’. And just the way, to establish a contact, two persons need to share factual information, in the same manner, to establish a ‘connect’, two persons need to share emotional information. And the best part is that the ‘desire to connect’ is so deeply woven into each one of us that people keep sending emotional signals all the time.

The only difference is that more often than not those signals are subtle, in the form of gestures, postures and expressions. And that is the realm of ‘social intelligence’.  So, how successful you are in connecting to people primarily depends on how well you can understand what is going on inside them. People’s behavior is eventually a reflection of their emotions. So if you can connect emotionally then you can synchronize behaviorally and thus excel interpersonally.

We define Social intelligence as ‘Observing nonverbal behavior and understanding emotions for greater interpersonal effectiveness and self-management’. Thus, it is a skill backed by conceptual depth. It helps you observe a person’s gestures, postures and expressions in the light of the emotional counterparts.

For instance, while interacting with a family member, a relative, a friend or a colleague, this skill can help you gauge from his or her gestures and postures whether the person’s emotional state is ‘negative or positive’ or that of ‘appeal or avoidance’. Then you can zero in on the exact emotion by observing the face.

This knowledge can be utilized to then prepare the most apt response on your part based on the context and setting. Now, the best part of social intelligence skill is that once you have responded in the chosen manner, you can observe if that response has generated the desired effect – as the effect can again be observed by the change in that person’s gestures, expressions or postures.

Now, what makes this skill even more important for interpersonal success is the fact that in the contemporary world, all relationships are overwhelmed by the need to stand strong in the onslaught of unprecedented speed of change! It makes an even more strong case for creating stable and supportive relationships.

And what damages a relationship most is ‘unresponsiveness’. And that unresponsiveness is mostly born out of disinterest. And that disinterest is mostly a side-effect of less ‘willingness and ability to observe’. This skill of ‘social intelligence’ and the knowledge associated with it builds an interpersonal bridge by reviving one’s focus towards the importance of paying attention to people and then strengthening their skill-set to do it competently.

Social intelligence prepares the ground for a successful and fulfilling 'interpersonal life' with improved ability to 'connect' to each other. And this then sets the foundation for success in all walks of life through Social Intelligence Courses.