Interpersonal Skills in a Business Organization - Assignment Example

Interpersonal Skills in a Business Organization Interpersonal Skills in a Business Organization Introduction Mary Griffins is the vice president of Derby Foods Company. One of her subordinate is Mr. Simon York who is key player in the company. Being the vice president, Mary Griffins has to make performance reports about Simon York. Mr. Simon is a strong performer but he has always been displaying very poor interpersonal skills with his fellow colleagues and the team he works with in production. Mary Griffins is in a dilemma on how to approach, question or coach him. Her only aim is to prevent him from derailing his career and maybe help him improve or total change his personal image among workmate and the management of Derby Food Company (Berger, 2011). Evaluating, giving feedbacks, making follow up and coaching the juniors like the case with Griffins and York has always been a challenge to leaders. (Duke Corporate Education, 2005). Very few leaders have been trained on ways of formulating and delivering feedback that is constructive and effective; feedbacks that would encourage the concerned parties to change both their personal and professional lives. Research has proved that there are four essential skills required in giving a feedback; self-management, observational, analytical and interpersonal skills. As the vice president, Mary Griffin’s feedback to His subordinate Simon York is very important. Feedback is a very important responsibility to all leaders, supervisors and managers in performance development. A supervisor must carry out descriptive feedback based on behavior on his subordinates for it to be considered effective. It should not be judgmental nor based on one’s personality. Upon issuing the feedback report, the leader should consider coaching the subordinate towards what is expected of him or her. Performance coaching should be a continued process that helps the employees in evaluating their job behavior and their performance with an aim of improving their effectiveness (OToole, 2012). Coaching sessions must be regular; whether they are informal or formal. We will discuss the impacts of healthy interpersonal skills in an organization in relation to the feedback and coaching given by Mary to Simon (Hawkins, 2011). Importance of interpersonal skills in an organization It is of paramount importance for any person in any organization to have good interpersonal skills irrespective of his position in the organization. Interpersonal skills enhance teamwork, bonding and good communication skills. In order for one to appreciate the need of having good interpersonal skills, he must know its importance. The paper focuses on four main significances of interpersonal skills. The first one is that good interpersonal skills lead to effective communication. No single organization can survive without good communication (West and Turner, 2011). Effective communication involves the sender passing the message which can be understood to the receiver using the right medium and the right feedback is given or the right action is taken. To achieve an effective communication is very difficult but very easy if the right interpersonal skills are sharpened. Good interpersonal skills ensure that there is no negative attitude towards the recipient, influences positive messages and positive reception. Research has shown that communication skills are rated as the most influential skill in the success of any organization. As a matter of fact, it was rated at 90% (Werner and DeSimone, 2012). Secondly, interpersonal skills improve relationships in the workplace. Relationship is greatly affected by personnel’s ego and ones status in the ranking of a company. According to fritz (2006), if workers can manage their ego states then they can have a very conducive working environment. Interpersonal skills help the workers to be conscious of their state of mind, and how to deal with their ego status in order to come up with good relationship in the work places. A person who has good interpersonal skills is able to lay down his ego with the interest of others in mind. He focuses on “we” rather than “I” (Fritz, 2006, p. 151). Thirdly, interpersonal skills help the workers to comfortably take their roles in the teams they are in. One of the disasters that would happen in any organization is team members declining their roles in the team. Some of the roles in a team include implementer, coordinator, shaper, plant, investigator, evaluator, team worker and finisher. A team is considered successful if the team members can work in coordination and harmony towards achieving a certain goal (Dyer et al, 2013). Interpersonal skills help the team workers to successfully and comfortably adapt to various roles in the team. Dyer et al (2013), further points out that the roles are not inborn but with the right interpersonal skills any person can easily adapt more than one role. There are so many other benefits of interpersonal skills but the last main significant of interpersonal skills is improving of employability skills, leadership skills and competence in the work place (Kouzes and Posner, 2012). A worker who has these skills is likely to have charisma; a very crucial skill in promotion of workers in any organization. In this case, Simon York is great performer who can lead others to greater heights in the organization if he acquires good interpersonal skills. Ways of developing interpersonal skills Having discussed the benefits of interpersonal skills to the organization and the individual, we need to look at different areas that one need to look at so as to acquire and improve interpersonal skills. Firstly, any person who wishes to develop good interpersonal skills must be able to communicate efficiently. The message he or she wishes to communicate is clear, carefully drafted and with full conscious of the message and recipients. A good communicator must be able to listen carefully to avoid miscommunications. He should be sensitive to the tone, body language, words and the environment of communication. A rational judgment in communication is essential. A good communicator should avoid prejudice when communicating. He should also be able to pass the message clearly for other to easily understand (McIntosh et.al, 2008). Secondly, one must focus on building a relationship that is harmonious. Good interpersonal skills call for need to practice empathy, being inclusive and practicing fairness. One must be able to put himself in the position of others and look at things from different perspectives. It is important to lay down one’s egos for the sake of others. He should avoid discrimination of any form. He should be trustworthy. This will be done by keeping commitments and confidence (Fritz, 2006). Thirdly, one must be a team player. He should be able to collaborate with others, work with them as well as compromise. One should be open to receiving praise for the work that is well done as well as taking criticism positively. One must avoid being a whiner. Social awareness is of utmost importance in any organization (Dyer et al, 2013). Lastly, a worker must be able to resolve conflicts amicably as well solve different problems rationally. There is not a single day without problems. A person must be able to identify the exact problems, understand it, examine it and provide the best available solutions to them. Problems must be solved honestly and respectfully. Priority must be put into consideration when resolving conflicts. Conclusion No one is exclusively good or entirely bad. Every day we must strive to become better. Based on assessment and evaluation, Simon York is a very important member of Derby Foods Company though he can be better if he improves his interpersonal skills based on the above discussed issues. It is clear that interpersonal skills of personnel in an organisation play a very crucial role in team work, communication and relationships in the work place. References Berger, K. S. (2011). Developing Person Through The Life Span.S.L: Worth Pub. Duke Corporate Education. (2005). Coaching and Feedback for Performance. Chicago, IL: Dearborn Trade. Dyer, W. G., Dyer, J. H., & Dyer, W. G. (2013).Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Fritz, J. M. H. (2006). Problematic Relationships in the Workplace. New York: Lang. Hawkins, P. (2011). Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership. London: Kogan Page. Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012).The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Levi, D. (2011). Group Dynamics for Teams. Los Angeles: SAGE. Mcintosh, P., Luecke, R., Davis, J. H., & American Management Association.(2008). Interpersonal Communication Skills in the Workplace. New York: American Management Association. Nelson-Jones, R. (2007). Life Coaching Skills: How to Develop Skilled Clients. London: SAGE. OToole, G. (2012). Communication: Core Interpersonal Skills for Health Professionals. Sydney: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier Werner, J. M., & Desimone, R. L. (2012).Human Resource Development. Mason, OH: South-Western. West, R. L., & Turner, L. H. (2011).Understanding Interpersonal Communication: Making Choices In Changing Times. Boston: Wadsworth. Read More