Tweet

Effective Workplace Relationships - How Much Do You Want It?

Guest post by: Martin Haworth

Article Overview: Whilst management is all about getting the best from the people in your team, they aren't your only focus. You see, the extent of either success or failure all depends on your personal drive and ambition as well...

Effective Workplace Relationships - How Much Do You Want It?

The key to effective management comes from your personal abilities to make the most of your team members. Whilst this might sound like it's a done deal if you work hard enough and are focused on maxing those people out, there are a number of challenges to get past inside yourself first. Most managers can drive their people's performance well and, depending on how good their relationship is with their people, this capability will dictate the levels of success they achieve, both in the short- and long-term.

There is a bigger challenge that the very best managers are able to evaluate and then overcome. It's about what they are prepared to amend, test and even sacrifice in themselves, in order to develop the most effective value-creating relationships, with all of their people.

Whilst it might sound like this is going to be a tough series of consequences for a manager to change in their behaviors, yet it isn't as hard as it might seem to be at first consideration.

There are five key elements that will be tested for a manager to succeed in developing the relationships they need, to be successful with their team:-

1. Be very interested in others - is most important, because when you show you are really interested in people, it builds rapport, trust and bigger relationships quickly develop

2. Be a lot less interested in themselves - your people love to hear themselves about themselves much more than about you (though they do like it if you open up a bit from time to time)

3. Giving up control - by letting go of some of their personal controls, the best managers enable their people more, which brings them much closer together (and takes the pressure off the manager too!)

4. Spending some time investing - getting to know their team members (almost inside-out!), will be an investment of their precious time that's definitely well worth the effort

5. Actually making the effort - by focusing on and creating the opportunities for interactions, the best managers recognize that this is an area of their management that is worth their fullest attention

Most of this work is defining whether a manager has the strength of character to dig in and do the work they need to. It's both a test of their spirit and energy, as much as helping them find their management path and style.

It's also a good measure whether they are prepared to challenge, assess and adjust their own behaviors, to get what they truly want from the work they do, by effectively and objectively developing the relationships with their people.

Related Articles
  Effective Business Relationships - Just How Valuable Are They?
  Effective Business Relationships - What Are They?
  Building Workplace Relationships Generates Unexpected Positives
  Seeking Win-Win - The Management Goals For Win-Win Relationships
  Why Great Workplace Relationships Are So Valuable
  Is there a "C" in "See"?
  When women leave the workplace
  Relationships: The Key to Organizational Success
  Building Workplace Relationships By Overcoming Prejudices
  Guidelines to Help Busineses Manage Friendships at Work
  Relationship Building Win-Wins - Value-Added For Both Managers And Employees
  Relationship Building Values - Developing The FeelGood Factor
  Sharing Responsibilities in Building Workplace Relationships
  Transitioning New Employees Into the Workplace with Employee Mentoring Programs
  Mentoring in the Workplace Plays a Vital Role in Corporate Training
  Starting Small In Taking Responsibility To Build Relationships
  “Symptoms That Confirm Your Decision To Look For A New Job, From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  3 Ways Around Workplace Roadblocks
  Crossing Boundaries With Mentoring
  Drucker, Culture, and Safety

Article Tags: employee relationships, management development, workplace relationships



Related Forum Posts
Re: Money Does Not Guarantee Happiness - Thanks for singling this point out, Chris. One book that comes to mind that covers it in an overall approach is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. He addresses our inner life and the way it can change our effectiveness home and at work. There are corporations who have taken this model and effectively molded their business around it.
Re: Quote of the Day - ?"Everything happens for a reason and a p - Thanks for the quote and the link. I just watched the Tony Robbins video where he high-5s Al Gore. Good stuff! "Effective leaders have the ability to consistently move themselves and others to action because they understand the "invisible forces" that shape us." Also, "Biography is not destiny... decision is."
Team Building - Effective team building doesn't seem to be something that most business do well. That's sad since it can have such a positive effect on the business and the employees. I totally agree that taking people out for an event and then laying them off the next day wouldn't do anything to make me feel like part of a team. I've also worked with many people who see through the phony attempts at team building. Chris
Join Hand with Developer - If you know about traditional businesses then you will know that they require start up capital for premises/ equipment etc. Web businesses in reality are not that different other than their premises are predominately their website. Effective you have a number of options which in order of up front capital is: 1) Design yourself with the likes of Frontpage or trial of Dreamweaver 2) Off the shelf solution 3) Off the shelf script and/ or purchased template
Workplace Warrior: Insights and advice for winning on the co - Workplace Warrior: Insights and advice for winning on the corporate battlefield Kay Hammer 2000 From the inside jacket: Successful people don't get to the top without struggles. But few are willing to expose the failures and setbacks that have lined their paths through the battle zones of business. Kay Hammer is that rare breed. With startling candor and penetrating intelligence, this "very modern, very American heroine (Forbes) gives a frank and full recounting of her mid-career reinvention, from a linguistics professor alone to the President, CEO, and co-founder of Evolutionary Technologies International... Hammer's new life began with an epiphany - that nothing substantive in her life would change unless she made it happen. There would be no Prince Charming. From that moment on, she began a long, ardous journey to carve for herself in the youthful, male-dominated software industry-a journey which she likens to serving the apprenticeship of a medieval warrior... Her strategies are geared for battles on all fronts: not only for disarming foes, gaining allies, and winning battles in the boardroom, but also for confronting the internal enemies of self-doubt, fear of failure, and unresolved anger.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Designing Employee-Enhancing Training Programs

Work Place Counselling

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.