Good relationships with your colleagues, managers, and team members are essential to make the time in your workplace successful. However, you must learn to differentiate your working relationships from the more personal ones. While personal relationships are about sharing emotions, relationships with coworkers are about productivity and supporting each other. To build stronger relationships with your team, you must learn how to be an active listener. You should also set clear boundaries and learn more about your company guidelines. Here are more tips to help you build strong relationships in teams and communicate with your colleagues more effectively.
Learn How To Be An Active Listener
To make the most out of the conversations at your workplace, you should learn how to be an active listener. In short, active listening is all about showing the other person you are listening to them. Keep eye contact, make use of non-verbal communication and be empathetic. If you truly focus on what your colleagues tell you, you will have an easier time engaging in the conversation and reacting appropriately. You will also be able to build a better reputation within your team. Your colleagues will be more likely to come to you when they need to discuss something, and you will become an even more valuable team member.
Put Clear Boundaries In Place
While team members need to socialize, you must also learn to set clear boundaries. Even though talking with your colleagues is essential, you also need to concentrate on your work. Therefore, you need to communicate your boundaries with others clearly. Tell them when you need to focus and when would be a better time to discuss the issue. To make it easier for you to focus, adopt techniques to help you plan your day and increase your productivity. For instance, time blocking will help you record the exact time you plan on a particular task. Then, you will always know what to do next and have more motivation in the form of small deadlines.
Bring In Some Humor
Of course, communication with your colleagues and team members should be on a professional level. However, to ensure that the team members have an easier time working together, you should also bring in some humor. If you decide to include humor in a conversation, make sure that you will not offend anyone. You should also wish your colleagues happy holidays and acknowledge any other days that might be important to them. Greenvelope and their blog Stationers can help you to choose the right funny holiday cards for your team members. You will be able to show others that you care about them and spread a bit of cheer at the same time.
Do Not Take Part In Gossip
Gossip can be highly damaging to any relationship. In the workplace, talking about others behind their back can build mistrust and make it harder for the team to come together and get on well. If you notice that your coworkers gossip about others, do not take part in the conversation. In case you do, try to push the talk in a different direction. And if you find yourself having a problem with one of your colleagues, try to bring it up politely to the particular person. With direct conversation and clear communication, you will be able to build a culture of trust.
Meet Your Obligations And Be Trustworthy
To build successful and effective communication with your team members, you need to be trustworthy. When you agree to do something for your colleagues or help them out, you should ensure that you deliver on your promises. To build up your trustworthiness even further, you should offer your team members help and be interested in their progress. However, it is essential that you do so consistently. When you and your team can trust each other, you will be able to communicate better and, as a result, make your collaboration way more productive and effective.
Ask For Help When You Need It
Communicating often can help your team to deliver high-quality work and improve the results of your efforts. Tell other team members how you are progressing with your task and find out how they are doing. However, there might be times when you are struggling to finish your task on time or need advice. In order to build trust within the team, you should ask for help when you need it. If you suffer in silence, the whole team will suffer, and the final result of your work might not be satisfactory. When you admit that you need help with something, it will make others believe that you care about the result of your team’s work and support you.
Show Appreciation To Your Team Members
Communication with your colleagues should be professional. However, you should never forget to be kind. When a team member helps you to finish a task on time or gives you advice, you should always thank them for what they did. If a coworker does good work on a task, acknowledge it and congratulate them on the job well done. If a team member tells you about something that has been bothering them, follow up on the conversation a few days later and ask how they are doing. And if you only want to make a day at work more pleasant for your team, bring in some of the cookies you baked last night or pick up some treats from your favorite bakery. A little bit of kindness can go a long way, and it can make your team much stronger.
Try Your Best To Stay Positive
It can be very easy to see things from a negative perspective in today’s world. To make your team more productive and motivated, you should try to look for the positive things in everything you do. If you are worried about a deadline or a difficult task, try not to express your worry or any negative thoughts you might have. Instead, do your best to stay positive. In the end, it will help you and your coworkers to stay motivated and keep working hard. With all the dedication, you will be able to deliver excellent results to your clients and ensure that your company stays in a good position.