The Importance of Relationships

Wrote my first Linkedin Article about the importance of relationships at work.

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They say no man is an island. Relationships are such an integral part of our lives and linked to every aspect of our lives. In psychology, it is discovered that our relationship with our father has an impact on our career and financial well-being and our relationship with our mother has an impact on our relationship with our spouses or partners.

Since we spend a third of our day at work, relationships at work are also very important and can very often impact our efficiency and productivity. It can affect how we feel about ourselves and even how much we enjoy our lives outside of our work.

Why Happy Teams Enjoy More Success

Having strong relationships at work means receiving more support to deliver your desired results in a shorter possible time.

The joy we feel when we work in a closely bonded team can extend and impact all areas of our life a positive, transformative way. At work, excellent relationships keep teams bonded, provide synergy, increase success, improve efficiency and reduce turnovers.

In my experience of working with many bonded teams, the bonds these relationships create often provide a strong foundation for the team to excel and go above and beyond. In challenging times, happy teams huddle even closer together to work through their challenges to create even greater success for the team.

For example, COVID had a huge impact on businesses all over the world. Nevertheless, the Industrial Refrigeration team I am working in managed to turn things around and create exponential growth. This amazing feat won the team the Chairman's Award for FY21 and this would not have been possible if not for the strong relationships built in a team that believed in helping each other as ONE TEAM no matter which region or department they are from.

How To Have Happy Relationships At Work

All relationships take time to nurture and grow. Here are some tips I have discovered on how to create happy relationships at work:

Treat people with kindness and respect. What goes around comes around. When you treat others with kindness and respect, they tend to do the same to you. Respect that people can have different ways of getting things done. Your way may not be the best way and their way may not be any worse off than yours.

Take time to get to know people. Even the most challenging people you meet at work have a positive side to them. When you take the time to get to know people, you be able to discover their positive traits and even enjoy working with them. I had a colleague who liked to question everything I did. Hence, one-on-one discussions with him were always uncomfortable for me. As I got to know him better, I discovered that he had the gift of quickly identifying gaps in things and seeing the solution. Most importantly, he is very much a team player and he was asking questions because he truly cared. After that, I started seeing my sessions with him as a source of valuable feedback and the one-on-one meetings with this comrade became a joy to attend.

Provide value for others. Whenever people come to you for help, do what you can to help them and add value to them. Even if you are not able to help for whatever reason, pointing them to someone who can is also helpful. When you provide value and help other people, they will tend to be helpful when you need their help too.

Listen. You can learn a lot about people and what they value when you listen to them. You also get a sense of their working styles by observing the words they use. When you understand someone and what makes them tick, you can become more effective in the way you engage them. This saves time and makes it a joy for both parties to work together. Also, offering space to listen when people are feeling down can create a sense of closeness and trust within the team. I got closer to some members of my team by just listening to them talk about their problems during lunch.

Put the past behind you. There will be times when you disagree or get into a fight with your teammates. Whenever that happens, remember that this is work and it is nothing personal. Put it behind you once it is resolved. Holding on to grievances makes it difficult for people to work together again. Being willing to leave them behind and move forward to create stronger relationships can eventually turn your biggest enemies into your very best allies. When you have more allies and no enemies, work naturally becomes a joy!

Commit to equality. The best teams understand that everyone in the team is equally important. Committing to equality makes it easy for an employee to communicate upwards or downwards, especially when having difficult conversations. Having the mindset that people are a level above or under you can create distance and hinder transformative communication.

Don't be afraid to speak up. Sometimes when there is friction at work, having the courage to take an emotional risk to speak up can resolve things quickly. I remember being in an uncomfortable situation with a new manager in a different department. I took the courage to speak up and talk things through with him. We resolved it almost instantly and on his last day at work 2 years later, he introduced me to others as his "best buddy".

Have fun together. People form friendships and create close bonds when they have fun together. Some of the best buddies I met at work became close friends simply because they were the people I had the most fun with. The easy friendship we have translates to ease and flow at work. Hence, it is always easy for us to put things together and meet our targets quickly. My team works hard and plays hard. We always make time to have fun together by organizing events like hiking excursions and durian tasting sessions. I believe this is one of the reasons why people are always envious when I tell them I belong to the Industrial Refrigeration team.

Choose Happiness. There may come times in your working life when things are overwhelming, stressful, or frustrating and it may seem like the cause of your misery are the people you work with. Perhaps they made life difficult for you. Perhaps they pushed their jobs to you. Or maybe it is just it is hard to get along due to differences in character. But even in the most difficult times, you can always choose to have a happy day and have happy relationships. The best time to manifest and make a plan for a happy day is just before bedtime or right after waking up. Just take some time to center yourself and repeat to yourself, "I choose to have a happy day today." and if anything happens during the day to make you feel otherwise, recommit to your plan to have a happy day. When you have a plan for a happy day, what other people do just don't affect you very much so it will be easy to keep or create happy relationships at work.

Just be you. When we are self-conscious about ourselves, it can be difficult to make friends and create happy relationships at work. Just remember that you are perfect the way you are and that you make your workplace a happier place simply by bringing in your gifts and being who you are. Leaning in into this attitude allows other people to have a chance to get to know you and enjoy you as a person. This makes working together so much more enjoyable for everyone.

Now that you have learned my secrets, go forth and put them to good use and become the Chief Happiness Officer in your office. Remember, it always starts with us.

Are you going through something similar?

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