reco (our version of a quick tip): Find moments throughout the day where you can chat and learn about your co-worker's hobbies and interests, this will go a long way in building trust.
Fostering relationships at work is crucial not only for professional reasons but also for personal ones. At a minimum, you spend 40 hours of the week in the office (or remotely nowadays) working on projects with co-workers to reach your team and company objectives. And those people that you interact with day-in and day-out have a heavy influence on your success in the workplace and your overall happiness. So how do you build better working relationships with them? Consider the following foundations for any solid relationship and we’ll break down how it ties to the workplace below:
- Trust
- Communication
- Respect
- Empathy
Trust
As obvious as it may sound trust is the root of all strong working relationships and it starts with a fundamental question, do your co-workers trust you to do your job?
It comes down to reliability and consistency. When it’s the final hour and everyone is buckling down on work can they trust you to be there helping bring the project to the finish line? And can they do so time after time? Trust is built through your actions, so if you feel like trust isn’t there then you might need to work on being present when your team needs you the most.
You can ask yourself the following questions to gauge the trust that you’ve built over time:
- “Have I been asked to be present the last few times our project was completed and handed off?”
- “How timely have I been with my deliverables for the last 3 months? 6 months? 12 months?”
Whether you want to use these questions in a self-reflective manner or asks your co-workers for feedback, either is fine so long as you’re taking time to evaluate.
Communication
Trust tends to break down as communication breaks down. It’s a staple for success in any role and often overlooked when it comes to building better working relationships with your colleagues. There are several ways to communicate in the workplace, such as:
- PowerPoint
- Chat
But along with how you communicate, there’s the more important question of when to use what. For project management needs you should consider the following uses for each form:
- PowerPoint — you’re trying to tell a story or give more of an overview for a project and the different components to it, but to create a better relationship always be sure to frame these to include WIIFT (what’s in it for them).
- Email — you’re summarizing a meeting or documenting a specific request, but it’s always okay to include some personality or reference from the meeting after all it’s still a co-worker reading the email on the other side of their screen.
- Chat — you’re looking to get some info quick, but don’t think that it’s okay to treat chat as a beeper and only there for requests be sure to find time to connect with your work associates and learn about their hobbies, family life, and anything else they might choose to share.
Ultimately, you want to make sure that you’re able to weave in getting the work done while also getting to know each other more.
Respect
There are so many different types of work environments in the world, but if you were to poll everyone and ask “how do you wish to be treated at work?” it's almost a guarantee that everyone would say they wish to be treated with respect.
And although the old adage goes “respect is earned, not given” you would be surprised how many doors open up when respect is given right from the onset and you assume positive intentions in all your co-worker’s actions. Keep in mind that you’re all working towards a common goal of helping build value within the company any way you can, so showing respect to all people is just a way to create more frictionless interactions in getting the job done.
There are several ways both big and small to show those you work with that you respect them, try some of the following:
- Highlighting project contributions in emails, PowerPoints, and on other company channels
- Collaborating on leadership presentations and sharing speaking points
- Asking for advice when stuck on a problem
- Don’t show up late to meetings
Empathy
We all have good days and we all have bad days. Tackling those bad days alone is never fun, so being an empathetic team member is crucial to building a stronger bond with your workplace peers.
Typically as a team, you’ll know when things aren’t going well and that’s when it’s easier to schedule “wellbeing checks”. Throw some time on the calendar to see how everyone is doing, if you think there are people under more pressure than others, then schedule time with them individually to make sure they can share how they’re feeling. It’s a lot tougher when there are things happening behind the scenes that could be affecting your co-workers.
Being empathetic will require that you pay more attention to your co-worker's normal demeanor, so you can step in when things seem off? Try asking yourself the following when you think something is wrong:
- What is my co-worker feeling?
- Have I ever felt this way?
- How would I want to be treated if I felt this way?
Try to find time to connect with them and learn more about what they’re going through, you’ll find that more often then not they’ll at the very least appreciate the consideration.
Check out the resources below for building stronger working relationships:
- Article — How to Be More Empathetic (NYT)
- Article — 6 Qualities That Make a Great Team Player (Indeed)
- Video — The Power of Vulnerability (TED)
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