The Importance Of Social Skills
Written by: Roselyn Mathew / Social Skills / December 13, 2023 / 8 minutes read
Table Of Contents
Social skills as defined by American Psychological Association (2018) is “a set of learned abilities that enable an individual to interact competently and appropriately in a given social context. The most commonly identified social skills in Western cultures include assertiveness, coping, communication and friendship-making skills, interpersonal problem solving, and the ability to regulate one's cognitions, feelings, and behavior”.
These skills are needed to communicate effectively and create a positive impact on others. Social skills include both speech (verbal communication) as well as communication without speech (non-verbal communication). With adequate social skills, we can maintain a good rapport with the people whom we interact with and can also build healthy relationships and friendships.
Why are social skills important?
Social skills are essential to live in a society. Some reasons why social skills are important are given below:
It creates an overall good impression about you for the people whom you interact with
People generally believe how a person is by mostly observing the way they interact with people. Even though a person is helpful and has a good nature, if they lack adequate social skills, they might be perceived as not so friendly or rude, which might make people not want to interact with them.
It helps in building good friendships and healthy relationships
People generally prefer to be friends with a person who likes to talk in a friendly way and interacts with people in a ‘charming’ manner. People would also be interested in building friendships and relationships with a person who is caring and helpful, but it would take a lot of time and interactions to understand that person whereas a person with good social skills would be able to get many friends and build relationships with a greater number of people within a short span of time.
Helps in career growth and development
A person with good social skills can network very easily with others. They also give a good impression to their colleagues and seniors. They will also be able to show their knowledge by communicating well. Due to these, they can get promoted to higher levels and can also get better jobs due to their networking skills. Since good social skills always give a good first impression, they will be able to ace themselves in interviews by demonstrating excellent soft skills which can always help them in getting the best job positions. Society generally considers a person with good communication skills as smart and capable, and tends to underappreciate a smart person with inadequate communication skills. A person with inadequate social skills, although extremely competent, might find it difficult to get better jobs or promotions due to unimpressive social interactions.
With adequate social skills, we can maintain a good rapport with the people whom we interact with and can also build healthy relationships and friendships.
It helps you to communicate more effectively and not have any miscommunication or misunderstandings
Poor social skills can sometimes cause miscommunication or misunderstandings due to poor choice of words, inappropriate tone or body language. For example, a person might say something which is positive but due to an inappropriate tone, it might sound sarcastic. Or during a conflict, a person might give a solution with a direct tone which might make them appear rude or inconsiderate. This could lead to a fallout of friendships and relationships. A person with good social skills would be able to have amicable friendships and relationships even if there are issues.
It boosts confidence while speaking
Due to the fear of being judged due to inadequate social skills or because of previous issues of misunderstanding or miscommunication, a person with inadequate social skills would try to avoid speaking as much as possible, resulting in losing opportunities for networking or creating good relationships with people around them. Whereas a person with adequate social skills is confident in their speech and interactions with others and can speak well with others in any situation.
Social skills increase happiness and positivity
A person with adequate social skills has confidence, maintains good friendships and relationships with everyone, can solve issues without making anyone upset, has good networking skills, can get desired job positions and creates a positive impression with others wherever they are. All these make them successful. They would be appreciated due to their ability to communicate ideas and thoughts effectively. This creates a sense of worth, positivity and happiness.
Role of assertiveness and empathy in social skills
The general belief that people have about social skills is that people with good social skills talk well and entertain people and make them ‘feel happy’ after interacting with them. While this is true, social skills also include solving issues that could arise in social and professional situations. For example, if there is a conflict with a co-worker, a person having adequate social skills would confront the co-worker and try to find a solution to the issue while including the co-worker. Solving issues or dealing with problems with others can be done much more effectively by being assertive. Being assertive means finding solutions to issues while not offending others. It is important to understand others’ feelings and show empathy while interacting with them.
To show empathy, it is essential to be genuine and put oneself in the other person’s position. It is also important to convey one’s own feelings and needs to avoid feeling bitterness to others. It is a skill to create a balance between expressing one’s own needs and at the same time to put oneself in place of the other person and consider their situation too to solve an issue.
Conclusion
Social skills are a set of skills which makes a person communicate effectively with others to create and maintain relationships and network well with people. It is important to have good social skills to be confident and successful. Some people have a natural ability to interact with others and have good social and communication skills whereas for others, proper training can result in developing adequate social skills. It would be beneficial to consult a professional who is trained in communication skills and social skills to get assessed and improve these skills.
To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.
