10 Beautiful Ways to Improve Working Relationships
How to build happy relationships at work
What is the meaning of good working relationships? Well, a good working relationship is one in which you enjoy harmony and peace with your boss, with your colleagues, and with those under you.
Why have good relationships?
Human beings are social animals. We all want to have an affectionate relationship with all the people whom we come in contact with every day.
An average person spends about 8 to 10 hours at the workplace and so it’s vital to have a good relationship in the workplace.
Having good relationships at work makes it easy going and fun to work
Good relationships are very important in the development of our careers. We want to work with people we are on good terms with.
It makes good sense to have good relationships with our customers, our clients, and other people whom we involve with on a daily basis.
Now that we have seen why a good working relationship is important, let us see how to build them.
1. Improve your people skills
Relationships have to do with human beings or people. And so it’s of utmost importance to develop your people skills or soft skills. You need to learn how to communicate, how to deal with conflict, and how to work together.
2. Understand your own needs and others' needs
You need to look at what you need from others and also what they are expecting from you. When you understand these two things, it will lead to a much better working relationship.
3. Quality time is needed to build strong relationships
It’s very obvious that to build any relationship with your family members, friends, or colleagues, a lot of time needs to be invested in those relationships.
If time is not invested, then the relationships will not flourish.
You need to give quality time for important relationships and see how they improve because of your investment in terms of time.
4. Learn to see the good in others
It’s a known fact that people who are appreciated, work more and work hard. Everyone likes to be appreciated right from the sweeper to the boss.
Human beings have been created in such a way that they crave for affection and appreciation.
Appreciation is the fuel that keeps human beings going in spite of being tired.
So be generous with your appreciation and see how your relationships blossom and bloom.
5. Be positive
Being positive is the thing that creates an atmosphere for relationships to improve and go to the next level.
Everyone appreciates a person who is always optimistic and positive and wants to interact with him or her.
So be positive all the time and your relationships will grow stronger.
6. Protect your boundaries
Be very careful about building boundaries around you
Closely monitor your relationships and how much time you can give to each relationship. Not every relationship deserves the same time from you.
So be strategic about how much time you invest in a given relationship. This will help you to stay away from toxic relationships which will drain out your emotions and all your resources.
7. Avoid gossip at all costs
Office gossip is not a new term at all. Every office and workplace has a lot of gossips- that is speaking behind people’s backs.
It’s better to avoid gossip at all costs because it will affect your relationships adversely.
In case there is a conflict with someone, it’s usually good to approach the person directly and share with him or her your problems. That will be a very honest way to deal with the matter and usually many misunderstandings are solved when the matter is discussed directly with the persons concerned.
This way the relationship is not fractured but becomes stronger in the longer run.
8. Be ready to accept differences
We are all different in many ways and it’s good that we are all different, otherwise, the whole world would have been a very boring place to live in.
But as far as good relationships are concerned, we need to accept and even celebrate our differences.
In order to maintain a healthy relationship, we need to realize that we are different and we don’t need to compete with each other but rather complement each other.
When we start doing this, there will be a very good working relationship established in which everyone is benefited.
9. Be a deep listener
Most of us are very good at talking but very few of us are good listeners.
You see there are different levels of listening. One level is known as superficial listening where the listener seems to be paying attention but in fact, his mind is somewhere else.
Another mode of listening is where the listener receives what is being said but does not process it understand it.
The third level of listening is where the listener gives full attention to the speaker, understands what he is saying, and responds accordingly.
For any relationship to be good, there needs to be the third level of listening which is also known as deep listening.
We need to train ourselves to become deep listeners because that is when we can draw out the deepest feelings, emotions, and thoughts of the speaker without even uttering a single word.
When the speaker understands that the listener is giving his full attention, then he will share his deepest feelings.
Deep listening brings about a very strong trust factor in the speaker.
I hope you can see how important it is to become a very good listener as it is one of the most important features of a good relationship.
10. Wisely manage mobile time
We are living in the age of technology and technology touches every part of our life and relationship.
We need to be wise how we use technology because even though it is a blessing in all aspects of life, if you are not careful how you use it, it can become a curse.
It can become like a Frankenstein- which was created to help us but which can in fact destroy.
I have read several stories where marriages have been destroyed, people have been killed just because of excessive use of technology and more specifically using the so-called smartphone.
We need to curb our use of technology at times in order to give time to healthy relationships.
We will do well to heed this warning and cautiously use the time that we spend on electronic devices.
In conclusion, you can readily see that effective and good working relationships are the key and the cornerstone to success and satisfaction in your career in your job.
The Gallup organization studied various factors affecting people’s performance at work. Interestingly, they found out that when you have a best friend at work then your job satisfaction increases and even your productivity increases. They found out that just having one good friend at work improves your work satisfaction and work output drastically.
Thus it is to your advantage and benefit to improve your working relationships by following the steps mentioned above. This will make your personal life peaceful and harmonious as well.
