Not feeling camaraderie, goodwill and teamwork in your office like you used to?

Might be time for a workplace relationship reboot.

Like all interpersonal connections, sustaining healthy relationships in the workplace takes consistent effort. Left unaddressed, small disagreements, miscommunications or slights can do more than just irritate your staff; they can destroy teamwork, corporate culture and trust – and drive great people out the door.

Go on the Offensive!

If you’re seeing unnecessary drama or are sensing that employees are mentally checking out, be proactive and positive. Use these simple tips from our national employment agency to improve relationships in your workplace:

Be Direct (but Kind).

Too often, tension builds because someone wants to avoid having an awkward or unpleasant conversation. But without honest communication, the offending employee may never even know that their behavior is causing issues – and the elephant in the room will only get bigger.

Speaking the truth is the best way to help another person understand and adjust. Before approaching someone:

• Clarify your intention. Think of what you want the positive outcome to be – and use that to guide the conversation.
• Don’t wait. Initiate a conversation as soon after an incident as possible, as long as you’re calm.
• Be discrete. Never bring up a sensitive issue in public.
• Be kind and empathetic. Consider the other person’s feelings when making your case.

Try Role-Playing

If two employees are having trouble getting along, ask each to view the situation from the other’s perspectives by pretending they’ve been asked to resolve the problem. By broadening their perspective and asking for their help in developing solutions, you effectively break the cycle of pettiness and negativity.

Train Your Team in Active Listening

Role-playing is much more effective when participants employ active listening techniques. This key communication skill demonstrates that participants understand, and are concerned about, the other’s point of view. In this earlier post, we review active listening fundamentals and explain how to use the technique to guide difficult conversations at work.

Stop the blame Game

When problems crop up, some people naturally go on the defensive. If this is a pattern in your office, bring up the topic for discussion. Remind employees that pointing fingers fuels drama, and that responsible employees own their mistakes, focus on developing solutions, and try to learn from missteps so that they don’t happen again.

Share Resources

Quite honestly, some people are not great at developing healthy workplace relationships simply because they haven’t been taught how to. One remedy is to give these employees resources they can use to curb negative thinking, communicate in constructive ways, and model positive behaviors.

For example, share and discuss these earlier posts as a team:

Happy People Have These Habits

Effective Ways to Approach Conflict and Difficult Conversations at Work

How to Prevent Negativity from Creeping into Your Corporate Culture

Need More Positive Relationships in Your Workplace?

Hire smarter. Strive to systematically replace toxic employees with more positive high-performers. Look for individuals who communicate directly, respect others and are upbeat even in tough circumstances.

Exact Staff’s recruiting experts are here to source and refer candidates with the personality traits and soft skills to help you build healthy workplace relationships. Contact our national employment agency today to get started.