Business relationships their importance and how to build them
According to Gallup, people who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to share their jobs than others. And it doesn’t have to be a best friend: Gallup has found that people who simply have a good friend in the workplace are more likely to be satisfied.
In this article, we look at how to build strong, positive relationships at work. We’ll see why it’s important to have good working relationships, and look at how to strengthen your relationships with people you don’t come into contact with normally.
Why should you have good relationships?
Humans are naturally social creatures – we need friendship and positive interactions, just like we need food and water. So it makes sense that the better our relationships at work, the happier and more productive we’ll be.
Good working relationships provide us with many other advantages: Our work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us. Also, people are more likely to align themselves with the changes we want to implement, and be more innovative and creative.
What’s more, good relationships give us freedom: Instead of spending time and energy overcoming problems associated with negative relationships, we can instead focus on opportunities.
Good relationships are often essential if we hope to advance our careers. After all, if your boss doesn’t trust you, he’s less likely to think of you when opening a new job. In general, we all want to work with people who are on good terms with us.
We also need good working relationships with others in our professional circle. Customers, suppliers and key stakeholders are all essential to our success. Therefore, it is important to build and maintain good relationships with these people.
Defining a Good Relationship
There are several characteristics that make up good and healthy working relationships:
Trust – is the foundation of every good relationship. When you trust your team and colleagues, you form a strong bond that helps you work and communicate more effectively. If you trust the people you work with, you can be open and honest about your thoughts and actions, and you won’t have to waste time and energy “being on your guard.”
Mutual Respect – When you respect the people you work with, you value their input and ideas and they do the same. Working together, you can develop solutions based on your collective vision, wisdom and creativity.
Mindfulness – This means taking responsibility for your words and actions. Those who study their words well are careful and mindful of what they say, and don’t let their negative emotions influence the people around them.
Welcoming Diversity – Well-connected people not only accept but welcome diverse people and opinions. For example, when your friends and colleagues offer opinions different from yours, you take the time to consider what they have to say, and factor their views into your decision-making.
Open Communication – We communicate all day, whether we’re sending emails and instant messages, or meeting face-to-face. And the better and more effective your communication with those around you, the richer your relationships will be. All good relationships depend on open and honest communication.
Where to Build Good Relationships
Although we should try to build and maintain good working relationships with everyone, there are certain relationships that deserve extra attention.
For example, you will likely benefit from developing good relationships with key stakeholders in your organization. These are the people who have a stake in your success or failure. Forming a bond with these people will help ensure that your projects and career are on the right track.
To find out who these people are, conduct a stakeholder analysis. Once you’ve created a list of colleagues who have an interest in your projects and career, you can set aside time to build and manage those relationships.
Clients and customers are another group that deserves extra attention. Think of the last time you had to deal with an unhappy customer; It may have been challenging and draining. And while you may not be able to keep everyone happy 100% of the time, maintaining honest and honest relationships with your clients can help you ensure that if something goes wrong, the damage is minimized. Good relationships with clients and clients can also lead to more additional sales, career advancement, and a more rewarding life.
How to Build Good Work Relationships
So, what can you do to build better relationships at work?
Develop Your People Skills
Good relationships start with good people skills. Do a test How good are your employees’ skills? To see how good your interpersonal skills are. For example, how well you cooperate, communicate, and deal with conflict. This self-test will point you to tools that will help you deal with any weaknesses you may have.
Identify Your Relationship Needs
Take a look at 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.
Schedule Time to Build Relationships
Dedicate a portion of your day to building relationships, even if it’s just 20 minutes, perhaps breaking them up into five-minute time blocks.
For example, you might pop into someone’s office during lunch, respond to people’s posts on Twitter or LinkedIn, or ask a colleague out for a quick cup of coffee.
These small interactions help build the foundation of a good relationship, especially if it’s face-to-face.
Focus on your emotional intelligence
Your EI)
You should also take the time to develop your emotional intelligence (EI). Among other things, this is your ability to recognize your feelings, and clearly understand what they are telling you.
Higher emotional intelligence also helps you understand the feelings and needs of others.
Appreciate others.
