Most of what we do in life requires interaction with other people.  In order to be successful as a professional or in fact to have meaningful friendships, it’s critical to be good at getting along with others, and this is where interpersonal skills come into play. In the first half of 2020 at the request of an organisation, off the back of some alarming engagement score survey, I was approached to develop a series of training modules focused on interpersonal skills. I have spent quite a significant amount of mycareer focusing on interpersonal skills or what many refer to as soft skills and I think this is often an area of professional development that is underrated and under-invested into. The course covered a range of micro segments each with a task to bring individuals awareness of the importance of each aspect into light. The segments covered in this piece were:

• Awareness (of yourself and others)
• Collaborating and working well together with others
• 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
• 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
• Respect for everyone, no matter who they are
• Sensitivity toward the preferences and wishes of others
• Being good at team building and at building trust
• Respect for team members

Post the initial training package the group met at 6 monthly intervals and reviewed the group dynamics to determine the effect the interpersonal training package had on the teams involved. At each of these sessions, we also added another mico segment for discussion and the second of these was teamwork. Aspects of functional teamwork and team expectations were discussed and shared we also reviewed and discussed this article on the psychology of teamwork which participants found to be a useful exercise that aligned expectations and understandings of individuals’ roles within the teams.