Surrounded by a web of connections, these individuals seem to be close to more people than some of us meet in their life. They feel at home in social settings and love to engage with others – we are talking about social intelligence. Whereas these individuals’ description might be similar to the interpersonal intelligence type in Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, there are still some differences.
Let’s look at these individuals and find out whether you might be one of them.
Strengths:
Starting with their strengths, one of socially intelligent individuals’ abilities is their great talent in networking. Networking is, and has always been, a powerful resource coming in handy in every situation of life. People with high social intelligence scores tend to easily meet and befriend new individuals, which allows them to form connections in various areas in life.
One of the reasons for their great networking ability lies in socially intelligent individuals’ communication skills. They don’t fear talking to strangers and seem to always have something to talk about. They feel comfortable in social settings and easily go up to others and start a conversation.
Socially intelligent individuals have a profound and reliable understanding of social dynamics. They can read a room and know how to present themselves in a given social setting. Therefore, socially intelligent individuals are very charismatic, bringing a certain charm into each of their conversations.
Talents in communication often lead to good conflict resolution skills. They know how to mediate between two parties and can help others work on their social behaviour.
Overall, these skills allow socially intelligent individuals to manage interactions. They are charismatic, can read the room, know how to present themselves, and communicate effectively with others. We humans are social beings, making these crucial skills for success.
Areas for Improvement:
As individuals with a love for social interactions, there are some problems occurring in personal life.
First, socially intelligent individuals can develop difficulties in balancing personal and social needs. Also a problem which might develop is a constant need for connectivity. Once by themselves, some socially intelligent individuals start feeling lonely and, after some time, forget what to do once they’re on their own.
Both of these can lead to a fear of being alone, left out, or a fear of abandonment. Individuals start putting others first to make sure they are still liked; they become people-pleasers.
Lastly, a large amount of social interactions involves many different people and characters. As socially intelligent individuals are good at communicating and interacting, they might fall into a habit of masking when encountering new people. This can lead to feeling like one is losing their self.
Have you recognised yourself? Congratulations on being a socially intelligent individual! To help you move forward and understand yourself better, we’ll now give you some tips on how to refine your strengths and start your improvement work.
Refining Strengths:
To refine your social skills, you’ll need to go out into the world. Connect with others and observe social behaviour to maximise your understanding of it. Reading theories and theses can provide a starting point, a guide for you to learn what to look out for, but to actually learn, I think there is no better way than earn experience and observe for yourself.
The next thing to practice will be active listening. To effectively communicate and enhance your ability to solve conflicts, you’ll need to listen and understand what the other person tries to explain. Being a good listener is also a quality appreciated by many, which will enhance your socialising and networking ability, as well as your charisma.
Another key trait to efficient communication and strong relationship building is empathy. Practicing empathy means understanding situations other than your own, and understanding and acknowledging feelings of others. Start with imagining different situations. Go step by step, look at small parts of a situation at once to evaluate different perspectives. Learn to pay attention to details and related circumstances.
Lastly, to enhance your ability to manage interactions and understand social dynamics, learn to read social clues. This way you’ll have another source of information in social gatherings which will help you to evaluate a situation’s state more accurately. Therefore, you can react and behave accordingly, as well as prevent possible negative interactions or misunderstandings early on.
Improvement Work:
To work on your areas for improvement, you need to start looking out for yourself.
First of all, start setting healthy boundaries. You should always be first. Believe me, in the end, the ones you want to rely on will still be there once you’ve made your boundaries clear. To learn more about setting boundaries, read our related post here: >>Click here<<
I have a friend who is very socially intelligent, but after some time, they realised being on their own started to make them feel anxious. Practicing solitude will help you to understand yourself, get to know yourself, and respect yourself once again. Read about solitude in our related post here: >>Click here<<
Understanding yourself will help you to self-improve, getting to know yourself will help you to recognise and avoid masking, and respecting yourself will give you the confidence to set boundaries and stay true to yourself.
Now that we’ve learned more about your skills, let’s look at some jobs and hobbies you might enjoy.
Jobs:
In the working realm, jobs in the areas of public relations perfectly suit this intelligence type. You could work as a salesperson or a diplomat. A job as a teacher could also suit you very well. Overall, you might want to look for a job that involves other people.
Hobbies:
As socially intelligent individuals, you might like socially engaging hobbies. These could be simply hosting or attending social gatherings, meeting with friends, etc. Or you might like to explore the realm of public speaking. If you want to, you could join a debating club or engage in team sports. Other than that, you are probably someone who’d enjoy any activity as long as you can make or be with friends.
Lastly, to fully understand the impact of social intelligence, we’ll take a look at its effect in everyday, social and personal settings.
Everyday Relevance:
In everyday life, being able to understand and manage group dynamics is an important skill needed in every kind of job. There is nearly no workplace where someone does work completely on their own; working is a social activity, requiring interactions and teamwork. This is why your intelligence type can be essential to great success in the workplace.Teamwork isn’t just necessary in one’s job, but in other areas of everyday life as well. You might enjoy team sports, you might be part of a club, or you simply have to team up with your family when trying to prepare for holidays.
We mentioned it before, but your social networking skill is a very useful resource in everyday life. Something in your home broke? Well, you can just call your friend who can fix this. You want to book a flight? Ah, luckily you have a friend who gets discounts. Your child wants to get their driver’s licence? Good thing one of your friends owns a driving school. No one knows where you met all these people, honestly, but networking has the ability to give you freedom and open possibilities.
Societal and Personal Impact:
To society, you are the one enabling us to work effectively. You might not realise it, as being social is natural for you, but there is a great amount of individuals struggling with working in groups or interacting with others. The problem is that we, as humans, need others to truly improve, to gather new information and exchange ideas. You are the one connecting people who can’t on their own. You enhance invention through realising collaboration and build communities which are essential for human life.Personally, social intelligence allows you to form stronger relationships. You might realise that you have many friends you are not truly close with, but when focusing on some individuals you truly like, you might find yourself building truly strong and profound relationships, which enable you to move even more confidently through life. As well, your social confidence allows you to navigate through life’s inevitable social situations without hesitation or fear.
You are a leader, the starting point of innovation, collaboration, and interaction. You are a social navigator managing communication and exchange.
Remember that you are powerful, even if your strengths might be less recognised. Understand that you can build and form, you can help and create, by using your social skills to move forward.
Share your knowledge, listen, and help enhance communication to resolve conflicts and misunderstandings. Create a space of peace and connect individuals to develop and invent.