Political Skills

Recently, I was writing a self-reflection paper for a class. For the paper I had to take a plethora of quizzes that would help describe me and give something to write about myself. The quiz that stuck out to me the most was one that measured my "political skill." It struck my fancy because I do not think of myself as any type of political advocate, or one who dives into the political scene, but when I took the quiz, I was given a score in the political skill. Surprised, I looked into the quiz and the "political skill" that I apparently had.

According to the quiz authors of the quiz defined political skill as “an interpersonal style construct that combines social perceptiveness or astuteness with the capacity to adjust one’s behavior to different and changing situational demands in a manner that inspires trust, confidence and genuineness and effectively influences and controls the responses of others.” Essentially, their definition of political skill is the ability to appear to others as having high integrity, authenticity and sincerity, being able to use diverse networks and to exert a powerful influence on others. Longish definitions, but I came to the conclusion that political skills was really people skills taken to a personal level. 

I honestly try my best to make an impact on people’s lives every day, to show care and interest, and to set a standard for others to follow. I do this because I believe that there are so many people who are not shown these qualities that should be second nature to we humans, and they go throughout their days with a little less sunshine because no one was there to show interest in anything that was going on in their lives. I believe showing genuine care in a person, even if it is in their everyday mundaneness of life is important because in that moment, the person who is recognized feels significant and needed in a world, and makes the unfortunate mess of a world we live in a little bit better. If this be called political skill, I feel that it is given a skewed looked because politics do not have the best known reputation; yet to me this political skill, or honest and simple generosity toward another human, is a part of me that I not only enjoy doing but strategically plan my day to spend time investing in people. I like that I have this “political skill” and will continue to use it for the benefit of those around me, and not for the upcoming election.