Managers face a host of responsibilities every day, and none so important as interacting in effective and meaningful ways with both direct reports and executives. Managers attain their position due to exceptional “hard” skills, but some have stronger interpersonal (“soft”) skills than others.
What happens over the long term when managers communicate poorly or fail to resolve conflict? What are the implications for the organization as a whole?
Key Findings
When it came to
- Interpersonal Skills, greater than 50% of all managers chose interpersonal skills as one of their biggest strengths.
- Communication, greater than 50% of all managers selected “effective communication” as one of their greatest strengths.
- Conflict Management, 69% of managers believe that managing team conflict more effectively would have a beneficial impact on their team’s performance.
Summary
The vast majority of managers and staff in this survey said that poor communication within or across work teams is one of the greatest causes of poor productivity in the workplace. Most executives agreed that one’s interpersonal skills could make or break a career. This in-the-trenches look at work life identifies a real need: better interpersonal effectiveness skills. Other research shows that when managers (or employees) learn to use such interpersonal skills, they are able to apply them in a wide variety of job-specific activities, including leading teams, coaching, managing conflict and even selling. This data shows that interpersonal skills — unlike many functional job skills — are extremely beneficial to all groups of employees and throughout the career track of individual employees.
Of the three leading interpersonal skills programs available today, SOCIAL STYLE was found to be the easiest to understand and use, and the most relevant for workplace training needs. TRACOM’s exclusive multi-rater assessment gives participants a well- rounded understanding of their SOCIAL STYLE. Over 80 percent of managers agreed that SOCIAL STYLE training has helped them to become more effective managers or mentors and to improve relationships with direct reports. When a manager applies SOCIAL STYLE techniques, awareness of his or her own behavior and awareness of the behaviors of others will lead to strengthened teams, managerial effectiveness, and overall productivity within an organization.