Interpersonal Skills

Good social skills are foundational in the workplace. They help to build strong and long-lasting relationships which make for a better work environment and more fruitful collaboration.

Here are the top 5 resources suggested by CBC to help your mentees to grow in their interpersonal skills

The resources provided here are solely intended for informational purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment of mental health conditions. The views expressed in any linked content do not necessarily reflect the views or advice of our organisations.

1. Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills workshop

The SYIS workshop is a highly recommended, comprehensive training that is also available online. It is designed to enhance the knowledge, attitudes and skills of Christian workers for relating well with family, co-workers, friends and those from other cultures. Topics range from building trust in community, loving listening, managing conflict and confrontation to helping others solve problems, stress and margin, grief and loss, encouragement etc.  Available in English, Spanish and French.

Tip: Encourage others from your team or organisation to take this course along with you, and discuss together how you can practically implement the principles taught for your work/community culture.

2. Impact awareness

This paper by Dr. Larrie Gardner defines and explains “impact awareness” (an aspect of self-awareness), an essential piece of overall emotional intelligence and a key to building healthy relationships in a diverse multicultural context.

Tip: After reading this article find 2 people you trust to give you honest feedback about the impact you have on others, and consider ways you can intentionally shape that impact to bring the most benefit to others and yourself.

3. How to Solve Your People Problems

This book by Alain Godwin focuses on managing conflict with what he calls “unreasonable people”. Character traits of healthy people in healthy relationships are described and good suggestions are given for growing in those areas. Very practical ideas for handling conflict with people who would rather “be right” than solve the problem.

Tip: As you expect your mentees to develop into mentors themselves, read this book with them and discuss together any questions or comments that arise.

4. Healthy Relationship Skills – videos

This is a Youtube video playlist on the channel “Therapy in a Nutshell”.  Therapist Emma McAdam, a licensed marriage and family therapist, describes and gives examples of essential and learnable skills for healthy relationships.  These range from communication, to boundaries, to dealing with family members, marriage, etc.  Most videos are between 5-10 minutes long, and are accompanied by links to her website with other resources, as well as her podcast.

Tip: Watch with team members and discuss how you can improve these skills together in your context.

5. Headington Institute Stress and Resilience Course

This online, self-paced video course covers types of stress, how the brain responds to stress, signs and symptoms of stress, and your stress coping style.  Designed especially for humanitarian and non-profit workers in multicultural settings, this course can help you better manage the stress load you carry and create healthy margins so that you can avoid burnout and stress overload as you fulfill your responsibilities. Not free, but worth the 30 USD.

Tip: Share what you learn from this course with colleagues in your organisation and encourage them to incorporate resilience-building practices into their schedules.

Further resources that might interest you

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