Keeping Your Career on Track: Twenty Success Strategies

Interpersonal Skills

The ability to work with others clearly separates those managers who succeed from those who derail. Managers who are described as interpersonally adept—as having the ability to build and manage effective relationships—are routinely described by bosses, peers, and direct reports as being good listeners, collaborative, supportive of others’ ideas, trustworthy, and ethical. Consider this story, from CCL’s derailment studies, of a manager who displayed a strong sense of connection with people and was seen as building strong relationships:

A woman in the office had recently eloped and the department had taken up a collection to ...