Developing Interpersonal Skills: A Professional Assignment

This assignment explores the critical importance of interpersonal skills in professional settings, focusing on active listening and effective communication. The student's work addresses the acquisition and development of active listening skills, emphasizing the need for full concentration and engagement with the speaker. The assignment highlights effective communication's role in professional success and daily life, emphasizing active listening's significance in understanding diverse viewpoints and resolving conflicts. It also suggests ways to improve active listening, such as approaching dialogues with a learning mindset, suppressing the urge to speak, and asking open-ended questions. The student reflects on their career aspirations, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal skills in teaching. The assignment also references videos by Julian Treasure and Scott Dinsmore, underscoring the value of listening and finding fulfilling work. References to relevant videos are also included.

Running head: INTERPERSONAL SKILLS OF PROFESSIONAL
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS OF PROFESSIONAL
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Question 1:
Active Listening is a type of skill which can be acquired and also developed through
practice. As the name suggests, ‘active listening’ simply means to listen actively, which is to
say that the term indicates on full concentration on things that are being said instead of just
passively hearing the message that the speaker conveyed. This type of a skill is something
that is very difficult to master which is why it takes time and patience in an individual to
develop such skill. ‘Active listening’ involves the skill of listening with the help of all the
senses and along with that, it also means to give full attention to the speaker. It is also
significant that the “active listener” also shows that he/she is listening with their full
attention, or else the speaker might come to a conclusion that whatever that they were talking
about is something that the listener is not interested in and hence they might stop talking.
This interest might be easily conveyed to the speaker through both non-verbal as well as
verbal messages like nodding head, or maintaining eye- contact and smiling or saying yes
from time to time.
Question 2:
Effective communication is significant for attaining success in any kind of work that
an individual does. It is communication that helps in building resilience and maintaining
balance in diverse aspects of the human lives. Just as it is significant to be an effective
communicator, it is also significant that the person becomes an active listener. Multiple
situations arrive in daily life that needs communication or else they can become very
complicated. If an individual is not a good listener, then there are high chances that they
would not be able to understand the viewpoint of other people. There are multiple situations
where effective listening skills are required which is why it is important to understand the
significance of active listening at a broader level. It is observed that most of the times people

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tend to avoid the skill of listening , but it must be understood that without active listening, the
process of communication is not complete. Moreover, active listening also helps in resolving
issues and conflicts by understanding the other people’s viewpoints and it also helps an
individual to acquire personal development.
Question 3:
There are several ways to improve the skill of active listening in an individual. The
first thing one has to do is to approach every dialogue with the intention to learn something.
If the skill is to be improved, the person has to learn to stop the urge to talk and learn to focus
more on what the speaker is saying. This can be done by suppressing the desire to think about
what the individual is going to say next, or even by suppressing the urge to multitask while
listening can also help any individual to improve their active listening skills. Most
importantly, the listener should ask some broad questions that would not be answered in ‘yes’
or ‘no’; this would guide the conversation and also make the speaker feel like he is being
listened to attentively. The listening skills would also be improved if the listener pays enough
attention to their responses and provide positive feedback to the speaker, which can only be
given after the listening was attentive and focused enough to find the total meaning of the
conversation. These few steps can help in the improvement of the listening skills of any
individuals.
Question 4:
If I could do anything for a living, there are multiple ideas roaming in my mind, that I
would do. However, the dominant idea that is set in my mind is the though of being a high
school teacher. For one thing, this kind of a job requires great interpersonal skills and would
allow me to continue learning more about any subject that I love. High school students are
individuals that need to be educated in innovative manner so as to be able to connect with

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them and make them learn. I find this job to be adventurous and I believe that I would learn a
new thing every day when I will be with the high school students. Moreover, with my
interpersonal skills and my ability of active listening, I might help students who are finding it
difficult to cope up with the environment of the high school since high school can be cruel.
With my skills of active listening I would listen to the issues that students are facing in the
school or at home, and try to help them out as much as I am able to.
Question 5:
Julian Treasure who is an expert on sound and its best usage, opines how listening is
important for every individual as well as the world. His Ted Talk reveals not only the five
skills that would help an individual to improve their listening skills, but there is more than
that mere educational lesson (Ted 2011). The video shows the immense significance of
listening by stating that communication is not only a process of exchange but a process of
extraction which follows different techniques. The video also helped in revealing the reasons
behind why people are losing their skill in listening and how it is creating conflict in the
world. The video is effective in terms of raising awareness about the importance of the
subject of ‘active listening’ that should be taught at schools.
Question 6:
Scott Dinsmore in the video ‘How to Find and Do Work You Love’, blatantly talks
about the fact that how taking jobs is not only about building one’s resume and how 80% of
the people are unsatisfied by the kind of work they do because of this mentality. The video
shows ideas that helps the individual not to fall in the category of that 80% of the people
(Akkermans 2015). This video has helped me realize what the other 20% of the people are
doing differently that they are passionately working and loving their job. Dinsmore showed

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how finding and working on something that I love is something that I can control myself
entirely.

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References:
Akkermans, M., 2015. Scott Dinsmore How To Find Work You Love. [video] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoKzyKrkOsc [Accessed 21 March 2020].
Ted, 2011. 5 Ways To Listen Better. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=cSohjlYQI2A [Accessed 21 March 2020].