what is interpersonal communication

WHAT IS INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION?

Interpersonal communication is the communication that takes place between individuals who have a relationship between them. It is the process of face-to-face exchange of thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions between two or more people. This includes both verbal and nonverbal elements of personal interaction.

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Interpersonal skills are traits you rely on when you interact and communicate with others. They cover a variety of scenarios where communication and cooperation are essential.

These skills involve the ability to communicate and build relationships with others. Often called people skills, they tend to incorporate both your innate personality traits and how you’ve learned to handle certain social situations. Effective interpersonal skills can help you during the job interview process and can have a positive impact on your career advancement.

Some examples of interpersonal skills include:

• Active listening
• Teamwork
• Responsibility
• Dependability
• Leadership

THE NATURE OF (IPC) COMMUNICATION

Interpersonal communication is between inter-reliant persons

Interpersonal communication takes place between individuals who are in one way or another “linked”. Interpersonal communication thus includes what happens between a daughter and mother, a superior and subordinate, two brothers, a lecturer and a student, two friends, and so on and so forth. Not only are the people simply linked, they are also interdependent: what one person casts an impact on the other person. The actions of one person bring about consequences for the other person. In an organization, for example, if an employee is made redundant, it will affect his parents, other siblings, extended family members, and other dependents.

Interpersonal communication is essentially relational

The interdependency makes the interpersonal communication fundamentally and inevitably relational in nature. Interpersonal communication relates to a relationship, it affects relationship, as well as defines the relationship. The way one communicates is determined greatly by the kind of connection that exists between individuals. We interact in a different way with our instructor and our best friend; a brother and a neighbour, a co-worker and a casual social contact. But it should also be noted that the way one interacts with the other, will influence the kind of relationship between the individuals.

Interpersonal communication covers extremes

Interpersonal communication ranges from fairly impersonal at one end to extremely personal at the other end. At the impersonal end of the continuum, one might think of a simple conversation between people who, we would say, really don’t know each other—e.g. A traffic warden and a driver. At the highly personal end is the communication that takes place between people who are emotionally interconnected—a father and son or best friends.

 Interpersonal communication involves verbal and nonverbal messages

Interpersonal interaction comprises of the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages. The words one uses as well as the facial expressions—the eye contact and the body posture. Similarly, messages are received through sense of hearing and other senses, e.g. Visual and touch senses. At times even silence speaks a thousand words.

 Interpersonal communication exists in diverse forms

Mostly, interpersonal communication takes place in person face-to-face e.g. Talking with other friends before class, interacting with family over lunch, etc. But, with the passage of time, another dimension has made inroads in our lives. Today much conversation takes place online. Since these online arrangements make it easy to communicate internationally hence they provide an excellent exposure to other cultures, other ideas, and other ways of communicating, and they are a good introduction to intercultural communication.

Interpersonal communication is transactional

According to certain early theories the process of communication was assumed to be linear, i.e. When the speaker spoke the listener listened; after the speaker finished speaking, the listener would speak. Communication was believed to be proceeding in a fairly straight line. Speaking and listening were supposed to be occurring at different times—when you spoke, you didn’t listen, and when you listened, you didn’t speak. A more satisfactory view that is currently believed in treats communication as a transactional process in which each person is simultaneously both a speaker and a listener. As per the transactional view, the time when messages are being sent, the receiver is thought to be receiving messages from his own communications and from the responses of the other person as well. And at the same time when the listener is listening, he is sending messages as well.

Interpersonal communication involves choices

During interpersonal communication we are often presented with choice points—moments when we need to make choices as to who should be communicated with, what to be said, what not to be said, how to phrase whatever has to be said, and so on.

IMPORTANCE OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS FOR AN ENTREPRENEUR?

TRUST BUILDING

Interpersonal skills focuses more on listening than on speaking. Leader who listen to the concern of its employees is more likely to resolve conflicts.

Promoting two-way communication and solving conflicts in a constructive way help to build trust between employees and employer.

HELP TO MAKE DECISIONS

By looking and analyzing verbal and non-verbal messages of employees, employer can determine the attitude of its workforce. This then help him to take appropriate stance.

For instance, if employees are not showing interest in their work due to stress, employer may promote open culture where employees are able to give equal time to their work as well as their health and fitness.

Google is universally known for being a workplace where work doesn’t quite feel like work. In a world where cubicles and boring work environments are common, this is a difficult reputation to achieve. However, regardless of working longer hours and even weekends, employees at Google still claim to truly enjoy going to work. 

