Social Intelligence Concept: Its Signs and Developing Ways
A person lives in a lot of situations that are difficult to deal with sometimes, and they meet many people. They can build a successful relationship with some of them simply and smoothly, and they stay away from others because of the difficulty of dealing with them.
But the person, by virtue of their work, studies, or even family ties, is forced to deal with people who do not have any kind of understanding between each other, so what should be done then?
A person must be able to deal with others even when there are many differences between each other, and they may even lose the relationship they have with people they agree with as a result of not being able to act properly. Therefore, it is necessary for a person to have social intelligence in order to be able to succeed in various fields of life. It is difficult to achieve success at all levels if they cannot succeed in forming good relationships with others. So what is social intelligence? Can it be developed by everyone? And how is that possible?
We will answer all of these questions in this article.
The Social Intelligence Concept
It is the human ability to communicate with others and build social relationships characterized by respect, harmony, cooperation, and empathy as well. This is through the ability to understand internal feelings and sensations and read the psychological and mental states and motives of other people. Therefore, people with social intelligence are able to act well in various social situations.
This is the result of knowing how to manage the feelings of others, understand their intentions, and predict their reactions, and that's through facial expressions, tone of voice, and other details and simple appearances that many fail to notice, because a person who has a high level of emotional intelligence can understand themselves well and manage their emotions permanently. So social intelligence is closely related to emotional intelligence because a person will not be able to understand others if they don't first understand themself well
Social Intelligence Signs
They are the traits or behaviors that characterize a person with social intelligence, including the following:
1. Speaking Skillfully
A socially intelligent person is a person who is able to manage the dialogue in a distinctive, decent, and polite manner, no matter how different the other party is. We find this type of person able to talk to each person in a way that suits them; for example, the way to talk to the manager at work is different from the way to talk to a co-worker and also differs from the way to talk to a friend. This is what makes a socially intelligent person noticeable if they speak in social sessions or business meetings.
2. Good Knowledge of Social Customs and Norms
The way we deal with others varies according to the situation we are in, and the socially intelligent person is the one who can determine the way they should speak and act according to the situation or place. For example, the way to deal with the same people differs when seeing them at a wedding party and when seeing them at a funeral.
3. Attentive Listening
A person is usually comfortable with someone who listens well and shows interest in their speech, even if it is not in the interest of the listener. This is what makes people comfortable talking to the socially intelligent, because they have the skill of good listening, which causes the speaking party to feel a kind of happiness as a result of the comfort of speaking.
4. Understanding Others
A socially intelligent person is able to sense others and understand their feelings; this means that they are people who are able to stand by others in their bad circumstances and are able to help them overcome crises and problems, especially psychological ones.
5. Social Competence
It is through social intelligence that a person is able to deal with another person according to their age. We find that the socially intelligent person is able to pet the young child and play with them and at the same time, they are able to sit with an elderly person and talk to them and listen to their speech. Any socially intelligent person gives each person the right to speak, and this is what gives them high self-confidence.
6. Making a Good Impression on Others
A person sometimes makes an effort to make a good impression on others, but a socially intelligent person can easily leave a good impression on everyone they see and talk to, and this trait is very useful in social and practical life.
7. Open-Mindedness
The socially intelligent person is able to listen to various points of view, even those that are contrary to their own, and is also able to accept them without arguing with others in order to convince them of the correctness of their point of view or asking anyone to change their views on any subject. This is what makes them seem like a somewhat peaceful human being away from quarrels and nervousness.
Factors Affecting Social Intelligence
Social intelligence is affected by several important factors, including the following:
1. The Information We Have
The more you know about a particular person, the more you will understand them, and thus, your ability to interact with them and create a solid relationship will be much greater.
2. The Accuracy of the Information We Have
The more accurate the information you have, the more confident you will be to talk and debate, and therefore, your influence and ability to manage the conversation will also be greater.
3. Verbal Intelligence
It is your ability to choose the right words, because language plays a major role in conveying the right idea to the person in front of you, so it has an important role in building a good relationship with others.
