Develop Great Relationships at Work

Whether you like your job or not, the reality is that you spend most of your time at work surrounded by your colleagues. This is why your relationships with them are so important, they can affect your mood and even your future ambitions.

Human beings are naturally social creatures. We crave friendship and positive interactions, just as we do food and water, so it makes sense that the better our relationships are at work, the happier and more productive we’re going to be.

Positive interactions at work are necessary if we hope to develop our careers. After all, if your boss doesn’t trust you, it’s unlikely that he or she will consider you when a new position opens up.

Overall, we all want to work with people we’re on good terms with and this requires:

The foundation of every good relationship. When you have mutual trust at work, you form a powerful bond that helps you communicate more effectively. With trust you can be open and honest and you don’t have to waste time and energy ‘watching your back’.

When you respect your colleagues, you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. Working together, you can develop solutions based on your collective insight, wisdom and creativity.

Taking responsibility for your words and actions is important. Be careful to attend to your responsibilities and don’t allow your negative emotions to impact the people around you.

Be open to diverse people and opinions. If a workmate offers a different opinion from yours, take the time to consider their input and insight into your decision-making.

Communication takes place all day long, written, verbal and even non-verbal cues. The better, more positive and effective your communication, the healthier your work environment will be.

In order to build build better relationships at work, aim to:

Treat colleagues kindly and with respect. Basically, ‘treat others as you would want to be treated’. Deal with conflicts in a timely and respectful manner and most especially avoid all gossip and speaking negatively about colleagues.

Pop into a colleague’s office over lunch for a friendly chat, reply to people’s postings on Twitter or LinkedIn. Contribute to office birthday gifts and be interested (but not overly so) in your colleague’s life outside of work. Is their mum ill? Offer some support and kind words.

Spend time developing your emotional intelligence, your ability to recognise your own emotions, and clearly understand what they’re telling you. It also helps you to understand the emotions and needs of others.

Show appreciation whenever someone helps you. Everyone, from your boss to the office cleaner, wants to feel that their work is appreciated. So, genuinely compliment the people around you when they do something well.

Positivity is attractive and contagious, no one wants to be around someone who’s negative all the time.

Office politics and gossip are major relationship killers at work. If you’re experiencing conflict with someone in your group, talk to them directly about the problem. Gossiping about the situation with other colleagues will only exacerbate the situation, and will cause mistrust and animosity between you.

Practice active listening. People respond to those who truly listen. Focus on listening more than you talk, and you’ll quickly become known as someone who can be trusted.

Till next time gents, cheers!

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.