The Importance of Social Intelligence (14)

The link to "The First Soft Skill to Develop in Student"

http://growingleaders.com/blog/first-soft-skill-develop-students/

One of the aspects of growing up in a teenager’s life is maintaining a job and being able to handle mass responsibility. The one issue that is wreaking havoc in the work place for youths is their lack of motivation and common courtesy. These youths do not care about first impressions with their bosses, but only care about who will see them when they are working and how they look. They ignore the rules of the company and continue to do what they want. Another one of the major challenges these teens face which is mentioned in the article “Growing Leaders”, is the ruining of first impressions. Some adolescents will arrive at a job interview late (which is COMPLETELY unacceptable) and unable to provide the correct handshake, eye contact, or noise level. Many managers have complained about this generation of newly graduates being extremely lazy or gossiping about other colleagues during the work day. It is almost as though they do not care about the opportunity they had been given.

A term that I was unaware of until I read this article was Social Intelligence. Social intelligence is defined as the capacity to effectively negotiate complex social relationships and environments. This is one of the major key elements that any person must have before going into internships or any career, honestly. Social intelligence influences the ideas of empathy, attunement, social cognition, self-presentation, and lastly influence. Each one of these elements of social intelligence helps us create relationships with the people in our community. According to the article, the deeper the relationship between two people, the deeper the impact. Social intelligence is needed in any workplace because it creates an efficient environment between each worker.

The one idea that had the greatest impact on me was the importance of first impressions like a good handshake, your appearance, a smile and common courtesy. The idea that a single handshake can have an impact on whether you land the job or not is a HUGE deal. I did not realize the mere importance of any of these items. The littlest details now play a role in my life as a student and I will take this knowledge and practice my handshake for future interviews to come!