We spend eight or more hours with our colleagues each day. It would really help if we have the same vision, know what the goals are, trust each other and possibly like each other. Most business spend a lot of time working on other business relationships, like clients, suppliers and even the competition, but very little time on building their team.
your team – it is bigger than you think
Your team is not just who you work with directly – but the entire organisation. Some of the individuals in your organisation will have a positive impact, others not so much! There are seven core work relationships to understand and work on:
- Team members – these are people you work with on a daily or regular basis. Having good relationships with your teammates makes your work life much better.
- Co-worker – these are acquaintances in your company, but you have little interaction with them.
- Work friends – these are the people you interact with socially. You have lunch with them, sit together in meetings sometimes see each other outside of work. These are the important people that keep us sane and support you during working hours.
- Manager / direct report – This is the person you report to or the people who report to you. The roles here is work being assigned, monitoring and helping you succeed, or you are helping them succeed. This relationship is vital because they paly a huge role in how satisfied you are at work.
- Office spouse or work bestie – this is the person you spend a lot of time with at work and you feel comfortable venting to and sharing your deepest work concerns and even personal issues. They are your go to person in your work environment. Your trust them with your feelings and frustrations and they know you the best out of all your other work relationships.
- Mentor / Mentee – This is a highly professional relationship but also has an intimate nature because this is the person you are trusting to help you develop professionally. They advise and guide you on your path to success. They help you think through challenging issues and come up with good solutions. If you have a mentee, you do they same for them. This relationship is purely professional and what is discussed is all around the organisation and your career development.
- Life friends – These are the people you work with or use to work with that fill a significant role in your life outside of work. They are like you regular social friends. People you laugh with, cry with, have fun with and possibly even become romantically involved with.
Teamwork will include all seven of these people. Actively building good relationships with them will make your work more enjoyable, build your confidence because trust is better, give the team time to focus on opportunities and overall, performing better
work on these five aspects to make your team phenomenal!
- Trust – no relationship works without this fundamental element. Trust allows your team to feel safe and secure, share openly and honestly and be open to feedback
- Respect – this is a no brainer, right? Just be respectful. Stop belittling, stop being mean, stop the passive aggressive responses and defiantly stop the backbiting. Oh, and stop the GOSSIPING! not cool. You don’t have to agree with everything a person says or believes, but you can choose to interact with kindness and respect.
- Be inclusive – making people feel welcome in an environment or conversations goes a long way to building good teamwork.
- Be self-aware – This is the number one emotional intelligence competency. Know yourself, your red flags, your likes and dislikes. Take responsibility for your actions and words. Understand how your contribute or contaminate your team. Choose differently
- COMMUNICATE – probably the one thing, besides trust, that will cause your team to fail. Share information. Create clear concise communication. Check on what your team understands as deliverables. Set realistic deadlines. Give feedback. Talk.
Connection Counts- Get started with building your team
Start building your team relationships today. Taking a day out and going on a team build can do amazing things to get your team connected. It is an opportunity to get to know each other, clarify the team vision and mission and have some fun together. Start connecting. Start putting in the work. Remember why you started. The results are extraordinary when you genuinely connect with people.
TEam build with people dynamics
If you are looking for a dynamic team building offering with impact driven methods, delivering results, contact us right now: 060.656.1305 |info@peopledynamics.co.za. People Dynamics – team building life coaching , training through coaching, candidate selection, bursary management and entrepreneurship support.