How to balance work relationships

Jenny Rossiter explains how you can balance integrity and professionalism in your work relationships

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Feel Good Leadership

As we ease our way out of remote working, we’re all trying to navigate our way back into the workplace, and we’re sitting on a massive amount of uncertainty. Managing our relationships is probably the most important thing we could do; however, this often gets put ‘on the back burner’ in favour of concentrating on tasks. 

What can we do to improve our relationships at work?

Prioritise the relationship over the task

Develop relationship skills and understand their importance. I’ve been teaching and measuring the skills of emotional intelligence for over 10 years – and emotional intelligence can be learnt. A whole host of skills such as empathy, listening, influencing, inspiring others, coaching, asking questions, taking time to listen and being honest are vital to success in leadership. Living with integrity, and genuinely caring about the people in your team, will make all the difference to your leadership relationships.

Taking accountability for your own behaviour

Accountability involves saying sorry when you make a mistake, asking for feedback about how you are in your relationships and asking what you need to do to improve a relationship. Sounds simple? Probably not, and it can be hard to take that first step.

Practice and implement

Once you understand what you need to learn to do differently in order to improve, you need to practice. Practice with your team, your boss, your peers and even your relationships with your family and friends. Practise makes perfect.

Manage your stress

Stress is a silent killer and it massively affects our behaviour. When we’re in a ‘fight or flight’ state, our behaviour is affected negatively. Managing our stress. and making that the absolute number one priority, will reap benefits. When we manage our stress, we won’t be displaying stress-induced behaviours such as anger, irritability, impatience and even unkindness.

There’s nothing more important than healthy meaningful relationships to enable us to perform at our best as individuals, as team members, and in all our professional and personal relationships. 

It’s the relationships we have that make or break us, so if you do anything at all, prioritise the ones that are most important to you. Those you cannot fix, walk away from with grace and respect.