Show your appreciation whenever someone helps you. Everyone, from your boss to the office cleaner, wants to feel that their work is appreciated. So, sincerely praise the people around you when they do something well. This will open the door to great working relationships.
Be Positive
Focus on being positive. Positivity is attractive and contagious, and will help strengthen your relationships with your colleagues. No one wants to be surrounded by a negative person all the time.
Manage Your Boundaries
Make Sure Boundaries Are Set and Managed Properly We all want to have friends at work, but sometimes, friendship can start to affect our jobs, especially when a friend or colleague starts monopolizing our time.
If this happens, it’s important to be firm about your boundaries, and to know how much time you can devote during the workday to social interactions.
Avoid gossip
Don’t gossip – office politics and gossip are the main killer and destroyer of relationships in the workplace. If you’re having a problem 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 hostility between you.
Listen Actively
Practice active listening when you are speaking to your clients and colleagues. People respond to those who really listen to what they have to say. Focus on listening more than you speak, and you’ll quickly become known as someone you can trust.
Difficult Relationships
Sometimes you have to work with someone you don’t like, or with someone you can’t relate to. But for the sake of your business, it is essential that you maintain a professional relationship with him.
When this happens, make an effort to get to know the person. He probably knows that you two are not on good terms with each other, so take the first step to improving the relationship by engaging him in a real conversation, or by inviting him to lunch.
As you speak, try not to be too careful. Ask him about his background, interests, and past successes. Instead of putting energy into your differences, focus on finding the things you both have in common.
Just remember – not all relationships are going to be great. But you can be sure that it is at least practical and workable.
Key Points
Building and maintaining good working relationships will not only make you more engaged and committed to your organization; It can also open doors to major projects and career advancement.
Use the following strategies to build good working relationships with your colleagues:
Develop the skills of your employees.
Determine your relationship needs.
Schedule time to build relationships.
Focus on your emotional intelligence.
Appreciate others.
be positive.
Manage your limits.
Avoid gossip and gossip.
Listen actively and effectively.
Now that we’ve covered the importance of relationships at work, let’s talk about the types of work relationships that exist. Understanding the different types can help you identify the role your current relationships play, and which ones you may lack.
First and foremost, not all work relationships are created equal – some will help advance your career, others will help you stay sane, and a few can even be detrimental. The more you can build strong and meaningful relationships, the more likely you are to not only succeed, but be more satisfied with your career.
Secondly, there are two types of business relationships: professional and personal. Professional relationships are solely for the purpose of getting your work done. They help you advance in your career and they wouldn’t exist if not for your business. Personal relationships at work are those that you have in the workplace for social reasons. They don’t affect your work other than improving workplace satisfaction (by up to 96 percent!) and keeping you sane.
These categories of working relationships are not mutually exclusive—some people will fall into both professional and personal categories. And these are the really important relationships that make the workplace fun and productive.
With that understanding, let’s identify the seven types of business relationships (in order of relationship, from lowest to highest):
colleagues
Type: none
Description: Relationships with co-workers are neither professional nor personal, but merely situational. They are acquaintances through your company, but besides working in the same organization, you have very little interaction with them.
Role: Co-workers serve little professional or personal role, but they serve a valuable role in that they are often the group of people with whom other, more meaningful relationships will be built.
Team members
Type: Professional
Description: Team members are fellow employees who work on the same team as you. This could be the team you work with on a daily basis, a committee you’re on, or a group that you work together on one activity.
The Role: Team members are important because they are the people you actually get the work done with. Together, you plan, design, develop, implement and track work related to your role. The better your relationship with your team, the easier it will be to get this work done.
workmates
Genre: Character
Description: Work friends are people you socialize with at work – you sit with them in meetings, go to lunch together, talk to them at work events and off hours, and maybe even see them outside of work now and then.
The role: Work friends fill our social needs and keep us sanity from the daily hassles of life. You probably wouldn’t make friends with them if you didn’t have a mutual business with them in the same company, but they act as a support system within hours.
t work.
Director/reporting staff
Type: Professional
Description: Your manager is the person who defines your work tasks for you, helps you succeed and ultimately influences the work you do. Reporting staff are the people who report to you (you are their manager). They also determine whether or not you will succeed.
