Build & Maintain Good Working Relations With Your Co-Workers    

Employers today are seeking individuals with strong skills in building relationships, communicating and working effectively in a team. They know the importance of these abilities and how they play an essential role in the performance of the entire workplace.

When you work in an office you are spending around eight hours a day and at least 40 hours a week with your co-workers. It’s really important that you are able to build and maintain good working relations with the people in your office not only for your own happiness but because most companies are looking for ‘team players’ who work well with others.

Be Approachable To Build Good Working Relations

It sounds obvious, but it’s quite hard to make people like you when you’re not making an effort to be friendly!

When you make eye contact with someone, smile at them. If someone chats to you (and it is an appropriate time), chat back to them. You can’t be too personal in an office, but you can take an interest in who your colleagues are and make an effort to bond.

Be Mindful 

Being mindful means practicing a deeper level of awareness. Pay careful attention to your words and your actions. If you act or speak without thinking, you might be damaging work relationships without even realizing it. Try thinking about your words before you actually say them.

Being mindful will not only help you feel more in control, it will make you look calm and collected to your co-workers.

Effective Communications

Learn who works best through email, phone, instant messaging, or personal visits and try to utilize these preferences when engaging your co-workers. Some people prefer email since they like to keep a written record of their actions or responses to questions (or they may be online late at night getting caught up). Others will value a phone call more since it’s a quicker medium of communication.

Cooperate & Promote

I have seen employees try to get ahead by refusing to co-operate with their co-workers, not doing their share of the work, and then proceeding to bad mouth these co-workers to management and ask for a promotion. Needless to say it did not end well for them.

If you want a promotion, show that you deserve it because you’re good at your job. Trying to make others look bad to make yourself look good isn’t a sign of strength: it’s a sign of weakness.

Be Supportive & Respect Your Co Worker

It’s a good idea to be helpful and if someone wants your help and you are able to assist them then you should. It’s also a good idea to say yes if a manager asks for your help with a task or project that might not be in your job description.

However, there is a difference between being helpful and being patronizing. Don’t force your help on other people, don’t make it seem like you think your co-workers are incompetent and don’t take on more than you can realistically handle.

Don’t Blame Others For Your Errors

You’re human and you are bound to make the odd mistake now and again. When you make a mistake you should try to fix it and, if you can’t, explain what happened to your manager and ask them what you should do. What you should never do is blame someone else for your own mistakes.

Not only is it a really nasty thing to do (how would you feel if someone did that to you?) but it also shows that you are not trustworthy or honest. You can’t expect your colleagues to have your back if you don’t have there’s, and no one is going to care about you if you clearly only care about yourself.

You might think that owning up to your oversights and mistakes is career suicide, but many employees will actually appreciate your honesty and like you better for it.

Be A Decent Human Being

Getting along with your co-workers isn’t that different to getting along with everyone else. When you’re at work you need to be mindful of where you are, but that doesn’t mean you have to turn into an unfriendly robot.

You spend the majority of your working week at work, and you don’t want to spend that time in a negative environment. Be respectful, be friendly, and show that you are a decent human being. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference it can make. Start today and build good working relations with your Co-workers.

Don’t Cross Boundary

The workplace is not the pub, and there are obviously certain topics that are out of bounds. 9 AM in the office is not the place to start lecturing everyone on your political or religious views.

Swearing, x-rated jokes and anything that could be deemed offensive is also not appropriate for the workplace. Keep to safe topics, don’t get into heated debates, and for goodness sake don’t insult anyone. Don’t make things awkward and you’ll go far.

Be On Time        

This can be achieved readily by always fulfilling your responsibilities and delivering on time. Your timely output affects others in the workplace. If unforeseen circumstances prevent you completing a project on time, then communicate this immediately and provide supporting reasons.

Be Reliable

One way to excel at your job is to show others that you are someone they can depend on. There are many ways that you can demonstrate your reliability. It can be as simple as showing up on time every day, or as big as volunteering to lead the team on a new project. Make sure that your co-workers know that they can trust you.

Be More Creative

Having positive work relationships comes with a lot of benefits. One of the most important is that there will be more of a sense of teamwork in your office. This will foster activities such as brainstorming and collaboration. All of this leads to more creativity.

Getting along with your colleagues will help you to feel more comfortable and confident in the workplace. This will make you feel more confident about offering new solutions and innovations.

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