Derek Bryant - Blog Post #3

As I was reading the assigned chapter for the week, chapter 10, I realized that the topic of interpersonal relationships is something that I have heavily gone over in my Leadership 325 class. The textbook discusses how important interpersonal relationships are and how they effect our everyday life, but it very quickly goes over interpersonal relationships in the workplace. While looking at interpersonal relationships through the lens of emotional intelligence and soft skills in the workplace, you get a completely new take on it. When you are put into a position of leadership, it is very important to have strong and established interpersonal relationships. In the article Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? by Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones it states that to be a good leader you need to, "Hone your ability to collect and interpret subtle interpersonal cues, detecting what’s going on without others’ spelling it out." (Goffee, Jones, 2011, p. 50) As a follower, people want a leader that is real and actually cares about their well being. People react better to a leader when they can relate and understand that they are imperfect, but not too imperfect. It goes on to discuss how you want to have selective weakness that can actually be seen as a strength. The article also talks about how being authentic and approachable is also an important part of leadership. All of these things are created by interpersonal relationships. Personally, it is interesting to take an idea like interpersonal relationships and apply it to different areas of life. As a communication major, I love being able to show and support that fact that communication is one of the most important aspects of life because of how much it effects everything. There is nothing that doesn't involve some type of communication, so it is interesting to break down all the different areas that it overlaps. Interpersonal relationships are important in all walks of life, inside and outside of the workplace because it follows you everywhere. In the article that we read for this class, Family Bullies by Keith Berry & Tony E. Adams, we see that interpersonal relationships at home can be complex and difficult to understand. Overall, learning as much as we can about interpersonal relationships is only going to strengthen the future of relationships and communication.