Inter-Personal Skills

The ability to have authentic relationships with people that result in win-win outcomes. People with interpersonal skills are appropriately assertive and have the knack of being able to communicate with people on the right wavelength. When working with people, either singly or in groups and teams, they consistently secure high levels of agreement and commitment.

Inter-personal skills are a crucially important capability in a world where people are caught up in new technologies, suffering from information overload and lack of human warmth and emotional intelligence.

There are 6 questionnaires in this cluster, they are:

Assertiveness

The extent to which you express your needs and wants in a forthright way, taking due account for other people's needs and wants.

The factors determined are:

  1. Safeguarding your rights
  2. Being forthright
  3. Being transparent

This questionnaire will help you to:

  • Safeguard your rights in a way that doesn't violate other people's rights
  • Express yourself in ways that are clear and unambiguous
  • Be open and honest about your motives and intentions.

Communication

The extent to which you are generous in transmitting meaningful information that is understood.

The factors determined are:

  1. Encouraging communication
  2. Verbal communication
  3. Non-verbal communication
  4. Listening
  5. Written communication

This questionnaire will help you to:

  • Encourage open communication within your organisation
  • Speak more effectively
  • Pay attention to body language to improve your verbal and listening skills
  • Employ 'active listening' skills to aid understanding of the message being conveyed
  • Write in a concise, informative, clear and relevant manner.

Face-to-Face Skills

The extent to which you use behaviour in meetings and discussions to 'shape' other people's behaviour and achieve your objectives.

The factors determined are:

  1. Unambiguous behaviours
  2. Initiating behaviours
  3. Responding behaviours
  4. Maintenance behaviours

This questionnaire will help you to develop behaviours that:

  • Convey clearly what you want to achieve and how
  • Generate the reactions you want from other people
  • Help you to respond to people's behaviour appropriately
  • Keep the interaction moving towards a successful conclusion.

Influencing

The extent to which you succeed in getting people to do willingly what you  want them to do.

The factors determined are:

  1. Questioning behaviour
  2. Reasoning behaviour
  3. Verbal behaviour
  4. Body behaviour

This questionnaire will help you to:

  • Elicit information, understanding and trust from the influence with questioning techniques
  • Reason with the person you seek to influence in order to help them see the logic and benefits of your proposals
  • Use clear verbal behaviour to ensure that your proposals are easy to understand and attractive to the person you are trying to influence
  • Use positive body language to reassure people, as well as observe other people's body language for clues as to how they feel and what they are thinking.

Negotiating

The extent to which you resolve differences and succeed in making agreements that suit both parties.

The factors determined are:

  1. Considering the other party
  2. Preparation
  3. Objectivity
  4. Standing your ground

This questionnaire explores four aspects of negotiation:

  • Involving the other party and their interests in the decision-making process
  • Planning how you will conduct your negotiations, eg logistics for the meeting, preparing proposals and counter-proposals
  • Remaining focused on what you want to achieve from the negotiations, rather than on bargaining positions or people's behaviour
  • Standing your ground when faced with difficult opponents and intimidatory tactics.

Teamworking

The extent to which you add value to the various teams to which you belong.

The factors determined are:

  1. Commitment
  2. Enhancing team performance
  3. Participation
  4. Promoting team spirit

This questionnaire will help you to:

  • Become an enthusiastic, committed team member
  • Behave in ways that enhance the performance of the teams to which you belong
  • Participate fully in team discussions
  • Play your part in creating a supportive team spirit.

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