Working well with others is essential in today's workplace. Employers who cannot enhance interpersonal relationships in the workplace may find it challenging to effectively complete complex projects on time and to everyone's satisfaction. Interpersonal skills among employees are critical to the success of any business. Positive interpersonal relationships also contribute to developing a distinctive corporate culture, and improve your company's bottom line.
One thing you need to do as an employer is create a workplace where all are encouraged to contribute. You can invite your employees to participate in meetings and brainstorming sessions on how to improve the company's operations. This will bring about a feeling of inclusion and spur them to have a better working relationships. As an employer, you have the responsibility to harness the creativity of your employees, and you can achieve this by fostering a positive work environment. Instilling a sense of "psychological safety" in meetings and throughout the organization requires a strong commitment by leadership to be open to all ideas and feedback from staff members, an attitude of welcoming and valuing such participation. This generates great new ideas and improvements of old ones, and encourages all staff members to feel that they are respected and valued members of the organizational team.
Organizing team-building activities and exercises is one key to promoting interpersonal relationships in the workplace. You can incorporate a brief team-building activity into a weekly meeting, for example. Team-building activities can involve group discussions or ice-breaking activities to tackle a current or impending issue in the workplace. Participants in a successful team-building exercise will better understand their coworkers' thinking processes, communication methods, and how their unique personalities affect their work habits. Further, questionnaires can be used to gauge how well group members are communicating after completing a problem-solving exercise.
Creating a conflict resolution "atmosphere" with specific strategies to enable your employees to resolve issues and agree on plans amicably can also improve interpersonal relationships in the workplace. It's impossible to prevent conflicts at work, but it's possible to rapidly resolve them with an effective strategy in place, and a culture that supports and encourages safe and open discussion among staff members, regardless of hierarchical status. These strategies involve educating members on self-assessment tools to evaluate their issues and the solutions available, and on how to fuse their opinions with the opinions of other employees to reach consensus and/or agreement on a decision.
Active listening is another key part of improving interpersonal communication skills. Listening to employees' complaints or suggestions without interrupting them or suggesting your own answers shows you care about their opinions and encourages them to communicate more. When listening to coworkers, you can visualize what the speaker is trying to communicate and signify that you understand them. Sometimes they just need to air their opinions to a listening ear to feel comfortable in the workplace.
Positive body language is important for workplace relationships. As an employer, it is important to remember that the smallest things you can do to make the working environment more pleasant are important. These things include acting kindly toward all and behaving respectfully and professionally. They can influence the view your employees have about you and the workplace, and will reflect the effort and energy you want your employees to emulate.
Proper and effective feedback and criticism can promote interpersonal relationships in the workplace. As an employer, you should know how to effectively relay criticism and feedback to your employees. It is hard to advance in the workplace without feedback and criticism. They are mechanisms to rejuvenate employees and set them on the right track. However, there is a fine line between the two mechanisms, and the latter can potentially turn negative. As an employer, you need to understand the fundamental difference between feedback and constructive criticism, and know how to effectively provide both to your employees.
How can you, as an employer, leader, and/or manager best develop and employ these interpersonal skills (aka aspects of "emotional intelligence") on a day to day basis? Working with a professional coach who specializes in these so-called "soft skills" is the best way to continually work to improve your own success in these areas. This is a process, and there are inevitably situations that emerge in the workplace and in running a business that will prove challenging. Your own professional leadership coach, with whom you develop a very strong trusting relationship, is ideally trained and skilled in helping you become the best leader you can be, and can help you lead the way to creating a "coaching culture" built upon excellent interpersonal relationships, in your organization. And this absolutely impacts your organizational success (profitability, talent retention, innovation, resiliency, customer service, etc.) in a myriad of ways.
