How to Build Good Working Relationships

Work takes up a big chunk of our lives. Assuming that you work an average of 40 hours per week and that you take four weeks annual leave each year, you will be in work for 1920 hours per year.

For the average working life (aged 18-65), that totals 90,240 hours in your lifetime, and that’s not including overtime, extra hours, or those lunch breaks that you end up working through. It’s estimated that we spend around 15% of our lives in work. So, with such an astonishing amount of time spent with your co-workers, colleagues, and employees, it’s no wonder that it’s so important to build good working relationships.

Here are some quick tips on developing better relationships:

• Build good communications strategies.
• Follow through on whatever you say that you are going to do.
• Be willing to compromise.
• Listen to what others have to say, and don’t be too quick to offer advice.
• Only give advice if it’s requested.
• Respect the people you work with, regardless of your personal feelings for them.
• Try to think about problems through the other person’s perspective, too.
• Be direct and sincere with the things that you say.
• Be clear on your objective and goals. Be honest too.
• If you have concerns with someone, discuss those concerns with that person and no one else, and discuss it in private!
• Use humour only when it is appropriate, and only in good taste.
• Be careful not to get into ‘office politics’ but also, don’t confuse building better relationships with petty politics either.
• Talk! Get to know your co-workers on a personal level. You never know, you might have something in common.
• Be nice! If you can’t say anything nice, it’s probably best not to say anything at all.