151 Quick Ideas to Improve Your People Skills

88

Withhold Judgment

A judgment goes further than just agreeing or disagreeing with someone’s viewpoint. Instead, a judgment predetermines how effective you’ll be in working with someone. In short, when you pass judgment on someone, you adjust your behavior to align with your opinion about him or something associated with him.

And is that really fair? We don’t like it when someone judges us—particularly when that person doesn’t really get to know us. At some point, we have all been stung by the feeling of being judged by someone who doesn’t have all the facts, or by someone who suffers from ethnic, gender, or lifestyle prejudice, or professional jealousy.

Assignment

Make a list of the people in your office with whom you have difficulty. What ...