The Challenge for Your Social Skills 

 

I used to be an extroverted person. But working from home for 4 years now somehow changed me into an introvert. I prefer to work alone and I never seemed to enjoy talking to strangers (I used to feel awkward). Then I got into sales and I learned to adjust. I realized that learning how to communicate well with friends, family, clients/customers are skills that we need to have in order to become more effective in what we do.
Social skills help us become less awkward and more confident in our conversations. Social skills make us better salespeople. Social skills help us make a connection with our friends and family. Social skills help us climb the corporate ladder. Social skills help us connect with the best of the best in our field.

The Right People

First things first. Your social skills are useless if you aren’t using it with the right people! So the first thing you should know is your goal. Why do you want to get better at talking to people? Why do you want to learn how to communicate well? Maybe you want to get a job, maybe you want to sell more cars this year, or maybe you want to sell your art. Your reason will dictate who your main “audience” will be. You will obviously be using your social skills with other people that has nothing to do with your goals (talking to your Starbucks barista), but you have to know who your main audience is because how you communicate with one set of market may differ from another. The right people are the ones that will bring you closer to your goals.

Who are the right people for you?

It could be your customers or clients. It could be listeners for your music. You have to know who they are and then you have to understand what makes them tick.

Exercise: 

Define a goal that you want to achieve, then find out who the main audience will be. What is their motivation? What do they want to get out of their conversations? Why are they trying to connect with you? Different motivations require different set of actions. Define yours.