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Success Advice

Social Intelligence: Great Relationships Ensure Your Workplace Success

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workplace relationships for success
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I always believe that happy and fearless employees produce greater results and it reflects in their productivity scale, efficiency levels and the entire disposition. A buoyant office atmosphere implies that your employees are beaming with confidence, humility, knowledge, poise, enthusiasm, and congeniality. They love to talk, help others, crack a silly joke, party hard, and work harder!

However, every office has some employees who avoid interacting with others. They have their own reasons behind this aloofness and indifference – some call it their love for privacy, for some it is introversion, some give an excuse of being busy, and then there are those who find it difficult to break the walls that they build around themselves. Although space is important for all of us to grow without suffocating, it’s pretty lonely at the top if you don’t have your comrades with you.

As a matter of fact, organizations are expected to cultivate a more intelligent and emotionally connected workplace where we learn to hit a balance between personal space and professional bonding. This is where Social Intelligence comes into play. Organizations that embrace Social Intelligence as a pivotal part of their corporate culture have the capability to sort out multiple employee issues, effortlessly!

What exactly is Social Intelligence?

It was the American psychologist named Edward Thorndike who first brought the concept of Social Intelligence to the forefront in the year 1920. As per his definition, it is The ability to understand and manage men and women and boys and girls, to act wisely in human relations.”

In simple layman terms, it is our ability to act, speak and listen to others with intelligence and tact and without any preconceived notions or judgements. It is not taught in schools or colleges; it is collected wisdom that one learns over a period of time through life experiences.

Socially intelligent individuals are sensitive towards others’ feelings, they are open to ideas apart from their own, they are unbiased, they talk and act sensibly without jumping to conclusions, and they are avid listeners. These people seem to be calm and self-assured even in the midst of chaos and pressures and will act totally in control in a larger crowd. 

Now, imagine how your office can turn into the best place under the sun if most of your co-workers would possess this skill and acumen! It will not only breed healthy relationships but can ease out most of the work-related frustrations and stress, which otherwise can lead to employee depression, inefficiencies, and a higher attrition rate!

“The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions.” – John Hancock

Social Intelligence is not just a theory

It is a way of life – especially at our workplace where we spend most of the day. After all, who would want to come across as a serious-looking snob who hardly looks at anyone except the laptop! It is easy to be unapproachable, but it is fun to be approachable by all. 

Your social intelligence is your ability to gel well with people around you and your aptitude to build strong and cognitive relationships with them. According to management consultant and author Albrecht “a lack of social intelligence can doom even the best and brightest in the workforce”.

The significance is immense

Basically, social intelligence at the workplace is more than just getting along with people. It defines how good you are at developing relationships with people that can build confidence in them. It creates an overall atmosphere where everyone works harder and performs better with enhanced commitment and productivity. This also leads to an office with less conflicts.

Social intelligence makes us emotionally responsible and well-connected people who are fully capable of motivating, encouraging, and inspiring fellow colleagues not only to work harder and perform better, but also to cultivate an ambiance of trust, love, and wisdom in the workplace.

Having the skill to deal with people from various backgrounds and beliefs with compassion is an art everyone should embrace, as it is one of the most essential ingredients of professional success and personal happiness.

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” – Confucius

The keyword lies in ‘Empathy’

Now, the question is…how to become more socially intelligent towards our fellow employee and express genuine empathy towards them? These 10 simple steps can help you in the long run.

  1.   Avoid being biased and prejudiced: Get rid of your personal biases, prejudices and thought process and be more welcoming to others’ ideas, insights and open. Look at things from people’s views.
  2.   Don’t judge colleagues based on your beliefs and preferences: You might have acquired beliefs and inclinations based on your own experiences and likings but don’t force others to accept them.
  3.   Apply Design Thinking in your day-to-day life: Analyse a given problem and take the following tactical steps: 
    • Empathize 
    • Define 
    • Ideate
    • Prototype
    • Test to solve it
  1.   Start looking at things from others’ viewpoints: It’s important to sometimes keep differences away and look at situations from others’ viewpoint. This offers multiple solutions to a given issue.
  2.   Do take criticisms constructively: Keep your negative emotions like ego, jealousy, insecurities, greed, and anger at bay when you enter the workplace. Most of your disputes are born out of them.
  3.   Stick to your commitment once it’s made: Be a person of your word and don’t give excuses that you were busy, so you overlooked your previously made promises. It breaks trust and reliance!
  4.   Feel free to communicate openly: Ensure to share your opinions openly and find time to listen to your co-workers challenges, fears and worries. It always helps to heal a heavy heart by being all ears!
  5.   Always carry your smile wherever you go: Remember, people won’t know about your personal struggles and hence they wouldn’t deserve your harsh words. Smile and the world will smile at you!
  6.   Come out of your comfort zone: Being an introvert and retreating in your shell doesn’t always help. Try to mingle with others, break the ice and let go of past disagreements. It’s good to forget and forgive!
  7. Inspire, encourage and motivate people: It’s beautiful to inspire people to do something unique and follow their heart, encourage them to go the extra mile, motivate them to get the best done and appreciate them generously for even the slightest achievement.

Together, we can make our workplace an interesting and fun place where we all would look forward to coming every morning! 

How do you build relationships with people at work? Has it helped you gain a promotion or anything else? Share your thoughts with us below!

Sonali Datta brings over 10 years of practical experience in analyzing, exploring and writing for IT, enterprise software, IT security, startup tips, business strategy, technological innovations, enterprise mobility, digital technologies, and business sustainability. With an extensive background of working with global IT and software companies, she maintains a customer-centric, value-driven and problem-solving approach in her write-ups and she is currently working for Scalefusion. Head over to their Facebook page to check them out!

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Success Advice

Why You Shouldn’t Discount A Brick And Mortar Store In 2025

We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options, but is it worth questioning this theory?

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How to grow a brick and mortar store
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In 2024, you’d be forgiven for thinking that physical shopping is a thing of the past. We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options. But is it worth questioning this theory? (more…)

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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altering business approach
Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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Creating legal boundaries
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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
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Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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