Tweet

Developing Strong Relationships on the Job

Written by: Todd Linaman

Article Overview: Finding the right position is only one piece of the puzzle that leads to job satisfaction. Have you ever heard someone say, "I’d like my work if it weren’t for the people I work with"? One of the greatest challenges in the workplace is getting along with other people. It hardly matters if someone is the best and brightest at what he does if he creates dissension in the office. Regardless of whether we’re hired to lead or be led, it is the ability to establish functional and healthy workplace relationships that can make or break our success and job satisfaction.

Developing Strong Relationships on the Job

Finding the right position is only one piece of the puzzle that leads to job satisfaction. Have you ever heard someone say, "I’d like my work if it weren’t for the people I work with"? One of the greatest challenges in the workplace is getting along with other people. It hardly matters if someone is the best and brightest at what he does if he creates dissension in the office. Regardless of whether we’re hired to lead or be led, it is the ability to establish functional and healthy workplace relationships that can make or break our success and job satisfaction.

Supervisors have a particular responsibility to create a satisfying and productive atmosphere that encourages others to reach their full potential. To inspire confidence and loyalty from others, a supervisor must lead by example. If he values punctuality, he should be punctual. If he insists on respectful behavior, he should demonstrate it in his treatment of others. If he wants to create a spirit of teamwork, he should do his best to keep workers informed of developments that could affect their departments. In other words, a supervisor should practice the Golden Rule in order to create an environment where he himself would want to work.

Relationships among peers can be some of the most competitive and challenging in the workplace. Balance and discretion should be exercised in these associations. Some individuals feel that the only important relationships are with their supervisors. This attitude overlooks both the importance of teamwork and the obvious benefit of building friendships, which in some cases last a lifetime. Peers can constitute a valuable network of shared information and can generate an atmosphere of cooperation. When we build goodwill among our coworkers, we contribute to our own feelings of well-being on the job and the well-being of our coworkers as well.

Peers often work in close proximity, so respecting the privacy of others is essential to good working relationships. The primary offender of this unwritten rule is gossip. It has been said that gossips make mountains out of molehills by adding more dirt. Nothing more thoroughly undermines productivity and moral. "A gossip betrays a confidence; avoid a man who talks too much." (King Solomon). Good advice. No one is safe from a chronic gossip, and nothing reveals a person’s character more completely than what he or she says.

When virtually every personality type is thrown together to accomplish a common goal, conflicts are inevitable. But when we are mindful of our own behavior and determined to give an honest day’s work for pay, we have already greatly minimized our chances for conflict. It’s hard to find fault with this kind of work ethic. If conflicts do arise, they should be handled carefully. Dealing with a conflict quickly at its source is usually the wisest approach. If handled one-on-one it’s far less disruptive to the workplace. Confronting interpersonal problems without becoming defensive can really put us to the test. It helps to remember that people generally defend their weaknesses, not their strengths.

Related Articles
  Marketing - Organizational and Employee
  Some are naturals, but everyone can get better
  Key Management Development Secrets - Responding To Differences
  Effective Workplace Relationships - How Much Do You Want It?
  Limit Your Connections To Grow Your Network

Article Tags: building friendships, close proximity, coworkers, discretion, dissension, feelings, golden rule, goodwill, importance of teamwork, job satisfaction, loyalty, peers, piece of the puzzle, productive atmosphere, punctuality, respectful behavior, right position, supervisor, working relationships, workplace relationships



Related Forum Posts
Re: This ones a winner - Dear Sboggs Congratulations on your networking idea. The guys that want $20K might be trying to bleed you or perhaps their approach is just to complex and expensive. I'm a hardware guy so I can't help with your issue. Have you studied networking and programming? You might be able to make your idea fly with some training. You can buy a website and have it online in 20 minutes. Developing a web site that generates traffic requires some work.
Re: How do u optimize a Blogger blog? - Hi GT, Of course there is a way and you know it, you wrote it down in your question. 1- Optimize your main blog code : Meta keywords, title, description. 2- Optimize your post - look at it as a web page. You need keywords (tags), use them in your title, first and last paragraph, and variations on the entire blog. Use the Strong tag, add title to links and alt to images. This is it. The key here is to do a good keyword search before writing.
Choose 'stability' in a franchise - Tapping into current 'trendy' franchises can be risky business - You may find yourself stuck with a longer term 10yr contract. What happens when the trend fizzles? Your investment disappears... There are a whole host of factors to consider when entering into the arena of franchising. A few items on the check list that should steer you into safer waters... away from the predators... are listed here. 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management There are other measurements that need to be considered like - identifying accurate store profits. There are short-lists of franchises that meet these criteria. That's for another thread...
niche forum categories - I think Kevin just touched on the point that I was going make... and that is developing 'categories' that stick. Sales and Marketing may be too broad for example. However I can almost guarantee you that you would see many more sign-ups if you tailored a category to 'internet marketing' for newbies. I've seen this work on other forums, however, [i:1i903wkn]it can get a little frantic[/i:1i903wkn]... Fine tuning the categories, or expanding the scope should be effective. I think a lot of IM folks are surfing right on by because they're not finding what they're looking for here... Just a few thoughts: Better Blogging Developing Info Products Internet Marketing Presentation Skills More How to's Another point is... a lot of people don't know that they can benefit from participating in forums. The signature links to their site - if they have one - can / should be motivation enough to get more involved. The more internet savvy members that have signatures seem to stick around more... Don't you think?
Re: Choose 'stability' in a franchise - [quote="RussellWebb":2gm9ygof]Tapping into current 'trendy' franchises can be risky business - You may find yourself stuck with a longer term 10yr contract. What happens when the trend fizzles? Your investment disappears... There are a whole host of factors to consider when entering into the arena of franchising. A few items on the check list that should steer you into safer waters... away from the predators... are listed here. 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management There are other measurements that need to be considered like - identifying accurate store profits. There are short-lists of franchises that meet these criteria. That's for another thread...[/quote:2gm9ygof] Hi Russell, Looking forward to seeing this short-list!


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.

Tweet

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

Leading with Discernment

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

A Guide to Franchise Financing

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.