The "Interpersonal" Network

There has been a lot of talk lately about the importance of different networking tools at the disposal of the working professional in the modern world. With the emergence of Social media networks like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Glassdoor and the surge of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, the business world has never been more connected with their customers, prospects and employees. All of these major advancements in technology and communication have many benefits for employees, such as ease in contacting fellow employees, maintaining and finding leads for sales calls, managing workers from hundreds of miles away.

While these tools have enabled people to accomplish so much, there seems to have not been a large enough focus placed on the most important network, the Interpersonal Network, and how these changes have affected the ebbs and flows there. The Interpersonal Network is simply the network of professional or personal relationships that a person has developed in their life. Interpersonal skills were once regarded as a person’s overall ability to navigate that Interpersonal Network, but today with all the advances and new stages of networks that have come about, Interpersonal Skills are now more known as the “Relationship” Based skills that a person displays, whether that be in an interview, meeting or casual conversation.

Millennials, who have mostly grown up during this digital communication boom of the last 20 years, have learned to develop their interpersonal skills with the aid of digital tools such as email, texting and social networks. In a research paper published by Brignal and Van Valey (2015), it was found in several studies that the abundant use of technology as means of communication has had an adverse effect on the social skills of those who grew up using these tools.

What does this decrease in those social skills mean to the modern professional today and how can we work to fix this problem?

This decrease in social skills for those who rely on digital means as their primary mode of communication could lead to trouble with building, maintain and enriching relationships, recognizing social and emotional cues, and their overall ability to work with other people. This could negatively affect the workplace with the employees not being able to understand or cooperate with their coworkers and having trouble being able to empathize and anticipate the needs of their clients or prospects.

All of these possible negative results have developed over years of habit but there are many different ways to correct or prevent this loss of social awareness due to constant use of electronic communication. The one that I believe to be the most effective and simplistic is to invest in your “F Networks.

Your Interpersonal network is made up of the people that interact with on constant basis, whether they be your coworkers, your boss, your clients or prospects and establishing good rapport and trust with them allows you to be able to navigate the business arena with ease. When a manager is able to trust his employees, there will be less tension between them as he is able to have confidence in their abilities and allows them to be able to act as coach rather than a rule enforcer. When employees are able to trust each other, they are able to work more effectively as a team and improve their work as a whole. When Clients or Prospects trust you then they will be much more open to hear what you have to offer and how it could possibly help their lives or businesses.

Developing that trust is something that is difficult to do and that is why the word “invest” is the best fit to describe this action of building your Face to Face Network. It is a constant action that must be nourished and refreshed. To me, there are four practices in particular that have worked for me in the past to be able to develop that type of trust with people I have been engaged with and those are;

1) Take time to get to know every person within your network.Take a few minutes out of each day to make the effort to learn more about the people around you. Whenever you are speaking with others always try to learn more about them so you can understand their world a little better. I'm not saying that you need to be able to recite this person's life story but you should be able to know what their life looks like from the outside. If you take the time to understand a person's life better then they will most likely do the same for you and it will ease tensions whenever there is any cooperation needed in the future.

2)  Always go the extra mile when you are helping a coworker or completing a task for your manager. If you go out of the way for the benefit of your coworker, they will remember this and may do the same for you one day. Whenever your manager asks you to complete a task, complete that task to the best of your ability and always be looking for ways in which you can help the business.

3)  Always strive to do what you say. This rule goes for your manager, your coworkers and for your clients/prospects. If you are able to keep your promises and fulfill your duties effectively then the trust between you and the people around you can grow.

4)  Take responsibility for your failures and always give thanks to those who helped you in your success. This is the most important rule of all, if you are to be trusted by anyone then it is imperative that you are able to take full responsibility for each of your decisions and able to appreciate the effort of those who helped you in achieving any successes.

While all of these advances in Technology have allowed us to be connected like never before it is important for us to never let those means of interaction to overshadow the human element and how those interactions with each other are what enables us to succeed.I hope that this article about that human element is able to be a benefit to anyone out there that is trying to improve their working and personal relationships in their lives.