What Does It Take to Thrive in a People-Centric Position?

People skills are tricky. They are difficult to define, hard to develop. The traditional school of thought has long been that you either have them or you don't. The actual reality is a little complicated.

People skills, often lumped into the loosely defined category of soft skills, can be developed, though to do so requires active thought and effort.

These are traits you won't necessarily learn in a classroom. In the next few headings, we take a look at what it takes to thrive in a people-centric environments including everything from counseling to corporate positions, and how you can develop those qualities actively as a professional.

What Jobs Are Considered People-Centric?

There are many different positions that can be considered people-centric. Human resources departments are a good example. Also relevant, of course, are healthcare roles, social work roles, speech-language pathology roles, or education positions.

Anything where the focus of your effort is not necessarily on a project, but on a person. That said, a people-centric role doesn't always require working in a helping profession. It can also mean working within a team environment. For example, a manager, a project leader, or a related position could all be considered people-centric roles.

Overview: What Skills Do You Need for a People-Centric Position?

To be a great people-centric professional, you need to be able to do several things: • Communicate clearly in a way that succinctly captures all of the necessary details. • Lead empathetically in a way that ensures that everyone on your team feels seen and valued as a person as well as a professional. • Manage projects efficiently so that they're completed not only well, but in an appropriate time frame.

When you're working with people, there's an added aspect of volatility that can be difficult to plan for.

Even within the considerations we described above, there will be nuance based on the situation and on who you're talking to.

Some team members will respond best to a certain style of communication, while others might prefer something a little different.

As a leader, you need to be able to recognize these distinctions and respond to them appropriately.

In the next few headings, we'll look at how to develop these valuable soft skills, and also how you can demonstrate them on a job application.

Step One: Developing Communication Skills

To become a good communicator, you first need to become a great listener. Active listening is one of the most valuable professional communication skills for several reasons: • It ensures that you are actually understanding what the people you work with are saying. • It allows your co-workers or team members to feel heard and valued. • It makes them more likely to listen actively to you.

Active listening is not just about paying very close attention. It's also about deliberately signaling to the person you're communicating with that you've heard them.

This means making eye contact, providing visual cues to signal your interest, and restating what they've said back to them.

It can take practice to master, but simply by setting out to listen actively, you'll do better than you have in the past.

Step Two: Manage Your Time Effectively

Time management is a bit of an elusive skill in that it's difficult to fully define. Have you managed your time well if you're meeting all of your deadlines and showing up to work on time, or is there more to it than that?

Do you not only need to complete work when it's expected of you, but also to maximize the efficiency of every second? What's realistic and what your boss might say could be two different things.

Even really hardworking professionals will fail to fully seize the value of every second, but good time management at least means accomplishing a few things: • Getting to work on time, attending meetings as expected, and working well with deadlines. • Juggling multiple projects at once in a way that logically reflects their priority and their differing deadlines. • Refining your workflow over time with the goal of improved efficiency.

This doesn't mean perfecting your process on day one, but rather adopting an attitude of continuous learning and improvement.

If you're not only meeting your deadlines but regularly innovating, you'll be a valuable teammate and an excellent project leader.

Step Three: Be the Most Helpful Person in the Room

This is not only a great way to gain recognition from your coworkers, but it's something that will naturally be attractive to employers as well. Your boss will like the idea of promoting someone who consistently takes on responsibility, is helpful to coworkers, and is well-liked.

You can develop that persona by volunteering for higher levels of responsibility, assisting coworkers whenever possible with their own projects, and generally asking for ways that you can be of greater assistance.

This pairs well with the other steps that we've described so far. For example, if you're ahead of your deadlines, go speak to your boss and say, “Hey, I finished that work you gave me. Do you have anything else for today?” It demonstrates your time management, your communication, and your general helpfulness all in one move.

Yes, it means working harder, but it also opens doors to the promotion track over time.

How to Highlight These Skills on a Resume

One of the tricky things about people skills is that they're difficult to objectively quantify in a way that is helpful on a job application.

It helps to document any relevant experience that you have. For example, if you've worked with people as a tutor, as a camp counselor, or at a daycare, those can be relevant sources of experience.

Failing this, you can also reference professional scenarios in the context of how they highlight a specific skill.

For example, projects that require high levels of communication, collaboration, or time management are good things to point out when you are applying to a job with a human-centric angle to it.

When it comes to filling out a job application, don't be afraid to get creative in terms of how you reference previous experiences.

Contrary to popular belief, many hiring managers understand that they might not find an exact fit for what they're looking for, but if you can show that you at least understand the skills and qualities that they're after, it may go a long way toward helping your application stand out.