Do you ever wonder how some individuals seem to have a clear sense of self, including a solid understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, desires and motivations? They’re the sort of people who can size up a situation in front of them, determine what’s most important to them and begin working toward a goal.
People who are confident, focused and self-motivated typically have great intrapersonal skills. These individuals exude self-confidence because they’re confident. They know exactly who they are and what they can create and produce. Others naturally gravitate toward these people, as they carry an aura of positive energy and strength wherever they go.
If you want to succeed at work, here’s an important piece of career advice for you: work on honing your intrapersonal skills.
What are Intrapersonal Skills?
Intrapersonal skills, by definition, are all about self-awareness and controlling your inner processes and internal attitudes. These skills serve as the foundation on which you establish your relationships with other people. Intrapersonal skills can help you navigate your interpersonal relationships more easily.
Intrapersonal vs. Interpersonal Skills: What’s the Difference?
A lot of people interchange intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, believing that they are the same. These two terms, however, are different.
Interpersonal skills help you work with and collaborate with others. On the other hand, intrapersonal skills allow you to recognize your capabilities and limitations.
One skill isn’t better than the other. As a matter of fact, you need both soft skills to advance in your career and succeed in life. Both soft skills contribute immensely to your personal and professional growth, as well as your ability to set and reach goals.
Why are Intrapersonal Skills Important for Your Career?
When you have great intrapersonal skills, you take personal responsibility for your emotions and feelings. This is a mindset known as intrapersonal intelligence.
You learn how to:
- Engage in problem solving and purposeful thinking
- Set goals and priorities
- Focus your attention
When something goes differently, you don’t panic or get angry. Instead, you respond with an intentional and thoughtful strategy to reach a positive outcome.
When multinational companies, such as Apple and Microsoft, are hiring, they typically look for candidates who have the internal strength and capability to approach every setback or challenge as an opportunity for growth. This kind of growth mindset allows candidates to:
- Search for creative and effective solutions to their obstacles
- Open and receive new information (and filter out bad ones)
- Stay flexible in the workplace
The motivation of people with strong intrapersonal skills comes within and is naturally infectious to other people.
What are Examples of Intrapersonal Skills?
Having a good set of intrapersonal skills will help you motivate yourself, manage your emotions effectively and more.
Some of the most important intrapersonal skills are:
Resilience
When failure knocks you down, you pick yourself back up. This is resilience in action. Resilience allows you to bounce back quickly from setbacks or difficulties.
Vision
This refers to your ability to see the possibilities that can become the future. A visionary knows how to transform an ambitious vision into tangible blueprints.
Analytical Thinking
This type of intrapersonal skill allows you to tackle complicated issues by evaluating the information you’ve collected and organized. Analytical thinking also lets you convert noisy information and data into action.
Strategic Thinking
This essential skill is vital for both long- and short-term planning. It enables you to plan for the future, come up with steps to accomplish that plan and assess the results.
Resourcefulness
Getting things done amid constraints and obstacles is the definition of resourcefulness. A resourceful person approaches what is in front of them and optimizes what they have.
How to Develop Intrapersonal Skills
If you want to grow in your career and as a person, you’ll need to work on improving your intrapersonal skills.
Here are a few tips to help you in this journey:
Shut Down Negative Self-Talk
Everyone has an inner critic inside their heads constantly telling them that they aren’t good enough. You can combat negative self-talk by looking at the reality of the situation and avoiding making assumptions. Focus your energy on the best possible result instead of the worst possible outcome.
Embrace a Growth Mindset
Believe that you and everybody else can learn and grow. This enables you to believe more readily that everyone can accomplish goals with tenacity and resilience. A growth mindset helps give you a path to the future.
Hone Your Interpersonal Communication
Strong communication and interpersonal skills help raise your intrapersonal intelligence. This enables you to better articulate your wants and needs.
Developing your interpersonal communication, however, doesn’t happen overnight. You need to be aware of how others perceive you. This is where obtaining outside feedback from peers comes in handy.
Here are some key questions you might ask your colleagues to help you hone your interpersonal communication:
- What you think are my blind spots? What do you feel I contribute best to the department or team?
- Do you feel that I listen and understand your feedback, suggestions and instructions well?
- Are my suggestions, instructions and overall verbal communication crystal clear?
Reaching the top of the corporate ladder without a deep knowledge of who you are, what you’re good at and what you want is impossible. If you want to be effective at your job and climb that corporate ladder one day, you’ll need to hone your intrapersonal skills. This all starts by being aware and conscious about yourself.
