The Value of People Skills

I think the most important ability a person can have is understanding people, or to be more precise, understanding human behavior.

The people who have this ability may become managers, politicians, car salesmen.

Maybe politicians and car salesmen are not people that you unequivocally admire. Still, having those abilities can make for success in life—not only in a career but also success in interpersonal relations.

I'm talking about an ability that consists of knowing, for example, what to say and what not to say. Knowing how people are going to react if you say or do such-and-such.

Some people, perhaps because of their childhoods, grow up with, as we put it, poor social skills. A book came out maybe 10 years ago which talked about "social intelligence." It's undoubtedly true that there are different types of intelligence. Many people who are very intelligent according to some measures are strong in many types of abilities but deficient in social intelligence.

There is Mensa, the "high IQ society," of which I was a member for 34 years.. While I have met many people in Mensa who seem to be ordinary people, there is no doubt that there are the geeks—that is, people with a lot of ability in computers, mathematics, and so forth--and stereotypically, Mensa members may be short on social skills. These types may be happiest working alone, doing work in which they can enjoy the luxury of not having to interact with other people constantly.

Sadly, though, that type of work situation might be rare. I was reading how the solitary inventor—an Edison, for example—has been replaced by the research lab which, of course, means an environment involving many people and thus a need for interaction among people.

In some research settings, I know that possibly quite a bit of eccentricity is tolerated. Because it's recognized that these people have rare abilities which must be prized, people in such organizations often enjoy a considerable degree of freedom, and in many matters they are left alone, permitted to dress as they want and often to keep the work hours that they want to.

Still, even those organizations have their managers, and university academic departments have their department chairs. Probably those who have better people skills are sought out for promotion to managerial positions.

Copyright © 2012 by Richard Stein