Personal competencies refer to the set of abilities that the human being presents, already manifested or as potentialities to be developed, whose specific characteristics will allow them to develop a specific life project in their life path.
In the next Psychology-Online article, we will talk about the personal competencies: what they are, list and examples. We discover the different types of competencies that exist and a specific list of positive competencies whose development will favor the ability to develop complete, integral, creative and healthy life projects.
What are personal competencies
When talking about personal competencies we refer, in a generalized way, to the set of capabilities, skills, attitudes and values of a person. Aspects that he develops throughout his life and that will allow him to build a certain personal, family, social and professional life project.
Most of the information created in this regard refers mainly to personal competencies related to the professional field, as a way of specifying the list of optimal skills and competencies to favorably develop one’s professional career.
In this article, however, we will focus on personal competencies referring to all areas of human lifewhose acquisition and development will allow you to walk a path of optimal personal growth and development that will favor a generalized state of personal well-being and harmonious coexistence with the environment.
Types of personal competencies
What are the personal competencies? As with all classification attempts created, there are multiple possible combinations to create a list of specific personal competencies considered to be of greater or lesser interest and magnitude. The classifications will be determined by the type of specific objective pursued.
In our case, the objective is to offer a list of personal competencies that cover all areas of life of the human being, constituting growth and development factors of their human potential to create a life project.
In this sense, below, we present the main types of personal competencies:
- Personal self-regulation skills: refer to all those involved in the management and control of one’s own internal functioning.
- Social and interpersonal skills: All those skills that cover the area of personal relationships with the environment are included, through which generalized, optimal and positive social functioning is promoted. For example, skills applied in the family, interpersonal, professional, etc.)
- Communicative skills: all skills and abilities of efficient and effective expression are taken into account. If you want to improve these skills, in the following article we show you different ones.
- Transversal skills: This is a set of personal skills that unite and interact continuously and permanently with the rest of the skills. They favor the development of each of them and the overall development of the person.
List and examples of personal competencies
Based on the types of personal competencies set out in the previous section, below we present a more detailed list with examples of the personal competencies included within each typology.
1. Personal self-regulation skills
The personal competencies involved in personal self-management are the following:
- Self-awareness: being aware of one’s own existence, one’s own limits and capabilities.
- emotional self-management: being able to manage emotions appropriately and soberly so that the result of the management is positive and constructive for others and for oneself.
- Self-esteem and self-confidence: feel positive affection and respect towards oneself, which will favor positive development in other areas.
- Self-control: ability to correctly manage personal behaviors so that, as with emotional self-management, they are constructive for us and our entire environment. In this article you will find more information about .
2. Social and interpersonal skills
The main personal and social competencies, used in the field of personal relationships, are:
- Empathy: ability to put yourself in the shoes of others, which very positively favors personal interactions. If you have questions about how to do it, in this article, we will tell you.
- Assertiveness: ability to express oneself with sobriety and respect towards others
- emotional intelligence: set of skills that promote the positive development of social interaction that encompass and contain all the others. In this article you will see.
- Conflict resolution: ability to positively and constructively resolve conflicts that may arise in social interactions.
- Cordiality and affection: ability to be affectionate and cordial as a fundamental encouraging element of positive social relationships.
3. Communication skills
If we talk about examples of personal skills in the communication field, the most important are the following:
- Effective and consistent use of verbal and non-verbal language: that the verbal message emitted is confirmed through the non-verbal communication expressed.
- Correct reading-writing level: constitutes an important communication skill that facilitates communication at a written level.
- Active listening: It is essential to promote effective and positive communications between people. If you are interested in knowing more, in this article, we show you what the .
- Warm eye contact: to promote the establishment of sincere and true communication.
4. Transversal skills
To describe a person’s personal and professional skills, it is essential to mention transversal skills, as they unite all the others. Let’s see what they are:
- Teamwork: ability that guarantees conciliar coexistence between social groups.
- Results orientation: allows the achievement of proposed goals.
- Flexibility and adaptability: positive skills as they allow constant adaptation to changes in the environment.
- Creativity: fundamental factor for personal, social and community growth and development. If you are wondering how to be more creative, in this article we will tell you.
- Problem resolution: ability to seek and find positive solutions to the problems that life presents us.
- Organization, planning and management: very important skills when developing personal, family, work, social projects, etc.
- Initiative: ability to propose new challenges and projects.
- decision making: ability to adequately manage a problematic situation and finally adopt a positive solution. In this article, we tell you what they are.
- Motivation towards achievement: force that pushes towards the achievement of the proposed objectives in the different spheres of life.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Bisquerra Alzina, R., & Escoda, NP (2007). Emotional competencies.
- Di Giusto Valle, C., Martín, ME, Arnaiz, A., & Guerra, P. (2014). Personal and social skills in adolescents. Ibero-American Journal of Education.