Berman Dira - People skills at work

People Skills
at Work

Evan Berman and Dira Berman

CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

2012 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

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Version Date: 20111201

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4665-1295-5 (eBook - ePub)

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Every day millions of people go to work. How well they interact with others often determines what work gets done, how well the work gets done, and how much they enjoy doing it. Getting along with people is a central task of the workplace, affecting the quality of work that gets done and ones sense of well-being and career. We come across many different people: employees, program clients, customers, superiors, citizens, and so on. Many of these people are easy to work with and get along, but there are those who are difficult and test our patience and abilities to get the job done. Almost every workplace offers a mix of peoplea reflection of humankindand it is important to get along well with everyone.

Our people skills are defined, in short, as our ability to deal with people. A longer definition is our ability to deal with people in different situations, to recognize these situations, and to have a broad set of skills and to know when and how to skillfully use these skills with regard to impacts on job performance, well-being, and career. The ultimate point of people skills is to smooth the process and better deal with the people issues that inevitably come up. While we cannot control others, we can surely anticipate different situations that might come up, and we can be prepared for them.

The need for a book on people skills today is as large as it has ever been. People act in friendly ways, but support, friendship, and camaraderie seem increasingly harder to find. Even though people spend many hours together, they sometimes know little about the person whom they work with. The person next door is sometimes little more than the stranger next door. Globalization implies that we often deal with others who come from quite different countries and cultures. People also often know little about themselves and their coping abilities to deal with others until they actually experience different people and workplace situations. The consequences of the thinning of human relations at work include reduced communication, commitment, and help working through problems with others.

People skills are not an abstraction or body of knowledge only but the ability to assess and address a broad range of situations. Numerous job issues come up at work such as setting expectations with supervisors and coworkers, putting ones best foot forward in job interviews, dealing with issues of social manners, overcoming problems of communication, understanding ethics, managing ones network, finding a mentor, dealing with difficult bosses and coworkers, and handling the many strategies and tactics for furthering ones career. People have little tolerance for those who have a poor ability to get along with others, yet we need good skills to navigate the maze of people issues at work.

There is good payoff from mastering the situations in this book. In general, this book examines the impact of people skills in four major areas:

• achieving better work results,

• advancing ones career,

• surviving at work, and

• balancing work with personal well-being.

This book has three main parts that go successively deeper into the subject matter. The first main part, Social Skills in a Modern World, discusses critical social skills that address respect giving, communication, conflict, emotions, how to get along, and assessmentall in practical ways and with many specific examples that provide guidance. The second main part, The Professional Self, examines topics related to career advancement and professionalism, such as networking, professional commitment statements, interviews, and psychological contracts at work as relating to professional and career development. It also addresses matters of ethics. This part has in-depth, practical advice for advancing ones career and building on work that we developed. The third main part, The Human Condition Explored, deals with topics that relate to well-being, survival, and the nature of useful personal self-knowledge. It examines how different stages of ones career affect major tasks and challenges, which in turn affect key issues and relations with others. This part also examines growing awareness of the impact of mental health at work. This broad and deeper section completes the book.

People skills are increasingly in demand, in the public and private sectors alike. For example, people in the public sector often have significant responsibilities, and how well they get along with others matters greatly for outcomes. Their work often involves dealing with many people, not only citizens and customers but also those in other agencies, levels of government, and private companies who partner with them in delivering services and project development. Many of these people deal with hundreds of people every day from all walks of life and some with a great deal of power and expertise. In such settings, good people skills are simply a must. Of course, the same can also be said of people in other organizations and in private and nonprofit organizations too. Very few people can escape the reality that their success usually requires having good people skills.