Role: The relationship between you and your manager is important because they play a role in determining your evaluation, salary, and work plan. It’s also a big factor in workplace satisfaction (as they say, you don’t leave a company, you leave your boss). For reporting staff, you serve these functions, while serving as a way to do more with your organization without doing all the work.
Close co-workers
Genre: Character
Description: A co-worker is someone you spend a lot of time with. He is a means of catharsis and advice, and there may have been rumors of their close relationship (though platonic).
The Role: A co-worker’s role is to be your “workplace buddy” or good friend to talk to when you have a deadlock at work. They keep you from jumping off a cliff, and they are the person you trust to share your feelings and frustrations with.
Coach (mentor)/trainee
Type: Professional
Description: The relationship between a coach (mentor) and a trainee is the highest professional relationship you can have. These are similar in relationship to a close relationship with a co-worker, but they serve you professionally. Your coach or mentor is the person you go to for career guidance and help you solve difficult problems. The apprentice is the person who comes to you for this advice.
The role: A coach or counselor helps you navigate the landscape of your job. It helps you think through your most difficult issues, gives you insight into how to handle your most challenging relationships, and generally guides you to success. And while they serve the same purpose for your intern, they also keep you connected to the pulse of the organization.
life friends
Genre: Character
Description: The most intimate business relationship you can have is one that is not just at work but with a friend in real life. Meaning that they will be your friends even if you no longer work for the company.
Role: These are friends who fill the same role as your normal social friends, because that’s who they are. You have fun together, you laugh together, you cry together, and maybe you get into a romantic relationship together. They are not friends you know at work, but friends you are happy to work with.
7 types of business relationships
Obviously, the real world is not as structured as shown by these distinctions in relationships. Some people fall into multiple categories (manager, mentor, or advisor) and others blur the lines between two or three of them. However, understanding the basic types of business relationships can help you determine the purpose of the relationship and how to make the best use of it to help you succeed, not only in work, but in life.
Examples of self-managed work teams
A self-managed workforce is a group of workers hired to perform a specific job for a company. Instead of workers connected to perform separate tasks, a self-managed work team performs a specific set of interrelated tasks and has the autonomy to make the most important decisions about the business. Companies use self-managed teams to improve productivity, quality, and cost management. Examples of self-managed work teams are found in many workgroups and collaborative teams.
Self-managed work teams
Self-managed teams work to achieve goals set by an employee outside the team. The self-directed team sets its own goals. Although the self-managed business team is independent, the team members are interdependent. The team is self-organised, operating with few external controls. Team members determine schedules, procedures, and the need for adjustments. Self-managed work teams are used in various business environments, including manufacturing industries, industrial services, professional services, and virtual environments. Effective self-management team models are appropriate for the type of work performed, the work environment, and the work structure.
ideal
The ideal self-managed work team includes trained workers who have a variety of job skills related to their assigned tasks, according to a paper presented by the Center for Effective Organizations at USC. Team members view tasks as a whole, perform work important to the business, are involved in all aspects of the work from start to finish, receive regular feedback on team performance and can see the results of their work. Team members accept their collective responsibility for the work and share similar beliefs, such as loyalty to the company. A team has the fewest number of members necessary for effective performance and experiences little turnover in team members.
Limited supervision
The extreme self-managed team model, as described by James Heskett of Harvard Business School, operates under the supervision of floating supervisors. The model allows workers to take on the usual responsibilities but also allows them to hire and supervise team members. Companies provide teams with technology for training and for tasks such as inventory, accounting, and human resources. Workers were paid above average salaries and received cash performance incentives.
Troubleshooting or temporary
Some self-managed task forces are formed to solve specific problems or to complete special projects or other tasks of limited duration. Temporary self-managed teams have many of the usual characteristics. However, unlike permanent teams whose work continues, temporary teams have the added pressure of deadlines and a more nuanced description of success. Temporary teams may not use some self-management behavior, such as cross-training, because the end result, not the process, is the most, uha hundred. Team members may represent each area of work required to complete the assignment, as the proposal writing team consists of program directors, financial staff, and a grant writer.
