Improve your people skills to join the high performers

High performance in work today is no longer all about industry expertise and financial savvy. What businesses want today are leaders with strong people skills

For a long time, whenever companies wanted to hire a key role or leader, they were looking for somebody with technical expertise, superior administrative skills, and a track record of successfully managing budgets. That now feels very out of touch, so much has changed during the past two decades that companies can no longer assume that people with traditional managerial pedigrees will be their highest performers. Today businesses desire to recruit people who are able to motivate diverse, technologically savvy, and often global workforces; who can deal effectively with complex stakeholders; and who can rapidly and effectively apply their skills in a new company, in what may be an unfamiliar industry, and typically with peers they have never met before

Frankly, it’s getting harder and less savvy to rely on traditional indicators of leadership potential. This is a phenomenal challenge because the 'softer people capabilities' required of high performers are rarely explicitly recognised or fostered in the world of business

So, what do we do if we are one of those potential high performers, who may or may not have great people skills?

The reality is, that even if we think we have good people skills, the nature of human beings is that there is often so much more potential we can unlock, both in ourselves and others, when we continually hone our people skills. One way we encourage you to hone your people skills is to tap into the benefits of mental rehearsal. The world of elite performance knows how powerful mental rehearsal can be

Simply thinking about something increases your muscle strength and boosts your performance

In fact, numerous studies have indicated that mental rehearsal or motor imagery may result in the same plastic changes in the motor system as actual physical practice. Motor imagery is the mental execution of a movement without any overt movement or without any peripheral (muscle) activation. It has been shown that motor imagery leads to the activation of the same brain areas as actual movement

Studies show surgeons perform better if they mentally rehearse an operation before they do it, musicians play better, elite athletes compete better

This mental rehearsal or 'motor imagery' is a great way to enhance your people performance so you can excel and inspire. Any interaction from onboarding a new starter to presenting to the CEO can benefit from mentally practicing what you will say and how you will behave

Dr Helen O'Shea, a cognitive psychologist, explains, “When you really focus on an action or imagine you are performing a movement, you'll be sending focused signals to the relevant parts of your body”

The beauty is that you can do this mental rehearsal anywhere and anytime – plan it, script it, imagine it, then do it!

So, taking some time to focus on others, performing and rehearsing how we can build our people connections in genuine ways, may well be one of the most important ways of increasing our employability as a high performer

To add to this, here's an intriguing quote from the leadership author Stephen Denning,

"It’s counterintuitive, yet true; spontaneity is rehearsed, so strike a balance between planning and performing"

What an encouraging sentiment – we can all do this, we can practice in front of the mirror, whilst we are travelling to and from work, even whilst we are walking the dog

How about today you mentally rehearse how you can better approach a people challenge or a challenging interaction 

Because people skills are such an important part of high performance we have created an Upskill (our name for a course/masterclass) called People muscles – you can discover more about it here…

Our People muscles Upskill combines bite-sized videos, private podcasts, 121 Mentor sessions, bespoke Journals and purposeful self-reflection exercises for you to apply - at home, at work, in your whole life. Building People muscles focusses on communications and relationships - building your people strength, so you can excel and inspire - in every interaction, at every level - from the new starter to the CEO

You will build your ability to communicate mindfully not mindlessly, courageously not cowardly, present with purpose and poise, and perform, even excel in great teams so you build your interpersonal strength

 You can explore People muscles Upskill Here