Having good friends in the workplace can boost your job satisfaction. How good are the relationships that you have with your colleagues? According to the Gallup Organization, people who have trusted friends at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs. And it doesn’t have to be best friends: Gallup found that people who have good friends in the workplace are more likely to be happy.
In this article, I am sharing how you may build strong, positive relationships at work. For me, it’s essential to have good working relationships, and how to strengthen your relationships with people that you don’t naturally get on with.
Let’s define a “good working relationship.” I believe several characteristics make up a good, healthy working relationship.
Trust – This is the foundation of every good relationship, but one is the hardest to build. However, when you trust your team and colleagues, you form a powerful bond that helps you to work and communicate more effectively. If you trust the people you work with, you can be open and honest in your thoughts and actions, and you don’t have to waste time and energy “watching your back.” Have you built trust?
Mutual Respect – When you earn your colleague’s respect; you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. By working together, you will develop a solution based on your collective insight, wisdom, creativity, and meet some incredible successes as a team.
Mindfulness – This one is so important, this means taking responsibility for your words and actions. Those who are mindful are positive and attentive to what they say, and they don’t let their negative feelings impact the people around them. This one I feel we all need to improve on in our industry – will we be the change that is always talked about.
Open Communication – In our industry, communication is so important. We’re sending emails and IMs, or meeting face to face. The better and more effectively you communicate with those around you, the richer your relationships will be. All good relationships depend on open, honest communication.
We should always make an effort to build, invest, in our working relationships with those who we work with as well as those who we may not work with every day, imagine your work being enjoyed every day, with a simple “hello.”