4. Economic, Social and Cultural Level of the Human Being
Your economic, social, or cultural level often dictates opportunities to interact with different people and requires you to visit different places and attend different activities. For example, a person who lives in the countryside meets a certain number of people daily, and often the people of the countryside are well acquainted with each other, but their social intelligence will be different from someone who lives in the city, and at the same time, there is a difference between someone who works in trade and someone who works as a teacher.
How to Develop Social Intelligence?
Although many people have social intelligence automatically, it can be developed in everyone, and there are several ways to do this, including the following:
1. Develop Emotional Intelligence
It is necessary for a person to understand themselves first before they seek to understand the feelings and thoughts of others. This is because awareness of subjective feelings helps to manage and control them in moments of excitement and anger, which means the ability to control actions, especially the nervous reaction.
2. Respect the Other Party
It is necessary to respect all people of different political, religious, ethnic, or other affiliations that lead some people to prejudge others, and this is wrong. As for social intelligence, it pushes a person to deal with others based on the personality of each person, including the ideas it carries. It also requires the acceptance of the other party, no matter how great the differences are.
3. Respect Each Person’s Situation
It is necessary for the individual to put himself in the place of the other party so that they can understand their nature. This is because the nature of every human being is related to the difficulties, pressures, and crises that they have been exposed to in their life, in addition to the social background to which they return. When a person is understood, the way to deal with them becomes clear and easy.
4. Diplomacy
Which means that a person is able to act in a correct manner in various situations without hurting the feelings of others despite telling the truth. This means being able to build and maintain successful relationships, resolve conflicts, and win everyone's favor through kind and polite dealings, as a person cannot be socially intelligent if they are not diplomatic in dealing with all those around them.
5. Ability to Analyze Human Body Language
This means knowing what the non-verbal behaviors of a person perform, such as the automatic gestures that an individual makes when speaking to them, facial expressions, and even reactions, and it is also necessary to be aware of your body language well so that there is great consistency between it and what you say.
6. Honesty
Staying away from lying and falsehood makes a person trusted by others, so it is necessary for a person to act spontaneously in order to win the hearts of those around them and to speak meaningful and useful words away from unnecessary extravagance. It is necessary for a person to strike a balance between their actions and their words. This is because the contradiction between them is a type of lying that thus causes a lack of trust in others and may cause many other problems as well.
7. Choose the Right Time
Some words can cause a problem if the other person is nervous, even though they can handle them in normal conditions. Therefore, choosing the right time to talk ensures that others interact in a positive manner, in addition to staying away from conversations that provoke disagreements.
8. Share with Others
Standing with others on happy or sad occasions and times of trouble is necessary to consolidate and develop relationships and ensure their continuity throughout life.
9. Attentive Listening
Good listening is one of the important qualities that a socially intelligent person must possess. This can be done by avoiding being occupied with something, such as a mobile phone, while someone is talking to you, in addition to looking at it directly as a kind of interest.
10. Smiling Face
Getting close to others and making a positive impact on them becomes easier if you have a cheerful and smiling face, because it gives others a sense of comfort and even helps to alleviate problems and bad situations.
11. Participate in Social Activities
This helps to deal with a large number of people and learn about different styles, new ways of thinking and viewpoints that are different from your views on life, thus raising the social and cultural level of the human being. This can be done by joining charities, registering in sports clubs, participating in competitions, or attending concerts and art exhibitions.
12. Learning
A person should not stop learning throughout life; every day is an opportunity to gain new experience and learn about other cultures, customs, and traditions.
In Conclusion
Social intelligence is necessary in order to achieve success in social, practical, or academic life and even succeed in establishing an ideal family as much as possible, and given its importance in all social life situations, it is necessary to work on its development always.
Developing social intelligence is not very difficult, but every person can become highly socially intelligent, and that is by working on developing their emotional intelligence first, putting themselves in the place of others as much as possible, listening to them, and standing by them in joys and sorrows with openness, a cheerful face, constant honesty, and absolute respect.
All this means having a diplomatic personality when dealing with various people, and it is also necessary to try to participate in all social activities, as this guarantees you some kind of self-development.