People skills

Posted on 07 November, 2021 at 09:11

PEOPLE SKILLS

People skills define the personal abilities of an individual that allows them to effectively communicate with people, establish healthy relationships and perform well on behalf of others to achieve productivity. People skills are then defined under three sets of abilities and these are personal effectiveness, interaction skills, and intercession skills.

 

1. Personal effectiveness,

This is a term that refers to the ability of an individual to be competent in all that they do. Being determined is one of the first attributes of an effective individual. Being highly determined reflects a passion for excellence and a great need for the achievement of desired goals. Being highly determined simply means being strong-minded, people who are strong-minded do not easily waver from the decisions they make. They are governed by certain rules and principles that they set for themselves and define their ability to achieve their goals. In an organization, not only leaders are expected to possess these attributes but rather all workers at every organizational level.

Shop floor workers, especially those that interact with people on regular basis are expected to possess great people skills. This allows smooth operations of an organization because the purpose of NGOs is to serve the people hence it is important to cultivate personal attributes that lean towards building better people than attributes that demoralize others,

Non-Governmental Organizations only become successful if they are led and operated by individuals who are self-determined. The self-determination personality allows a person to execute their responsibilities in an organization easily because they are always ascertained in what they do. Personal effectiveness includes the following attributes

• Self-confidence - is another attribute of a personal effective individual. Individuals with an effective personality are self-confident. This means that these types of individuals believe in themselves. There is only a fine line between self-determination and self-confidence. Firm, strong-minded people who are not easily wavered from the decisions they take are confident people. They make rules, set policies and boundaries, and live by them, being confident that they made the right decisions and are optical to see through those making decisions. They are confident to succeed. It is easy to believe in those people, especially if they are team leaders because their confidence in what they are selling makes it easier for a third person to buy in. which brings us to the next feature which is;
• Optimism- a personally effective individual is confident, it basically means that they are optimistic. They believe in the positive outcomes of their plans.  Even in trying times like operating a non-profit organization in a dynamic and turbulent environment like the Zimbabwean economy, personally effective persons will stay optimistic of a better result, they are confident that objectives can be achieved no matter what. This depicts their ability to manage stress.
• Managing stress- Stress levels usually shoot up especially it is impossible to achieve goals. When an organization is facing challenges in getting funds, getting the right person to handle tasks, and the work is becoming too much to handle, they undergo too much stress, some even relapse. That is why NGOs are encouraged to employ individuals with great people skills. Individuals who are able to manage stress and able to push the objectives of the organization to the end without relapsing or affecting other people at work.
• Persistence cannot be separated from self-confidence and determination. Self-effective individuals will not be swayed until they see through their desired goals. If they have a vision they want to see it through, no matter how many times they fall, they wake up and still run with that vision. This implies that self-effective people are successful people because success is not determined by the number of times an individual succeeds but by the number of times they fail. Persistent people learn from their failures and remain persistent to reach their desired outcome.
• Problem-solving- as persistent as they are, learning from failures to succeed, means they are good at solving problems. They do not sit on problems and cry over them but they find solutions to do away with whatever obstacles hindering them from attaining their final goals.
• Time management- and because they are governed by rules and policies and decisions they make to succeed, it means they work within a specified period of time to achieve those goals. Generally, goals, objectives, plans cannot be made without time governance, hence self-effective people are the most self-organized people who plan to avoid failure.

2. Interaction skills

These reflect on the ability of an individual to easily liaise with other people in a more harmonious way that builds rather than destroys the next person.  It revolves around the abilities of effective communication, the establishment of strong beneficial two-way relationships that reflect positively on society. As mentioned earlier, with reference to NGOs, an industry that works entirely towards serving the interests of a society, it is of paramount importance to see that those objectives are achieved. This implies that they should qualify in their scope of work individuals who by the society are perceived as interactive persons.

Interaction skills combine tactful communication skills, which are the ability to convey information in the most polite and understandable way, the ability to listen, and also respect hierarchies (knowing who to communicate with and when). Mediation also exhibits features of interaction skills. If an individual is able to keep peace and solve disputes, come up with solutions in difficult situations, have the ability to negotiate and come to a peaceful and yet winning solution then they are considered diplomatic as well. Interaction skills into three broad areas:

·        Facilitation and negotiation- Interactive individuals naturally have the desire to help people become better, understand better hence they assist them to develop their understanding or skills so that the desired outcome is a successful one. They also negotiate. Negotiation skills come in handy. Negotiators do not only bargain money, but for peace as well. They negotiate so that the next person is better off. They negotiate for the greater good.

Interactive people are selfless, they think for other people, which is the idea behind nonprofits. A foundation, a trust is established not to make money, but to transform societies for the better. NGOs need employees who possess people skills because they are for the people. Individuals, who cannot interact, who cannot negotiate, facilitate or communicate effectively, disregard the value and purpose of the establishment.

 

·        Leadership and influencing- because interactive persons are mediators and negotiators, that means they should have an influential personality. Their personality should influence other people to do well or to follow in their footsteps.  People with influence are automatically meant to lead. Leaders should have an influence on people. Leaders should be able to interact well with the people they lead because a leader is for the people. That eventually leads us to teamwork spirit.

·        Teamwork - all the above attributes describe the abilities of teamwork. The ability to bring people together, understand different attitudes, behaviors, backgrounds, and perceptions of people but yet able to work well with all of them without discrimination or judgment.  With mediation, negotiation, influential skills, an interactive person can work well within a team. They are able to share space, materials, wait, take turns, try new things brought up by others, respect others' ideas, and participate.

3. Intercession skills.

This is a process of intervening on behalf of another. It also portrays a spirit of teamwork, a spirit of negotiating on behalf of others. Intercession skills are mostly displayed where there are people with different views concerning a particular matter and an individual with intercession skills would intervene to negotiate for a better outcome that suits both parties.

Personality skills, always reflect highly in the jobs that we do. They are the attributes that determine how best we can carry out our professional duties. The way we handle our work responsibilities lies heavily in our interpersonal skills. They are called people skills because they reflect highly on the people that we interact with within the environment we operate in.

By Nobukhosi Ndlovu.

KFM Consultants Marketing Coordinator

www.kfmconsultants.com