5 Ways to Build Great Relationships with Your Work Colleagues
Research has proven that if you have someone you would consider to be a good or a close friend at work, you will be more likely to engage with your job and be happier in your work environment.
Having good relationships with your colleagues helps to improve work efficiency, especially when the workplace requires teamwork. It creates a better atmosphere and improves everyone’s mood. Today, we will be taking a look at how to build positive and strong relationships with your work colleagues and how to strengthen relationships with people you may not be particularly fond of.
Develop People Skills
Well-developed people skills are essential for a good relationship with anyone. These skills include how good you are at communicating, how you collaborate, and what you do when you are faced with conflict. If you want to understand how good your people skills are, then follow this link to take a quiz.
Dedicate Your Time
Dedicating time inside or even outside the workplace is a great way to show that you are interested in becoming friends with someone. For example, you could invite them to join you for lunch, add them on social media, or ask them if they would like to spend your coffee break together. Once you start speaking to each other, you learn a lot about a person. If you have similar interests, such as football, then you could surprise them with NFL tickets on their birthday, to congratulate them, or just for fun.
Always Stay Positive
Positivity naturally attracts people, and it is a contagious trait. If you can remain focused on being positive at work, not only will it make your day better, but it will improve the mindset of the people around you and ultimately strengthen your relationships because your colleagues will want to be around you. Nothing is worse than being around a negative person, especially if you are having a bad day at work.
Appreciate Your Colleagues
When you show people that you appreciate them, they will feel good and will be more likely to help you out in the future. Whether it’s the office cleaner or your boss, everyone wants to be noticed and will feel happy if their work is appreciated. You can do this through email, by telling them in a conversation, or through a gift. Appreciation really is a great way to improve work relationships.
Do Not Gossip
Trust is an extremely important concept in any relationship. If you can’t trust someone in the workplace, then you will naturally do what you can to avoid that person. Gossip is a huge killer of work relationships. If you have an issue with someone in your group, then take the time to talk to them about your problem. You are an adult, and gossiping will only make the situation worse.
A good relationship requires trust, mutual respect, mindfulness, and open communication. If you manage to master all of these aspects, then a healthy working relationship with colleagues will follow. In time, you will find that some relationships will need more attention than others, but it is definitely worth the effort in the long run.
