5 ways to improve social skills | How to win friends and influence people (Summary)

    According to various researches,

the financial success of a person depends 15% on technical skills while the remaining 85% on social skills irrespective of their field. Communicating with people, handling them, and building healthy bonding with them will highly impact your success. Today, I will share some principles with you from the book ‘How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie’ that will help you improve your social skills.

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1. You can't win an argument:    

Dale has been involved in and observed thousands of arguments. He concluded that to get the best of an argument, avoid it altogether. Nine times out of 10, an argument ends with each person being more convinced that they’re right. Even if you win an argument, you lose. Why……? Well, because you've made the other person feel inferior and hurt their sense of pride. Ask yourself, is it worth your time and energy trying to win an argument when it will give you nothing but a temporary sense of victory in exchange for making the other person feel like crap?

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2. Never tell a man he is wrong:

Wayne is a woodchopper and Carl is a builder. Wayne specializes in oak wood and Carl in pine wood. One day, Carl ordered some oak wood from Wayne. Upon inspecting the oak wood, Carl was frustrated with its poor quality and wasn’t willing to pay for it. But Wayne noticed his quality inspection was too strict and was misinterpreting how to assess the quality of oak wood. He knew Carl was wrong. Now, most people would be tempted to say, Carl, mate, you're bloody wrong. But not, Wayne Instead, he began asking questions as to why the oak wood was not of high quality. He emphasized that he was only asking so that he could give Carl exactly what he wanted for future orders. He approached the situation in a friendly and cooperative manner. Eventually, Carl's attitude changed. He soon admitted he was not experienced with oak wood and began asking Wayne questions. He finally understood that it was his fault for making poor judgments about the quality of the wood. Carl ended up happily paying for the wood. Now that's the power of never telling someone they're wrong. Feel free to try this out in your own life. I'm confident you will notice that people respond much more positively to you when you don't tell them they're wrong.

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3. Ask questions instead of giving orders:

  

It makes people want to cooperate with you. If you want your roommate to help you do the dishes, you will likely get a more positive response if you say,” Hey Clarence, could you please give me a hand with the dishes?” Instead of “hey Clarence, do the dishes with me now?” Framing your request as a question rather than a demand makes Clarence feel like he has a choice and therefore will be more responsive to your requests.

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4. Remember names:   

Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in history understood the importance of names. As a child, he had a nest of pet rabbits but no food to feed them. He told the boys in the neighborhood that if they would go out and get enough dandelions to feed the rabbits, he would name the bunnies in their honor. The plan worked. He used the same principle in business. A man named Pullman and himself were fighting against each other trying to get the sleeping car business to work. During a meeting one evening, Andrew suggested that they merge companies and work together. Pullman listened intently and then asked, what would you call the new company? Andrew responded: why, the Pullman Palace Car Company, of course. Pullman's face brightened and he said: come into my room, let’s talk it over. When I first met Amy, she told me her name but I didn't hear her properly. I asked her to say it again. And even a third time during class. The longer you leave it, the more awkward it becomes. You might feel embarrassed about asking more than once but realize that people appreciate it when you take the time to learn their name. I remember randomly talking to a man in my class named Tom. Next week I came in and I said, “Hey Tom, how are you doing? And he said, “Wow, I'm surprised you remembered my name.”

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5. Talk in terms of other’s interests:   

If there was just one lesson you could take away from this book this would be it. I struggle to talk to new people. It doesn't matter if we have nothing in common because I talk about their interest. In one of my first conversations with Amy, I asked her a simple question: what do you like to do in your spare time? She said: I listen to music, randomly sing and dance, draw, do artsy stuff, try to keep fit, watch movies and funny TV shows, I read, I cook, I play with  my pets and spend time with my family and friends. I followed her up with another simple question. Okay, so what do you read and what do you draw? Amy got excited. After a long outburst of sharing her interests, she said: I'm getting way too excited talking about this. No one ever gets to know me this way so I have this all bottled up. It's so awesome talking about my passions so thanks for listening to me. We get along so well now and have been great friends since. It doesn't matter whether you’re talking to your boss, workmates, teachers, friends, family, or strangers. Talk in terms of other people's interests and they'll love you for it.

       This was a summary of the well-known book ‘How to win friends and influence people’ written by Dale Carnegie that will help in improving your social skills and to be successful in your life.