Interpersonal relationships with family members, work colleagues and friends are fundamentally based on social awareness and respect for the needs of others, without which disagreements and misunderstandings will easily emerge.
Improving one’s interpersonal relationships is a process of change linked to happiness, well-being and one’s self-realization. A quality relationship, emotional or work, starts from knowing yourself and your needs, passing through the knowledge of others.
Sometimes, taking action on your relationships seems even more difficult than improving your lifestyle. Yet, when you think about it, the people you spend your days with are probably the thing that best defines who you are, your lifestyle, your mood and the way you go about your life.
Some key strategies to improve interpersonal relationships
The following strategies will help you improve your interpersonal relationships, as well as get to know yourself better and relate to others.
1. Be yourself
Being yourself isn’t easy, and it doesn’t even happen automatically. Therefore, it is essential to strive to behave authentically and honestly, so that the people you relate to are able to get to know you and appreciate you for that who you are.
2. Improve your way of communicating
It is essential to learn how to communicate effectively, by listening, to allow your interlocutor to feel welcomed and encouraged to share his emotions by being able to communicate yours too. Ask yourself about the aspects of your communication that are not well received by others and try to think about what you could do differently.
3. Be open and positive
Being open means knowing how to share yourself with others and not being afraid to reveal your insecurities and vulnerabilities. Positive relationships also serve to open up and lighten the load of your thoughts and problems, but you should never pour all your unpleasant situations and bad moods on others. Treat every interpersonal relationship with the spirit of someone willing to discover something new and not with that of someone who thinks they already know everything.
4. Avoid controversy and judgments
It’s never nice or even constructive, especially when you’re not asked, to show yourself to others as a judge ready to issue free sentences. The same is true whenever unnecessary arguments are made about what others are doing or saying. Often, you just have to accept people for who they are, with their strengths and weaknesses.
5. Learn to recognize changes
To improve interpersonal relationships, it is important to learn to notice changes. These can be signs that there is some new situation, problem or misunderstanding with the person you are relating to. Changes can either be irrelevant to your relationships or make a difference. So, noticing them and talking about them openly and honestly can help increase the quality and depth of your relationships.
6. Accept constructive criticism
Criticisms are usually a perfect cue to argue and adopt high attitudes as harmful as passive-aggressive ones. While destructive criticism should be ignored as much as possible, constructive criticism should be recognized and accepted. If you put your pride aside and listen to what the other has to say, criticism can have the effect of strengthening trust in interpersonal relationships.
7. Find the right balance between personal reasons and real needs
Sometimes, we find ourselves in situations where it is difficult to match real needs with personal reasons. Listening to yourself and the people you relate to clearly and honestly, looking at things with an open mind and from multiple points of view, helps you give due importance to needs and reasons. Very often, taking a step back doesn’t mean giving up on the other, but avoiding losing. Of course, we must not forget that understanding must be mutual.
8. Be empathetic
Being empathetic is not as simple as it may seem. There is a need to listen to yourself and others, setting aside your selfishness and appreciating the diversity that distinguishes each person. To do this, you have to learn to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
9. Find and nurture common interests
Cultivating your passions and sharing the same interests with others means making them share our emotions, and particular experiences, creating unique and motivating affinities.
10. Learn assertiveness
Assertiveness allows you to express your opinions without risking a collision with your interlocutor and getting to know yourself better. This also means being able to approach the other and allow him to do the same so that everyone can express their identity without any personality prevailing over the other. To improve your interpersonal relationships, you also need to avoid pleasing others and nullify your personality to please them.
11. Build trust
Trust is something instinctive. Building trust also means keeping your word and being open to sharing more intimate aspects of your life. With time and a little patience, trust will turn into reliability and connection. If you think about it, it’s the people you can trust who represent the true wealth of your life.
If you want to find out how to improve relationships and discover many other secrets, you can embark on a Coaching path for your personal development and improvement. So Feel free to contact me and book a FREE discovery call.
