Nine top tips for working well with colleagues

During your time in the workplace, you’ll encounter many different colleagues, some of whom you’ll find easier to work with than others. Luckily, there are plenty of steps you can take to improve all your interactions in the workplace. “Having good relationships with colleagues really helps your wellbeing, gives you a sense of social connectedness and adds meaning to your work, says Dr Ben Steeden, from the University of the West of England. He shares his nine top tips for improving your working relationships.

Be mindful of meetings

If you’re running a meeting check in with everyone at the beginning and make sure everyone knows each other. These actions are basic but can be easily forgotten. If you’re meeting virtually be mindful of ‘Zoom fatigue’. People can experience this if they’re in back-to-back virtual meetings. In face-to-face meetings it’s much easier to pick up on people’s tone and body language but you have to work harder to spot these cues in virtual gatherings. If you’re planning a virtual meeting, avoid booking yourself and others into back-to-back ones. Whether your meeting is virtual or in-person, book it for an hour max, to keep people’s attention.

Create informal interactions

It’s a good idea to meet informally as a team when you can. This particularly applies to virtual teams. Research suggests it takes longer to build relationships in virtual teams, so create opportunities for informal interactions with your team. You could suggest virtual lunches or quizzes for colleagues to attend. If you’re meeting for an activity, whether virtual or in real life, choose something everyone wants to take part in. These meet ups give you a chance to have informal conversations, to understand each other better and to build relationships.

Bring your best self to work

When I first started in HR you brought your work self to work and anything beyond that – families, hobbies, etc – was kept outside the workplace. That’s shifted a lot and what we’re seeing is younger employees entering the workplace and expecting to bring their whole selves to work. For me, it’s not about bringing your whole self but bringing your best self to work. It’s about communicating professionally with colleagues, but positively and in a way that’s authentic to you.

Create a positive team identity

Social identity theory is an idea that we all hold multiple identities, from our individual identity to group identities. Different behaviours and norms apply according to which group we’re in at the time. In the workplace, team identification can give you a positive sense of self from belonging to that group. Whatever your role at work, you can help create a positive team identity. Encourage your team to understand what makes them special, their purpose and their values.

Invite feedback

Invite colleagues to feedback on your work performance and projects. Ask them questions about your work, listen to their answer, ask questions about their answer and listen again. A lot of the time colleagues share their thoughts as part of a big 360 degrees feedback process. Sometimes this can become a tick box exercise, and everyone focuses on the process rather than the feedback. Instead, build asking for feedback into everyday interactions with colleagues, to improve your own work and show colleagues you value their opinions.

Focus on colleagues’ strengths

We all experience tricky colleagues in the workplace. You don’t need to be best friends with everyone you work with, but you do need to be able to work together well. Treat each other with respect and listen to one another. Even if you find a colleague frustrating you can always find something they’re really good at, which might make you see them in a different light.

Have a healthy approach to challenges

Go into work with an open mind. Recognise that you’ll have challenges every day, whether it’s a mistake you make or an annoying email. If you expect challenges to occur, they’ll be less unsettling.

Always listen to others’ worries…

Listening is one of those things we all think we’re good at but many of us aren’t! We could all benefit from listening to colleagues more and showing that we’re listening. This particularly applies if a colleague is struggling. Often people say they’re fine, but you know they’re not. Speak to them in an appropriate setting and in a sensitive way to see if you can help. Don’t ignore it, have that conversation.

… And share your own too

You’re not superman or superwoman and its good practice to share any worries with colleagues. This is particularly the case in a leadership position, when it can be tempting to communicate with more authority than you feel. It can be helpful to get different perspectives from colleagues, whatever level you’re working at.