Navigating the Way Forward Amidst the Differences: Secrets to Maintaining a Friendly Working Relationship

It is a well-known perspective that most of the employees would wish to perform well by delivering their tasks beyond what is expected from them. As much as possible when working without conflicts with their colleagues, be avoided especially with their immediate supervisors. Given this kind of working attitude and having the said perspective achieved, a healthy and productive organization is established, leading not just to a successful organization but to a lifelong success.

Guided by common principles and underlying personal working experiences, this article aims to impart relevant ways to maintaining a friendly and process working relationship:

  1. Developing people skills would mean developing interpersonal communication skills. As part of an organization, an employee should learn how to work in a group through effective communication. Communication, as a process of exchanging ideas, is vital in doing and fulfilling a collaborative task. Sharing and exchanging of ideas among others in one’s organization would lead to accomplishing the task easily and would surprisingly establish healthy working relationship among others.
  2. Identifying relationship needs, on the other hand, allows an employee to seek answer on the question, “What do other employees need from me and what do I need from them?” The answer to this question would imply that being part of the organization requires an employee to see what he or she could contribute to help his or her colleagues according to their needs and how his or her colleagues would extend their support to let him or her meet his or her needs, may it be personal or work-related. When these needs are understood and satisfied, achievement of a friendly and process working relationship is possible.
  3. Focusing on emotional intelligence. This is a challenging way to achieve a healthy working relationship especially when working in an organization. An employee is encouraged to be open to criticism, accepting and understanding how other employees would feel about him or her and would try addressing it, not to satisfy them, but to correct what is left uncorrected. Since working in an organization means working with people with diverse personalities and opinions, it is expected that there will be members who appear to be self-centered and apathetic. These employees are individuals who choose not to care about their colleagues, seeing themselves as the master of their lives. One’s opinion does not matter to them and would not stand corrected. They are also the kind of people who cannot handle their emotions that sometimes would bring them to insecurity, anxiety, and depression.
  4. Appreciating others. Appreciating one’s contributions and simple achievements fosters greater work relationships. It is assumed that every worker, when achieving something, whether great or small, expects genuine compliments and appreciation. When someone feels that his or her work is appreciated, it opens opportunity to enjoying and loving his or her job, and the more he or she becomes motivated to keep going. This is also similar with giving due recognitions on their achievements. Employees who are not given due recognitions sometimes loses their interest in doing their job.
  5. Being positive. If an employee wanted to earn positive results in everything that he or she does in the workplace, he or she must do it all with positivity. There is no greater success earned when done positively. Being positive, in this sense, would also mean being prepared to face both failure and success. Whatever tribulation that an employee may be in, positivity shall radiate in him or her, to influence others that no matter how hard life is, success is earned when everything is carried out with great optimism.
  6. Avoiding gossips. It is understood that avoiding gossips means avoiding conflict and division. One must note that gossiping flares out conflict and intensifies misunderstandings, and eventually loses someone’s confidence for others. Friendly working relationship is impossible to maintain when gossiping in the workplace is not avoided. However, since gossiping is sometimes or maybe most of the time could not be avoided, a person should at least learn to impart positive attributes of the concerned colleague. When talking about such colleague, one must at least try to edify him or her with these attributes and minimize, or better yet, avoid discriminatory and offensive remarks.
  7. Listening actively. This fosters trust and confidence with one another. An employee finds it easy to trust people who are active listeners compared to those who talk too much and those who would sometimes monopolize the conversation. If he or she sees that everybody listens actively, he or she would feel that he or she does matter to them.

As a conclusion, maintaining a friendly working relationship is possible. However, everyone should not limit themselves with the said principles and may choose their own options. One that matters most in maintaining a friendly working relationship that will strengthen their organization to better serve its purpose and visions.

DON A. DEXIMO
Administrative Assistant III