It’s likely that you’re familiar with the term interpersonal skills, but intrapersonal isn’t so well known. In some cases, intrapersonal skills can be even more important. Time spent working on these skills can benefit most aspects of your daily life.
What Are Intrapersonal Skills?
Intrapersonal skills relate to the self-awareness of our strengths and weaknesses. Intrapersonal skills are a form of self-communication because it relates to what happens within one’s inner self.
Intrapersonal skills are what help you manage emotions and cope with challenges you may face at different times in your life. Similar to emotional intelligence, intrapersonal skills include:
Difference Between Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Skills
As mentioned, the term ‘interpersonal skills’ is more commonly known compared to ‘intrapersonal skills’. It refers to communication that happens between two or more people, while intrapersonal refers to communication that occurs in your mind. Interpersonal skills can be a verbal or non-verbal exchange of ideas. For many people, interpersonal communication relieves stress, while intrapersonal communication can lead to stress.
Why We Need Intrapersonal Skills
Intrapersonal skills help us achieve as much as possible in life. Knowing what our strengths are and working on our weaknesses can help us perform at work and in our personal lives. Good intrapersonal skills also help build and maintain both personal and working relationships with others, as we’re able to manage our emotions, cope with challenges and learn from our experiences.
Strong intrapersonal skills help us focus, set and achieve our goals. People who don’t set goals often have nothing to focus on, so they don’t achieve as much as someone who has a target to aim for.
For some people, a high level of intrapersonal skills comes naturally, while for others it doesn’t. However, it’s possible to work on intrapersonal skills to improve them.
How to Improve Your Intrapersonal Skills
If you think your intrapersonal skills aren’t as sharp as they could be, there are plenty of activities you can do to improve them.
Start a Journal
Keeping a journal allows you to track your emotions, goals and daily experiences. Jot down your thoughts and feelings on a daily basis and the journal will be a record of your growth.
Be Kind to Yourself
Our internal voice is usually the loudest and most critical. Rather than criticising yourself and hoping it will help motivate you, try reminding yourself of your successes and praising yourself for your strengths and achievements. Berating yourself for your short-comings rarely helps.
Set Yourself Goals
Having short and long term goals gives you something to work towards. Start small with goals that don’t overstretch you. Once you have a few wins under your belt, you can expand the goals to something more ambitious. If you don’t achieve your goal the first time, don’t give up - keep trying. You’re building self discipline as you work towards your goals. The AltiusLife app can help with goal setting and tracking your progress.
Build a Healthy Habit
In order to achieve your goals, you often need to develop a healthy habit. Taking a little action every day is what helps people achieve their goals. If you build a healthy habit, your goals will be achievable. Remember, it takes about 60 days to develop a habit so aim to stick with it for at least two months. Once you’ve formed one habit, you can concentrate on a new habit.
Improve Your Time Management Skills
To achieve goals and enjoy healthy habits, it helps to have good time management skills. If you recognise that you’re easily distracted and you waste large parts of your day, work on improving your time management skills. Prioritise your tasks and then schedule when you’ll do each task. Set a timer and work diligently before taking a break and repeating the process. Organise your spaces so you know where everything is, both at work and home, when you need it. Learn to say no if you take on too much so you can work on the things that matter most. Decide when you're most productive and do the important work during these times of the day.
Intrapersonal Skills in the Workplace
Employees with strong intrapersonal skills are more likely to achieve more than those with poor intrapersonal skills. They can usually cope better in stressful situations, have stronger time management skills so they can juggle conflicting priorities and are more confident in their abilities. When employers assist employees with improving their intrapersonal skills, everyone benefits.
To learn more about how you can encourage intrapersonal skill development in the workplace, contact PeopleSense by Altius Group on 1800 258 487 or contact us online.