A competency is a skill that can be observed and measured. Although human-relations skills are not as easy to identify or quantify as technical and clerical skills, they are equally important to productivity.

1.) CONSISTENTLY COMMUNICATE THE FOLLOWING ATTITUDES TO CO-WORKERS, SUPERIORS AND CUSTOMERS

• Send out positive verbal and nonverbal signals in all contacts, including telephone.
• Remain positive while working with those who are negative.
• Be positive and sensitive when those you are dealing with are not.
• Deal with all people in an honest, ethical, and moral way.
• Avoid ethnic or sexual remarks that could be misinterpreted.
• Recognize when you begin to become negative and start an attitude renewal project.
• Develop and maintain a good service attitude.

2.) DEMONSTRATE THE FOLLOWING HUMAN-RELATIONS SKILLS IN DEALING WITH CO-WORKERS:

• Build and maintain equally effective working relationships with everyone in your department. Refuse to play favorites.
• Build a productive, no-conflict relationship with those who may have a different set of personal values.
• Build relationships based on the mutual reward theory.
• Develop productive, healthy relationships with those who may be substantially older or younger.
• Maintain a productive relationship even with individuals who irritate you at times.
• Treat everyone, regardless of ethnic or socioeconomic differences, with respect.
• Work effectively with others regardless of their sexual orientation.
• Do not take human-relations slights or mistakes from others personally; do not become defensive or attempt to retaliate in kind.
• Repair an injured relationship as soon as possible.
• Even if you are not responsible for the damage to a working relationship, protect your career by taking the initiative to restore it.
• Permit others to restore a relationship with you.
• Release your frustrations harmlessly without damaging relationships.
• Handle teasing and testing without becoming upset.

3.) DEMONSTRATE THE FOLLOWING HUMAN-RELATIONS SKILLS IN DEALING WITH YOUR SUPERIORS:

• Build a strong vertical relationship with your supervisor without alienating co-workers.
• Be a high producer yourself and contribute to the productivity or co-workers.
• Survive, with a positive attitude, under a difficult supervisor until changes occur.
• Establish relationships that are mutually rewarding.
• Show you can live up to your productivity potential without alienating co-workers who do not live up to theirs.
• Live close to your productivity potential without extreme highs or lows regardless of difficult changes in the work environment.
• Do not underestimate or overestimate a superior.
• Report mistakes or misjudgments rather than trying to hide them.
• Show that you can turn any change into an opportunity, including accepting a new supervisor with a different style.
• Refuse to nurse small gripes into major upsets.

4.) DEMONSTRATE THE FOLLOWING PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDES AND HUMAN-RELATIONS SKILLS:

• Be an excellent listener.
• Establish a good attendance record.
• Keep a good balance between home and career so neither suffers.
• Demonstrate that you are self-motivated.
• Communicate freely and thoroughly.
• Prepare yourself for a promotion in such a manner that others will be happy when you succeed.
• Share only positive, non-confidential data about your organization with outsiders.
• Pass only reliable data on to others.
• Keep your business and personal relationships sufficiently separated.
• Concentrate on the positive aspects of your job while trying to improve the negative.
• Make only positive comments about a third party not present.
• Leave a job or company in a positive manner; train your replacement so that productivity is not disturbed.
• If you prefer to be a stabilizer, develop patience; if you prefer to be a zig-zagger, don't stomp on other people's feet, hands, or heads while climbing the success ladder.
• Always have a Plan B.
• Avoid self-victimization.