How We Relate Our Colleagues
Our last Refocus event for our Strive community focused on how we relate to eachother in the workplace.
Aime Armstrong has worked in senior roles in the public sector in HR, taught at university and has degrees in law, psychology and HR. She joined us to share her insight into the importance of building and maintaining healthy relationships at work. Most of us spend 8 hours at work a day yet we often disregard relationships at work.
Aime explained that the biggest reason people leave a job is because they don't like their boss. Compassion is a vital component in any relationship - this means treating others how you wish to be treated yourself. It's important to note compassion does not equal soft. We must make tough decisions and have difficult conversations sometimes too but we can do this with compassion.
It was interesting to learn that Aime had experienced that managers tend to become more and more formal when they feel uncomfortable about having a conversation. She recommends to do the opposite - be human. You can set clear boundaries but remain kind and compassionate also.
When having a difficult conversation and you perhaps feel nervous about, for example; asking your boss for something - the best thing you can do is plan ahead. Maybe even write a script or some bullet points. You could even rehearse it with a friend. With anything, it's important we know we can pause at anytime. Sometimes we need to process a response - this is particuarly useful if communication is becoming heated. Remember, you can ask to hold off on a conversation until the next day. Reasonable collegues (anyone actually) should give you this opportunity. Aime reminds us that the main thing is to do the best you can can in a situation and even if something doesn't go to plan, we can learn from it.
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