How to Have a Successful Working Relationship with Your Colleagues

Be it remote work or office work, having a healthy functional relationship with your colleagues is significant for progress in your career. For some, the colleagues may be just a single client, with whom they interact, and for others, it would be many. Nevertheless, learning the skills to have successful relationships with colleagues in the workplace is a must. 

Why are relationship skills with colleagues important?

It is normal to want progress in our profession. We often focus on personal developments like working hard, being quick, creative, efficient, etc., that help us perform better at our job. It is seldom that we include coworkers into this equation of ours. Progressing in your career cannot be done in isolation. A good relationship with colleagues is one of the key aspects of it. Acing this demonstrates your ability to perform well in a group as well as individual setting. This would ideally make you the best/ most wanted candidate for any position. So how to go about it?

Here are the ingredients to successful relationships with colleagues in the workplace.

• Effective communication skills

Be transparent when communicating with your colleagues. This does not mean that you have to be rude or direct. It means creating a space or work culture where you and your colleagues can share opinions, ideas, complaints, questions, and feedback. Share your communication skills with colleagues and encourage them to do the same.

If you are in a managerial position, you have to be honest about your expectations from your colleagues. And do not hesitate to give feedback about your colleague’s work. This would show that you are interested in their performance as well. When higher officials follow this at work, it gives a feeling of vested interest in employees’ growth and development. Which eventually leads to better performance of their teams.

• Be open

At work, communication cannot be one-way. Be prepared to receive comments about yourself too. Do not judge anyone based on first impressions. Have an open mind and hear out your colleague’s thoughts. Be an active listener. Being approachable will make people sort you out more and give you tasks to prove your talent.

This does not mean you take on other people’s work. Be open but set boundaries. Effective 

• Lead by example

Be proactive and trustworthy in your tasks. Before you demand commitment from other colleagues, ensure that you deliver on them first. Meet deadlines and then expect others do the same. Your colleagues need to view you as impartial. Only then can you command or demand your team’s work.

Command respect, do not demand it. Set an example of how to respect your colleagues. They will follow. 

• All work and no play?

Not bonding with your colleagues outside of work will give you a feeling of working in isolation. This will easily lead to irritation when working together on tasks under high pressure. Get to know your colleagues outside of work. This will help in managing conflicts between coworkers. 

Small talk, team outings, and casual hang-out plans once in a while are necessary to bond with your colleagues. This will make you and them view each other as fellow humans rather than colleagues.