The workplace as we know it has been long due for a change, and Google came up with the perfect solution, always leading with data and innovation. Instead of employees having to go elsewhere for lunch, fun, and relaxation, they can find everything they need right in the workplace. Google offers their employees the following perks at no cost: 

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Health/dental

Haircuts

Dry cleaning

Massages

Gyms and swimming pools

Nap pods

Video games

Table sports such as Foosball and ping pong

On top of these, there are even more perks that employees enjoy! Sure, perks come at an expense to Google, but with a low turnover rate and high satisfaction among employees, they’re saving more money than they spend on company culture.

GROWTH IN BUSINESS

Team working is an important (IPC) skills which is significant for the improvement of organization performance.

In a complex business environment, team working is essential as it involves working interdependently. Team working give employees sense of relationship and belongingness. Working in a team should have a positive impact on employees productivity.

INCREASED SALES, LOYALTY AND REFERRALS DUE TO EMPATHY

Every skilled salesperson knows that the key to closing sales is anticipating your customers’ needs and demonstrating how your product or service will suit their needs best. Truly understanding your customers’ needs means reflecting on their fears, desires, pain points and whatever keeps them up at night. If your sales team doesn’t intimately understand your customers’ lives, how can you expect them to explain how your products or services fit their lives? This is the power of empathy in business.

Going beyond increased sales though, what’s even more valuable are loyal customers and strong referrals. To see repeat customers and customers transformed into super fans, make sure this empathy mindset enlivens the culture of your entire organization from customer service to the accounting department. 

One industry where empathy clearly counts is in the ultra-competitive airline industry. Any company that can make flying more convenient and pleasant scores points with perpetually frustrated passengers. By now, we’re all familiar with this string of PR blunders from United Airlines demonstrating the failure of empathy on a corporate level. But you may be less familiar with Ryanair’s empathy success. After implementing their “Always Getting Better” program, which many customer annoyances like hidden charges,un-allocated seating and carry-on baggage restrictions, Ryanair saw a net profit increase from €867 million to €1.24 billion (US$1.39 billion). CEO Michael O’Leary famously remarked, “If I’d only known being nice to customers was going to work so well, I’d have started many years ago.”

WAYS TO IMPROVE INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION?

Interpersonal skills are invaluable in personal as well as professional life. These skills measure how well you interact with others. Therefore, you must be aware of the ways these skills can be improved. Some of them are discussed briefly as under:

1.     Smile: It is hard to find somebody who would want to be around someone who is in a constant state of depression. People in general avoid negative energies around them, therefore try being friendly to all and wear a smile. An optimistic and cheerful attitude acts like a positive energy that is likely to draw others to you.

2.   Encourage others: We all have positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses. Rather than dwelling on negativity one should appreciate the positive outlook of life. We should try finding at least one positive thing about everyone we connect with and let them hear it out. Generous praise and kind words of encouragement can greatly improve the quality of relationships. Some magic words like sorry, thanks, welcome, excuse me, etc,  can really help build one’s image very strongly. When we let others feel welcome, honoured and appreciated, they too wish to put in their best.

3.      Have courtesy for others: During a lifetime, individuals go through many phases; we should recognize, acknowledge and celebrate others’ successes, and express concern and empathy for difficult and painful situations. We should deal with others in a respectable manner and let them come up with their opinions as well.

4.     Active listening: Active listening refers to establishing the fact that one clearly intends to hear and understand another person’s point of view. It means an active participation in the conversation, it would reflect that the subject under discussion has been understood. The feeling of being heard would make people appreciate you.

5.     Bridging gaps: Craft an environment that raises everybody’s spirits to work together. Avoid favouritism and treat everyone equally. Avoid back-biting. Honour other people's suggestions and requests. When you make a statement or announcement, check if you have been understood. Such personality traits will make people trust you.

6.      Resolve conflicts: Even healthy relationships experience conflicts. Any two persons can’t agree over same things all the time. Rather than avoiding the conflict, conflict resolution is more important, crucial and worth learning. Try to resolve disagreements when they arise. Become an effective mediator. If group members quarrel over personal differences, sit down with both the parties and help sort out their differences. Assuming such leadership role, will enable you to receive respect and appreciation from those around you.

7.     Communicate clearly: Every effort should be made to ensure that a clear message reaches the receiver’s end. Before communicating determine clearly what you have to say and how. An effective communicator avoids confusions and misunderstandings with coworkers, colleagues, and peers.

8.      Humour:  While living, sometimes though we breathe but forget to live. We develop a habit of taking ourselves and the situations that come across so seriously that we lose our tool of humour. Don’t get scared to be witty or funny as most people get attracted to a person who can make them laugh. Your sense of humour can act as an effective tool to lessen barriers and gain people’s affection.