Self-awareness and Empathy. Awareness of another person is accompanied by an emotional assessment of the person, an attempt to understand things, predict changes in behavior and model their own behavior. Since this process involves at least two people, and each is an active subject, each should consider not only another person's needs and motives but also the way that person understands the needs and motives of the partner in the construction of strategies of interaction. Thus, self-awareness and empathy are the key conditions for teamwork and interpersonal communication. In this case, one needs to understand the very essence emotional intelligence. Therefore, emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and feel other people; to recognize their emotions, feelings and intentions; i.e. it consists of the capacity to "regulate emotions in the self," the capacity to "recognize emotions in others," and the capacity to "regulate emotions in others" (Emmerling, Shanwal, & Mandal, 2008, p. 19). That is, people use their intelligence every day with the aim to control circumstances and understand what is going on; nevertheless, the use of the intellect does not give accurate results in the communication and interaction between people. Therefore, there are important concepts such as self-awareness and empathy, which are among the most important components of emotional intelligence of the individual. The development of these components contributes to the development and improvement of emotional intelligence in general. The ability to truly empathize with people and to understand the essence of the emotions and desires are the two conditions for successful communication and interaction. In addition, emotional intelligence includes also the recognition of other people's emotions. Emotions of people are largely manifested through body language, as "responses to another’s body language and other social signals may be unconscious" (Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2012, p. 28). Person's mimic is usually able to tell a lot, it is only necessary to be able to recognize it, to decode.
The quiz designed to test a personal emotional intelligence has required recognizing the facial expressions of the people, comparing it with the certain emotions. The correct interpretation of 14 of the 20 faces points to a normal level of reading expressions. This amount of the correct reading of emotions and expressions indicates the abilities that can be attributed to the level above the average. These abilities can be developed in the future that will significantly improve the overall level of emotional intelligence. Recognition of other people's emotions or level of empathy is an important aspect of human interaction. The higher is the level of empathy, the better a person is prone to a successful interaction with both individuals and society as a whole. People usually have a mixed type of character and temperament; moreover, "much emotional responding depends on an individual’s temperament" (Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2012, p. 83). Someone may be more extroverted, directing its energy to the outside world, and someone is more introverted, i.e. he or she perceives the world through the prism of his or her senses. In addition, a person can rely on communicating feelings or on intuition, depending on the type of individual. From this it follows that each person has a different type of personality and thus has different levels of emotional intelligence, such as empathy and self-awareness. The higher is the level of self-awareness and empathy, the higher is the overall level of emotional intelligence and the level of emotional intelligence; that is, a person is the more successful in communicating with other people. For instance, a recent study found that "teams in an overall positive mood exhibited more coordination and expended less effort than groups in a more negative mood" (Emmerling, Shanwal, & Mandal, 2008, p. 6). Self-awareness enables people to understand themselves, their emotions and feelings. Empathy enables a person to recognize the same in others. Thus, self-awareness and empathy are the basis for emotional intelligence. Another quiz dedicated to emotional intelligence consisted in the truthful responds to a number of issues related to interpersonal and communication within the team. The quiz result was 54 points, which can be considered a good, satisfactory result. This result implies the ability of good communication with colleagues and friends. Anyway, the result can be easily improved by improving one's communication skills.
Values, Mission, and Vision. The importance of personal values, mission and vision can be called absolute. Though many people are not aware of the existence of these three points, yet they are present in every human activity. Usually, people simply do not release them nor think about them, but their activity somehow implies each of these things. For instance, any leadership "inspires others by articulating a vision or mission" (Emmerling, Shanwal, & Mandal, 2008, p. 93). First, mission implies philosophy of virtue and vocation goals. Mission should be present in the work of each individual, because it is able to shape the behavior and lifestyle. Second, vision is inextricably linked with the concept of mission. If mission is a person's primary purpose, vision can be understood as the main purpose of a person in the future. Vision is the perfect picture of mission results in the future. For example, if a person's mission is to become a pilot of the Boeing, than vision is the person's representation of how he is flying. In addition, values are also an important part of the model. Values are due to mission, but at the same time, they are able to influence it. Values, as a statement, are some kind of the principles that guide the individual in his or her activities. They form a quality of the mission and affect the outcome, i.e. vision. In order to realize one's potential and improve skills, it should be understood that these three statements should be in constant interaction with each other and be confidently stated, as the success of any human activity depends on them.
