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Well, I do not agree with the comment above. Soft Skills and Interpersonal Skills are very near together. Soft Skills are more wide and include more sensibility, knowledge about a lot of things like relations, feelings, teamwork, understanding and how to develop a person, to develop the business and so on. Which means, Interpersonal Skills are a part of Soft Skills because the base of Soft Skills is Communication and Communication means to listen to other people.
There's a fine line that divides the difference between the two. Interpersonal skills are a part of a person's soft skills, and as a general definition, both are used as a determinant of how we interact with other people. However, interpersonal skills encompass a more generic version of this than soft skills do.
Interpersonal skills are those used by a person to interact with others. This involved things like being able to listen to people, and communicate and interact with them accordingly, and is something we can decide to change overnight. For example, a person who is generally shy can decide, out of the blue, to be more outgoing, to try and socialize more; to be more forthcoming in their interactions with other people. Sure, it takes time to improve, but that's the general flow.
Soft skills however, are more determinate of who you are as a person. Not the person you show to other people, but the person you actually ARE. Soft skills are more along the lines of feeling empathy towards someone's plight. Not just listening to them, but actually feeling and understanding their predicament. In the workplace, examples of soft skills would include being able to solve a conflict in fully understanding each party's points of view and negotiating your way through a situation.
On the grander scale of things, an improvement of interpersonal skills through interactions with people eventually improves a person's soft skills overall.
Interesting question, but i generally think that these two terms are simply there to describe more or less the same thing or can be explained similarly. Ideally, they both overlap the other but generally referring to interactions, relationships and feelings shared between two or more individuals within a particular setting.
Looking closely at the definitions;
www.investopedia.com defines Interpersonal skills as the skills used by a person to properly interact with others. These include everything from communication and listening skills to attitude and deportment. Examples include;
Soft Skills on the other hand and in accordance to www.investopedia.com refers to the character traits and interpersonal skills that characterize a person's relationship with others. After the above definition one will notice that already the interpersonal skills are regarded as part of Soft Skills and possibly vice versa to a lesser extent. Following is a list of several soft skills;
In the end and again in my own opinion i feel Soft Skills is basically an umbrella term (Or a Buzzword) used in this day and age to mean and include interpersonal skills and relationships people generally forge and make sure that they are sustained.
Soft skills are skills that does involve enhancement of your capacity as an individual on positive parts of your work and the Interpersonal skills are relevant to our personal relationships, social affairs and professional lives.
Interpersonal skills include on soft skill. It is my personal interpretation.
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