Social intelligence, simply put is the ability to get along well with others. It is the capacity to know oneself and to know others. It is more commonly referred to as tact or people skill. Also, Psychology Today defines social intelligence as that which develops from the experience with people and learning from success and failures in social settings.
Most people would refer to social intelligence as “Perfect Timing”, knowing when to talk or listen and what to do. Timing is a big part of social intelligence.
Social intelligence is closely linked to emotional intelligence, but it is not the same thing. One of the main distinction between social intelligence and emotional intelligence is that social intelligence develops from experience with people and learning from success and failures in social settings, while emotional intelligence has more to do with how people manage themselves before they make contact with another person
Nevertheless, both level of intelligence is needed during interaction with others.
Tips To Develop Social Intelligence
- Pay close attention to what and who is around you
The ability to be calm and pay close attention to your environment and see the positive and negative things that the environment offers. Also, interacting with the two different sides of the environment would speak so highly of your social intelligence skills.
- Learn how to resolve conflicts
Conflicts are almost inevitable in any social setting. People have diverse opinions and feelings about things. Instead of fighting the difference, seek to understand the difference. Learn healthy ways of conflict resolution
- Work on increasing your emotional Intelligence
Knowing the best way to interact emotionally with other entities around you, how do you react when someone is so motivated or is in a depressed mood, handling situations like this would speak highly of your emotional balance and this would help with your people’s skill.
- Respect cultural differences
Different countries and their culture’s diversity need to be highly respected, doing an activity that is against a certain culture while in their environment would be considered disrespectful.
- Practice active listening
Refrain yourself from cutting in into people’s conversation, listen to what they want to say even if at the instance what they are saying is wrong or you already have that information with you. When they are done with what they are saying you can decide to lay claims to your different view.
- Invest in your relationships
Get to know people, and let people get to know you. Also, appreciating the people in your life always leaves a lasting impression. No matter how small the appreciation seems it would go a long way if it is genuine.
