There’s a good chance you spend more time with co-workers than almost any other person in your life. Thus, you must work as a team and cultivate strong relationships. After all, your team can make the difference between success and failure on a project.
Strategies such as building a solid rapport with your co-workers, understanding their personalities, and remaining respectful of their preferences can help you form meaningful relationships.
It is also important to remember that your coworkers’ strengths and weaknesses can make for productive or unproductive teams. The bottom line is team members that work harmoniously together reap greater success. And that can only work if everybody on the team knows their role and voice on the team.
So how can you get along with your coworkers? These tips can help:
- Cultivate and maintain respect for your colleagues. Respect is a mutual exchange that, once established, grows over time and is seldom lost.
– It would be best if you strived to express respect to others, including your co-workers, by acknowledging their hard work, positive contributions, and unique contributions. They are more likely to respect you in return when you do this.
– Respect can be challenging to cultivate, but it can pay great dividends.
– You can show respect in many ways: For example, avoid the temptation to take another person’s food from the refrigerator.
– When you’re sick, ask someone to cover your shift so you can go home to recuperate. Don’t stay behind and expose everyone to the risk of catching your illness.
– Finally, don’t take credit for work you did not do. That’s a surefire way to guarantee animosity between you and your colleagues.
– And be observant. If someone goes out of their way to tell you something that annoys them, avoid doing that behavior. - Keep things professional. Even though some people say, “It’s not personal, it’s business,” many find themselves mixing their personal lives with work. It’s natural. After all, humans are social creatures and like to talk about themselves.
– Unfortunately, mixing business with personal life can cause rifts between coworkers if not kept in check. Keeping your personal life out of the workplace is suitable for everyone.
– On top of personal information, it’s a good idea to keep topics like politics, religion, and other controversial matters out of the workplace. The workplace should be a place to promote friendship, cooperation, and camaraderie, not drive everyone apart.
– That does not mean all forms of communication and information are harmful. A few details about your weekend and your hobbies are fine, but talking about your personal life all the time will make it difficult for coworkers to feel comfortable around you. - Build relationships from day one. If you do your best to make a good impression from day one, you’ll have more leeway and a better relationship with your colleagues. Also, if you get to know coworkers, they’ll get to know you, and you’ll be able to talk about hobbies that you have in common.
– When you start a new role, don’t just focus on studying the ins and outs of the position. Take some time to meet your colleagues, build friendships, and get to know them. The initial impression can give you a leg up on building a working relationship.
When looking for ways to get along with people at your workplace, it’s also good to practice good office etiquette. Just as good manners help you with life in general, they are just as important in the workplace.
Office etiquette includes greeting others when you pass them in the hallway or making eye contact when speaking to them, as well as not interrupting others or talking while someone else is talking.
These simple gestures can go a long way in building a positive working relationship!