Interpersonal Skills

As a successful entrepreneur, you’ll have to work closely with people – this is where it is critical to be able to build great relationships  with your team, customers, suppliers, shareholders, investors, and more.

Some people are more gifted in this area than others, but, fortunately, you can learn and improve these skills. The types of interpersonal skills you’ll need include:

·         Leadership and Motivation: Can you lead  and motivate others  to follow you and deliver your vision? And are you able to delegate  work to others? As a successful entrepreneur, you’ll have to depend on others to get beyond a very early stage in your business – there’s just too much to do all on your own!

·         Communication Skills: Are you competent with all types of communication ? You need to be able to communicate well to sell your vision of the future to investors, potential clients, team members, and more.

·         Listening: Do you hear what others are telling you? Your ability to listen can make or break you as an entrepreneur. Make sure that you’re skilled at active listening  and empathetic listening .

·         Personal Relations: Are you emotionally intelligent ? The higher your EI, the easier it will be for you to work with others. The good news is that you can improve your emotional intelligence!

·         Negotiation: Are you a good negotiator ? Not only do you need to negotiate keen prices, you also need to be able to resolve differences between people in a positive, mutually beneficial way.

·         Ethics: Do you deal with people based on respect, integrity , fairness, and truthfulness? Can you lead ethically ? You’ll find it hard to build a happy, committed team if you deal with people – staff, customers or suppliers – in a shabby way.