First impressions are lasting impressions and social skills play a key role during that very first encounter.

The purpose of discussing social skills is to provide you with guidelines about the how, what, where, when and why of social graces.

In arming yourself with the necessary knowledge, you develop greater self-confidence, an increased sense of security and minimise any sense of awkwardness.

Times are tough and yet there is an incredible energy and a fantastic opportunity for effective interactions with others. It’s in the air. We have to act in a positive manner, seize the initiative and hang on with both hands.

If we open our eyes and remove their fixation from a screen, we will see reality not just the images around us.

If we remove our mobile phones from our ears, we will hear the world around us.

If we look to talk to one another, we’ll discover that vibrant energy and be able to channel that energy towards more effective outcomes.

We’ll be nice to others – even when we don’t feel like it! Especially in trying circumstances, when for example, someone doesn’t like the way we’re driving and gestures accordingly.

Instead of ‘flipping the bird’ at them in return, we might just concentrate on our own driving and hope that the other driver’s traumatised life improves dramatically and that his or her overused middle finger hasn’t suffered ligament damage!

My definition of a really admired person who oozes style and class is a person with genuine social skills, someone who thinks and acts from the heart. Make no mistake about it, this is a person you want to be around – 24/7!

These days, the person who draws people into their orbit is not Ms Nouveau-Riche who talks in a condescending manner to the sales assistant when she’s shopping for a new ensemble, nor is it Mr Nouveau-Riche who barks orders at the taxi driver.

When we graduate from the I-I-Me-Me school of philosophy into a life of caring for other people, we begin to react instinctively and authentically to other people, whether they’re friends or not.

We respond in a consistent, decent, respectable and polite manner.

And guess what?

It’s not something we have to think twice about.