Interpersonal skills. As is known, interpersonal skills help a person to come into contact with other people and society. There are many types of interpersonal skills, which a person uses in one way or another by entering into communion with other people. Depending on how much a person has developed certain communication skills, one can see how much he or she is prone to interpersonal interaction with others. Anyway, it is possible to highlight two interpersonal skills from the whole, as they are critical in the question of communication and interaction with others. Of course, each of all the existing skills is particularly important for a person, but still some of them can be identified as the most needed ones. Thus, verbal communication is the first skill from this list. This skill involves verbal communication with people; as is known, verbal communication is one of the essential foundations of human interaction. High level of verbal communication allows a person to express his or her idea in the most accessible and accurate way.
Basically, a person perceives much more than just words during an intercourse, e.g. "nonverbal communication in medical encounters is regarded as an important channel of exchanging emotional status and contextualizing the meaning of verbal communication;" but nevertheless, the verbal transmission of information and feelings is the most important and prior for most people (Ishikawa, et al., 2010, p. 860). Here it is necessary to refer to the fact that the bulk of diplomatic relations is based on verbal communication. The interpersonal skills test revealed a level of verbal communication, which was higher than the average (i.e. 80%). This result speaks in favor of the excellent non-verbal communication skills. In other words, having a similar level of verbal communication, one can easily express his or her thoughts, ideas and opinions of others and understand when to speak and when not to. Everything, and maybe even the whole human civilization, began with the word, so verbal communication is of particular importance in the list of interpersonal skills.
In addition, it should be said that verbal communication is important both in interpersonal communication and in the group, as most people understand each other on the basis of what has been said. However, the importance of listening skills should be highlighted as well, as they form the basis of successful cooperation. To be able to say is a good skill, and many have it. But this skill would not be important if most people will not be able to listen. The way a person listens to depends on the way he or she will perceive, understand, interpret and internalize the information. Today, many people have problems with listening skills, which is reflected in their interaction with others. Some problems are quite obvious, such as "problems caused by external distractions or lack of interest;" however, other problems are more subtle (Hartley, 2002, p. 58). What can tell someone who cannot hear anything or someone who is only interested in what he or she says? If a person can speak but cannot listen, then people around him or her are likely to block their perception. Poor ability for listening is able to tell a lot about a person. If a person does not listen to the interlocutor, then he or she does not respect the interlocutor's opinion. That is why this skill is so important; it determines the other skills, including verbal communication skills.
Precisely, when people realize their interlocutor listens to them, they feel their importance and usefulness. The success of any communication lies in the balance between skills such as speaking and listening. If this balance is disrupted, the communication cannot be complete and successful. The present interpersonal skills test determined the average level of listening skills (56%). This indicates that there are some bad habits associated with listening to other people. Most people fall into this category when it comes to listening skills. In this case, one should pay attention to the things such as effective and active listening, which will help to understand the skill and improve the overall level of interpersonal skills.
As already mentioned, there are many interpersonal skills that influence human relationships. Communication is a very important skill for every person, since human is a social being. The higher is the interpersonal skills, the bigger are the opportunities to become a successful person in society. Verbal Communication and listening skills are the two key skills that are required for each person. In sum, they give people the opportunity to express their thoughts and understand and to listen to other people's thoughts. Outlining their thoughts correctly and properly, people are able to get in good with other people, explain their problems, ideas and intentions. But it is equally important to be able to listen to what other people say, because the opinions of others partly form human consciousness. If a person is able to speak and knows how to listen at the same time, the problems estimate in communicating with other people is only half as large. Each of interpersonal skills interacts with each other, and this is the way human communication is arranged. At the same time, it should be noted that skills such as speaking and listening have closer interaction with each other than any other. This can be compared with incoming and outgoing energies. The balance between these two skills can also be called a touch. This cycle makes communication effective and pleasant. It should be understood that all people are different and that there are no ideal companions. However, it should also be understood that there are no borders for improvement. Therefore, on the basis of the foregoing, it is clear that improving one skill should always be accompanied by improvement in other skills. Verbal communication and listening skills are the key interpersonal skills also because they can tell a lot about a person, in particular about his or her emotional intelligence.
References
Emmerling, R. J., Shanwal, V. K., & Mandal, M. K. (2008). Emotional Intelligence: Theoretical and Cultural Perspectives. New York, US: Nova. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080
Hartley, P. (2002). Interpersonal Communication. Florence, US: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080
Ishikawa, H., Hashimoto, H., Kinoshita, M., & Yano, E. (2010). Can nonverbal communication skills be taught?. Medical Teacher, 32(10), 860-863. doi:10.3109/01421591003728211
Zeidner, M., Matthews, G., & Roberts, R. D. (2012). What We Know about Emotional Intelligence: How It Affects Learning, Work, Relationships, and Our Mental Health. Cambridge, US: Bradford Books, Publishers, Incorporated. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080
