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Interpersonal Relationships
Attention and Your Relationships
Interpersonal Relationship
Communication and Interpersonal Relationships
Interpersonal Relationships and Communication
Interpersonal Relationship Skills
Interpersonal Relationships Skills
In 1997, a pilot flew a passenger jet into a mountainside when warnings from the flight crew were unclear and unheeded. Despite the good intentions of the crew and the innocence of the passengers, all lost their lives that stormy night. Although this is an extreme example of what can happen when interpersonal relationships experience a break down in communications, it points to the importance of interpersonal relationships and communication. Our ability to communicate can have a major effect on our lives.
Interpersonal Relationships
Which interpersonal relationship matters most to you? It has been said many times that our relationships are key to our quality of life. Even when our health fails, it is those close to us that stand beside us and offer comfort to ease the pain. We can feel the impact not only with those closest to us, but with those we see in the workplace and even when grocery shopping.
Relating to others and communicating well with others can make a profound difference in our lives. Those we speak with each day, those we work with and those we live with sometimes bring sunshine and sometimes bring the rain. Effective interaction with the people in our lives is not only key to our enjoyment, but key to a successful life and even survival.
When we observe our daily communications with friends, family, neighbors and workmates, we begin to see patterns. Even when dealing with the mailman or the UPS lady, these interactions take on a certain character. For many, it's not unusual to deal with more than 100 people on any given day, but we find that just a few key relationships have the greatest impact.
Communication and Interpersonal Relationships
When observing communication and interpersonal interactions and relationships in the context of each day, opportunities routinely present themselves. Interacting with our family members at home, greeting or chatting with our neighbors, and cooperating with people at work are the most common examples of where our communication skills can come into play.
- What is our approach?
- Are we usually silent?
- Are we warm?
- Are we cheerful or business-like?
Although we each possess our own style, do we communicate effectively with others and achieve the results we desire? Even in casual conversations, to the degree that we invest in making a positive impact on others, we will most often experience the same in return.
More often than not, our mood and our current concerns have an influence on our interpersonal relationships more than we know. People can even see on our faces before we speak if we are having a rough day, or just received some great news. Are we always aware of the effect we have on others? Can we hear it in the words we use and the way we communicate?
Interpersonal Relationship Skills
Our interpersonal relationship skills have a significant effect on success in our daily lives. This appears not only in the workplace where we can make more money or enjoy our job more, it also shows itself in marriage, raising a family and the ability to reach goals in almost every area of life. Interpersonal skills come into play when our flight is cancelled and we need to make other arrangements. They come into play when a marriage is threatened by financial challenges or infidelity.
Our communication skills even matter when we are in traffic and we need to make a decision about how to respond to other drivers. Communicating with others becomes inseparable from having a good day, or a bad day not only in how we initiate communication, but in how we react to the communications of others who are having a difficult time.
It can make the difference between saving a marriage or getting a divorce, celebrating a raise or getting fired, and even having your eggs cooked the way you like at the local restaurant. Many wise men and women have uttered quotes on the importance of dealing with others in a skillful manner.
Getting feedback from others can be of great value in honing our interpersonal communication skills. Oftentimes, however, others are not skilled themselves at giving feedback. When we get negative results, it rarely includes the details we need in order to improve our skills at interpersonal relationships.
Since life improves so much with greater communication skills, getting feedback and an opportunity to improve would be not only life-saving for pilots, but marriage and job-saving for the rest of us. Contact Alice Aspen March for a free consultation today and see how you might improve your communication skills, or learn more about The Attention Factor books.
“You provided specific and important tools for stress reduction and for enhancing interpersonal relationships.”
-Dr. Robert M.
Director of Behavioral Science
Santa Monica Hospital
Santa Monica, California
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This page was updated: 4/21/2012
