Every position relies on another in a business. Your relationships at work will help or hinder your progress in the company, help or hinder you in your daily activity, and are a major part in contributing to your overall satisfaction in the workplace and sense of purpose. Who you have relationships with and the quality of those relationships matter. This article will offer suggestions on who you should form relationships with and provide five steps for building better relationships at work.

Beware the company you keep. When building your network, ask yourself and others if you need to, who do you rely on to achieve your commitments, who relies on you to make them, who are the people that you come into daily contact with and who do you need to know for your next career move. These are the people who matter and will help shape your career. 

The bigger and more complex a structure is within an organisation, the more significant the impact good relationships will have on your career. 

 

If you’re a new employee, as one hiring manager of a global bank with a complex matrix structure said to me, “their success will be directly related to their ability in building solid relationships within the bank.” In this case, that meant people outside of the head office in different time zones at various levels with different backgrounds, where English may not be the first language and with people who will have other priorities. 

Follow these steps to build and develop strong relationships with your coworkers:

1. Know your domain.
2. Be present. 
3. Respect the environment and the team
4. Bring your best self to work.
5. Exercise your curiosity and put assumptions to the side

Be the lead knowledge master in your domain. Your goal is to be the go-to person in the products, services, processes or projects that you work in, the impact. 

 

Your name should carry instant authority on the subject. You’ll get there if you can communicate openly and often showcasing your knowledge. How do you know if you’ve achieved this? When you talk, people listen.   

Don’t just show up, be present. It’s only a bit more effort with a disproportionately huge payoff.

 

What does it mean to be present?

Being present is being in the now. Stop the radio going on in your head and focus on whatever the activity is you’re doing now. And as Tony Robbins once said, where focus goes, energy flows. When you’re present, your language and body language sync reacting in the moment with sincerity. 

It’s obvious, focus not only increases your productivity but also your engagement. Be an active participant instead of standing on the sidelines and you’ll gain a greater sense of purpose, improve your memory and happiness in the office.  

Practice being present?

There are a few steps you can take to put this into your everyday life: 

• Turn off your device notifications or put your phone into work mode so you’ll only receive the notifications important to your day. 
• Stop looking at your phone.
• Don’t let your mind wander.

If your mind wanders, depending on your situation, you can engage in the conversation with questions or acknowledgements to bring yourself back into the moment or stop, stretch and breathe, bringing the focus back into what you’re doing and then continue. 

 

Being in the present sounds easy, but in practice can be difficult. Put some discipline into practice. It will become second nature, and the impact will be huge. 

Respect is an ingredient in any great relationship. Bring respect into every new relationship and carry it consistently with you. Make it your asset. 

Respect at work.

• Keep your environment clean and free from clutter. 
• Keep your devices updated and well maintained.
• Be present in every interaction, and when you can’t, provide a time when you can.
• Recognise the strengths and accomplishments of others.
• Value time.
• Delegate meaningful work.
• Keep your commitments
• Set people up for success.
• Celebrate milestones.
• Be inclusive and never exclusive. 
• Above all, seek the truth.

Bring your best self into work every day because being anything else is exhausting. Your best self is you at your core, your values are on display, and you have a true sense of self internally and externally (make sure to subscribe to my blogs to find out more on this subject coming soon). It means following through, underpromising and over-delivering on time, every time. 

Team members tend to experience increased motivation and satisfaction when they know who you are and have trust in what you say. It makes sense

People who understand each other and feel comfortable with one another are more likely to work well together. Productivity will increase. Communication opens up and innovation can begin. Success breeds success. 

This often-overlooked characteristic is undoubtedly an asset in my office and should be in yours too. It’s a competency needed to join fintechs and other businesses where innovation is key, but how is it essential in building better relationships, you may ask? The reasons are numerous, here are two.

1. According to a Harvard business review curiosity encourages group members to put themselves in one another’s shoes and take an interest in one another’s ideas rather than focus only on their perspective. That causes them to work together more effectively and smoothly: Conflicts are less heated, and groups achieve better results.
2. People whose curiosity had been heightened performed better than those without because they shared information more openly and listened more carefully.

Here are some ways to put these into practice. 

Find opportunities to listen to others. Most people will be glad to tell you about their day if you give them a chance. If you listen well and respond appropriately, you can help your coworkers quickly build their trust in you.

Increase your active participation in team meetings finding opportunities to showcase your skills and knowledge.   

Maintain your commitments.If you say you’ll do something, do it. If you discover that you won’t be able to do it later, give them notice and, if needed, provide an alternate solution.  

In conclusion I hope I have been able to show that building better relationships at work is important to your well being and success in a job. If you find any of these steps helpful or have more please comment below.