The Most Important Perceptiveness Skills (With Examples)

Many qualities enable a person to get their job done well besides technical knowledge of the role. Since most jobs have at least a certain level of interaction with other people, social skills become very handy in a professional environment.

One of the most useful skills of this domain is called social perceptiveness. If you can improve your abilities in this area, you’ll have a much easier time getting along with co-workers and supervisors at your job.

What Is Social Perceptiveness?

Social perceptiveness refers to a person’s ability to tune into the feelings of the people around them. It involves unspoken communication, picking up on body language cues, and discerning the motivation behind particular behaviors.

When thinking about modes of communication, most people imagine conversation or written text. However, there are many underlying messages that someone can send to their peers in other ways.

Being able to navigate the unspoken exchanges with friends, co-workers, and strangers through social perceptiveness can give you a leg up in the interaction.

Why is Social Perceptiveness Important at Work?

Most professional environments require their constituents to deal with a series of varying personality types every day. Whether most of your job is interacting with customers, you work on a team with other people, or even work remotely, social perceptiveness can be extremely helpful in navigating daily situations.

Imagine a scenario in which a co-worker is demonstrating clear signs of being upset, but they aren’t directly saying anything verbally. They’re communicating using signs like crossing their arms, aggressively sighing, or dismissing eye-contact.

With social perceptiveness, each of these clues is picked up by the other person in the interaction and it allows them to say, “Hey, what’s wrong?”.

Without social perceptiveness, this issue would be left to fester until it eventually exploded in a much more dramatic way. It’s putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. This social skill avoids conflict and manages it when it arises, which is crucial in a professional atmosphere.

Showcasing Social Perceptiveness on a Resume

Employers are inclined to hire people who demonstrate skills in social perceptiveness because they’re ultimately easier people to employ. They can decode complex social situations and act accordingly without guidance from a supervisor. This independence to build rapport with co-workers and sustain lasting professional relationships creates a more effective team.

If you’re the type of person who can strangely read everybody in a room without them saying a single word, then showcasing this strength on your resume is a strategic move that could land your next job. Below is some advice on telling a hiring manager that you’ve got stellar social perceptiveness in the words of your resume.

1. Use your work history description to illuminate social perceptiveness. Every part of your resume is a tool to catch a potential employer’s attention. You can even use your prior work history description as a way to subtly disclose how socially perceptive you are.

   This is usually more effective in a role that this particular social skill was crucial in your former job functioning. For example, in a customer service position, social perceptiveness goes hand-in-hand with satisfying client’s needs and resolving complaints.

2. List the social perceptiveness under the resume skills section. Another way to make it known that you have an abundance of useful social skills is by listing them in your skills section.

   If you’re a person who is particularly socially perceptive, feel free to list this as a soft skill on your resume. However, be prepared to be asked about times you’ve demonstrated this quality in an interview.

3. Mention skills related to social perceptiveness. When you want to mention your social perceptiveness, but you don’t want to list it out directly, mention other interpersonal skills that are related to the ability.

   There are lots of ways to say that you’re experienced with social situations without coming right out with it on a resume skills section.

   Other interpersonal skills related to social perceptiveness could include:

   • Conflict Resolution and Patience

   • Collaboration and Cooperation

   • Teamwork and Team Management

Example Resume Showcasing Social Perceptiveness

Interview Questions About Social Perceptiveness

In addition to scouting incoming resumes for signs of social perceptiveness, a hiring manager will usually ask questions during an interview to evaluate a candidate’s abilities in this area. You should go into an interview prepared to discuss these capabilities and other social skills.

Consider the following examples of common interview questions about social perceptiveness.

1. Describe a conflict you had at work and how you resolved it. Social perceptiveness is very useful when it comes to solving conflicts professionally and effectively. The skill allows you to be aware of any tension or conflict before it grows any more severe.

   Since the two are social skills are closely related, an interviewer often asks about a candidate’s conflict resolution abilities and assesses the social perceptiveness in their response.

2. Tell me about a difficult coworker you had in a previous job. A hiring manager usually asks a few questions related to difficulty in your former roles to see how you’ll discuss these delicate topics.

   When asking about a less than pleasant co-worker specifically, they’re testing the interviewee for social perceptiveness, both in the interview and in the situation they bring up.

   Even though you’re talking about a conflict when answering this question, try to be positive and focus on how you resolved the issue. The goal is to provide an example that demonstrates your social perceptiveness towards an unruly co-worker.

3. Tell me about a time that you had to put yourself in someone else’s shoes at work. This is the most direct way of asking a candidate about their social perceptiveness since the skill is really about using empathy to understand people around you.

   Choose a situation that portrays you in a positive light and indicates a high level of social perceptiveness and other interpersonal skills.

How to Improve Your Social Perceptiveness

1. Listen more. While social perceptiveness is about nonverbal cues during interactions with another person, practicing listening skills never hurts. You could be missing out on vital information because you’re half-zoned out to everything your co-worker says. This can lead to a lot of miscommunication and diminishes social perceptiveness.

2. Learn about body language. People communicate with more than just words; their body language also speaks volumes. Learning more about examples of positive and negative body language can enhance your social perceptiveness. It increases your knowledge of nonverbal social cues to notice during an interaction.

   A few examples of positive body language include:

   • Nodding

   • Eye Contact

   • Emphasis Hand Gestures

   • Smiling

   A few examples of negative body language include:

   • Crossed Arms

   • Aimless Staring

   • Uncomfortable Fidgeting

   • Sweating

   • Slouching

3. Recognize facial expressions. In addition to body language, other nonverbal cues to look out for are facial expressions. A lot can be said by the way a person’s face contorts in response to getting news, a statement from a co-worker, or any other stimuli.

   Certain emotions are characterized by the way a person’s face moves, and understanding these looks will help your social perceptiveness.

   A few examples of common facial expressions include:

   • Happiness is associated with raising mouth corners into a smile

   • Anger is associated with eyebrows lowering and tight lips

   • Shock is associated with widened eyed and raised eyebrows

4. Ask questions. Learning more about the people in your personal and professional life by asking questions supports your social perceptiveness with them.

   Knowing more about their background, cultural differences and personality make it easier to interpret their nonverbal communications more accurately.

5. Pay attention to gut feelings in an interaction. Whenever you’re speaking, emailing, or interacting with another person, your body gives your hints to tell you how it’s going.

   The quickening pace of your heartbeat when the conversation starts making you feel uneasy, or the butterflies in your stomach when you think it might be going well. These twinges of clues are called a gut feeling, and following it can assist in precise social perceptiveness.

Author

Sky Ariella

Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.