Strategies for Improving Your Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skill is usually described as a personality trait, which is a convenient way of saying it cannot be learned. It can. It is a set of habits, and habits respond to practice.

Ask one more question

The most reliable improvement anyone can make in a working conversation is to ask a second question before answering the first. It costs ten seconds and it removes most of the misunderstandings that would otherwise cost a week.

Write it down afterward

A short note after a conversation, sent to the other person, does two things: it catches the places you heard differently, and it gives both of you something to point at later.