Building Good Work Relationships 2021
Making Work Enjoyable and Productive
Why Have Good Work Relationships?
The more comfortable co-workers are around each other, the more confident they'll feel voicing opinions, brainstorming, and going along with new ideas, for example. This level of teamwork is essential to embrace change, create, and innovate. When people see the successes of working together in this way, group morale and productivity soars.
Good work relationships also give you freedom. Instead of spending time and energy dealing with negative relationships, you can, instead, focus on opportunities – from winning new business to focusing on personal development.
Defining a Good Relationship
A good work relationship requires but not limited to:
Trust: when you trust your team members, you can be open and honest in your thoughts and actions.
Respect: teams working together with mutual respect value one another's input, and find solutions based on collective insight, wisdom, and creativity.
Self-awareness: this means taking responsibility for your words and actions, and not letting your own negative emotions impact the people around you.
Inclusion: don't just accept diverse people and opinions but welcome them!
Open communication: all good relationships depend on open, honest communication.
How to Build Good Work Relationships
Building close connections with people can take time. But there are also steps you can take today to get on better with your colleagues.
1. Identify Your Relationship Needs
Do you know what you need from others? And do you know what they need from you? Understanding these needs can be instrumental in building better relationships.
2. Develop Your People Skills
Good relationships start with good people skills
Focus on your emotional intelligence.
Practice Mindful Listening, People respond better to those who truly listen to what they have to say.
Schedule Time to Build Relationships. If possible, you could ask a colleague out for a quick cup of coffee. Or give a "one-minute kindness" by commenting on something positive a co-worker said or wrote. These little interactions take time but lay the groundwork for strong relationships.
Appreciate others. Everyone, from your boss to the intern, wants to feel that their work is appreciated. So, genuinely compliment the people around you when they do something well.
Focus on being positive.
Gossiping can ruin workplace relationships. If you are experiencing conflict with someone in your group, talk to them directly about the problem. Gossiping with other colleagues will only exacerbate the situation, accelerating mistrust and animosity.
Tips for Developing Positive Relationships
By building positive relationships with others, we will be happier and more fulfilled and feel more supported and connected.
One of the most profound experiences we can have in our lives is the connection we have with other human beings. Positive and supportive relationships will help us to feel healthier, happier, and more satisfied with our lives. So here are a few tips to help you develop more positive and healthy relationships in all areas of your life:
Accept and celebrate differences. One of the biggest challenges we experience in relationships is that we are all different. We can perceive the world in many ways. Certainly, a stumbling block that we come across when we try to build relationships is a desire or an expectation that people will think like we do and, in this way, it is so much easier to create a rapport. We feel more comfortable when we feel that people “get” us and can see our point of view. Life, however, would be very dull if we were all the same. So, accepting and celebrating that we are all different is a great starting point.
Listen effectively. Listening is a crucial skill in boosting another person’s self-esteem, the silent form of flattery that makes people feel supported and valued. Listening and understanding what others communicate to us is the most important part of successful interaction and vice versa.
Develop your communication skills. Communication occurs when someone understands you, not just when you speak. One of the biggest dangers with communication is that we can work on the assumption that the other person has understood the message we are trying to get across.
Poor communication in the workplace can lead to a culture of backstabbing and blame, which, in turn, can affect our stress levels, especially when we don’t understand something or feel we have been misled. It also can have a positive effect on morale when it works well and motivates individuals to want to come into work and do a great job.
Learn to give and take feedback. The ability to provide constructive feedback to others helps them to tap into their personal potential and can help to forge positive and mutually beneficial relationships. From your own personal perspective, any feedback you receive is free information and you can choose whether you want to take it on board or not.
Develop empathy. Empathy and understanding builds connections between people. It is a state of perceiving and relating to another person’s feelings and needs without blaming, giving advice, or trying to fix the situation. Empathy also means “reading” another person’s inner state and interpreting it in a way that will help the other person and offer support and develop mutual trust.
Every relationship we have can teach us something, and by building positive relationships with others, we will be happier and more fulfilled and feel more supported and connected.
Want to improve your relationships?
We can help
For Professional Relationship Counselling contact us on
Gauteng & Other regions: 0861 776 227 admin@procare.co.za
Western Cape: 021- 8 730 532 procwc@procare.co.za
Read more:
https://trainingmag.com/8-tips-for-developing-positive-relationships/
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/good-relationships.htm