No matter how great your social skills are, they could be even better. If your social skills are subpar, enhancing them might be the best thing you could do to supercharge your life.
You might believe that you were born with a set of social skills that you carry for the rest of your life, but that’s simply not true. With some attention, your social skills can be improved dramatically.
Develop these social skills and enhance your life:
1. Likeability. Being likeable has so many social benefits. It can help you attain and maintain employment. It increases the number of friends you can have. It helps with your love life. There are books and courses available on how to be more likeable, but you can figure out a lot of what it takes to be likeable on your own.
Think about someone you know that everyone seems to like. What is different about them from yourself or the average person? Become a likeability detective.
2. Listening. Socializing isn’t all about talking. You should be listening at least 50% of the time, too. There are few people that can really focus on another person in the modern age. You’ll really stand out in a positive way if you can focus intently on the person you’re communicating with.
Keep your thoughts and attention on the other person. Avoid looking at your watch, phone, or the surroundings. Focus on the other person’s words and avoid allowing your thoughts to drift. It will be your turn to talk again soon enough.
3. Utilizing effective body language. Our body language sends a lot of signals, but not many people are aware of the signals they’re sending. It can be worthwhile to buy a book or do some other research on the topic. Every gesture and posture you make is either bringing people closer or driving them away.
4. Respectfulness. Everyone deserves a base-level of respect. We all enjoy the feeling of being respected and having our opinions respected. Be willing to consider the ideas of others. After each interaction, ask yourself how the other person felt after your conversation versus how they felt before.
5. Eye contact. Eye contact is an important part of listening well. It’s also a sign of confidence, dominance, and submissiveness. The proper amount of eye contact is tricky. You don’t want stare down at the ground and appear overly weak or disrespectful, but you don’t want to stare someone down like a serial killer either.
Pay attention the next time you speak to someone with great social skills and notice their eye contact patterns.
6. How to make small talk. Many of us are great with people we know well but struggle to interact effectively or confidently with strangers. Small talk is a skill just like any other skill. You can learn to be a great “small talker” with practice.
7. How to interact with a group. Are you great one-on-one but can’t seem to hold your own in a group setting? You’re far from alone. This issue is similar to making small talk. You have to practice in order to become good at it.
Do you want to improve your small talk? Maybe you’re too distracted when communicating with others and spend too much time thinking about what you want to say. Or maybe you struggle to interact well in group settings. Determine your social skill weakness(es) and address it(them). It can make a huge difference in your life.
