The Key Social Skills To Improve Your Relationships
What we know as social skills are one of the contents that we most frequently intervene in in psychology consultation. These skills make it easier for us to increase our well-being both with ourselves and in our relationships with others. Social skills can and should be learned.
If you are able to use them constantly you will be able to show them naturally; With almost no effort, they will become a habit for you.
Below I show you the following social skills from which to improve your relationships on a daily basis, divided according to the phase through which the communication goes.
1. When starting a conversation
You should try to express yourself naturally show interest and put yourself in the other person’s shoes, be empathetic.
Say hello and introduce yourself (if the interlocutor doesn’t know you). Look in the eyes when you talk to the other person. Try to say the positive characteristics of the other person without sounding “artificial.” Your goal is to convey a good image to the person you are talking to. It would be interesting if you commented or asked about the reason for the meeting.
Try to modulate the volume of your voice so that it is neither too high nor too low, nor have inappropriate body postures.
Listen actively, showing interest. There must be a proportionality between what you speak and what you hear so that you and your interlocutor can both intervene and express yourselves.
Make gestures to show that you are listening, and when you want to intervene. It is very important that you maintain eye contact. What you transmit verbally must be related to the object of interest of the meeting and avoid “beating around the bush.” When you want to change the subject, say so. Do not use exclusively monosyllables in your interventions.
3. When giving explanations
Explain why you deny a request or favor to a friend or acquaintance. Can you offer some alternative solution? Distinguish the possible manipulation attempts that can be made against you with:
In these three cases, you must empathize with the reasons that lead our friends or acquaintances to express themselves this way, but you must remain firm if you are clear that your position is the ideal one for your interests.
4. To ask for a favor
It is common to consider that others know what we need or/and want. This is not usually the case.
On certain occasions you will have to ask for a favor and you will have to do it with confidence that your loved ones will attend to your request. Do not consider from the outset that they are going to deny the favor And if so, surely they will have justified reasons for it.
5. Serenity in the face of criticism
When faced with criticism, do not get carried away by the initial impulse reason, ponder and reflect on what they tell you.
To begin with, do not consider criticism as an attack. Your first reaction is probably immediate defense through a justification or a counterattack. Avoid both simple counterattacks and systematic defense.
6. Firmness
This is what I recommend when accepting or rejecting another person.
Life is a paradox. On many occasions you put up with resignation the people you can’t stand or you don’t like at all and yet you attack those you love the most… Is it because you have confidence? Show firmness in these situations, whether it is to consolidate friendships or not have company that does not interest you. To do this, I suggest you use the behaviors appropriately:
Approach
Smile, hold your gaze, position your body towards the other person and demonstrate with words and gestures the interest we have in what he says or does, etc.
Of rejection
Show verbally and non-verbally in a polite manner what is necessary for the other person to perceive our feeling of lack of interest, responding to their comments with monosyllables, removing your gaze, saying goodbye politely.
7. Recognizing mistakes
Express humility and recognize that you have made a mistake, we all make mistakes that we must recognize, since that is what mature and balanced people do.
Furthermore, if you apologize you will even gain respect and social recognition. If you hide mistakes, you will manifest weakness.
8. Receiving recognition
Don’t resort to false modesty when you are flattered or recognize a task well done. Consider that praise is sincere when it comes from people around you who you know value you.
I recommend that you thank and accept recognition from whoever does it. Say thank you and express the great effort and effort you have put into achieving what the other person values.
9. Admitting your ignorance
You don’t have to know everything. You must consider that recognize that you don’t know about the topic being talked about in a conversation it’s not bad.
Avoid arrogance and do not use phrases such as: “yes, I already knew that…”, “you are going to tell me…”, even if you knew them in advance. On the contrary, I recommend that you show interest in what others are talking about, even if you know more about the subject than your companions.
If you do not control the topic at hand, you should not get carried away with thoughts such as “what will they think if I say I don’t know…”, “I should know more about the topic they are talking about…”. Giving importance to these thoughts will not help you.
10. At the end of the conversation
You have to get to the point to finish and not extend the conversation any longer than necessary.
Surely you have “suffered” conversations that seemed to never end. You have every right in the world to choose and express with all sincerity your desire to end the conversation. Therefore, do not consider it rude to interrupt the person speaking to us; believe He’s going to be offended. You have to say something like: “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I have to go…”
