We’re living in a day and age of mindfulness. We’re all becoming acutely aware of the impact that our thoughts, words and actions have on ourselves and the people around us. And we’re still learning to be more respectful. Some people are further down the track than others, but there need be no judgement.

The Short Guides team has worked in training and development for decades, and if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that everyone can learn new habits in the workplace. Developing and fostering a respectful atmosphere is a gradual process, and you can start at any time.

When there is respect in the workplace, there is trust and safety. When there is trust and safety, creativity and inspiration have the space to grow. This leads to increased productivity, more creative and inspired work, happier staff and clients, and ultimately better outcomes for your organisation.

 

Here are 7 ways to develop respectful working relationships.

1. Build trust

Trust builds when people feel at ease and safe with each other. When you’re in a meeting discussing projects and the business, and you’re genuinely engaged in what others have to say, it shows and it builds trust. The way to help yourself be more engaged is to be fully present in the meeting and attentive to what is developing. This will not only build trust with your team members, but it also makes sure you don’t miss anything and that you remain a part of whatever is evolving.

2. Listen with two ears and one mouth

Have you ever noticed that when someone talks at you, you shut down and switch off? The conversation becomes a one-way stream and you’d rather be doing something else. A good habit to develop is to listen twice as much as you speak. You don’t need to have all the answers in any conversation.

Listening with attention and presence will often uncover ideas and solutions that you may not have heard of before, simply because you are not crowding the communication with too much talking and not enough listening. Trust is developed when the conversation between two people flows both ways, unless it’s a therapy session of course!

3. Have empathy

Everyone wants to be listened to when they are speaking. They also want to be understood. It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t understand what the other person might be trying to communicate, what matters more is that you are striving to. This is what it means to have empathy for another in the workplace. You are respecting them enough to care about what they want to get across to you.

4. Don’t gossip

Nothing positive has ever come of gossiping and if you have an issue with someone, do your best to address it with them directly, not with another person. Gossip will undermine any respectful workplace very quickly and erode trust.

5. Work toward positive outcomes

The workplace is always problem solving, finding better and more efficient ways to develop a product or service, reduce operational costs and improve profits. Each meeting that you have in the workplace, directly or indirectly is working toward a common goal. When you have an open attitude of stiving for a positive outcome, even if you don’t arrive at the conclusion in that particular meeting, you’ll have gone one step closer.

6. Be inclusive and accepting

Creating a culture at work that is inclusive and accepting will help your team and co-workers feel at ease. The people around you will be more comfortable to share their ideas and solutions to problems that will move the business forward. When people feel included and accepted, they feel valued and much more likely to contribute more generously to your organisation.

7. Good communication in all forms

Whether the communication is face it face, an online meeting, or via email, keep an open mind and apply all these principals. Each interaction regardless of the medium, is an opportunity to develop a respectful relationship.

Have patience and give yourself and others time to develop more respectful communication and relationships in the workplace. When an organisation wants to improve these types of cultural characteristics, it is always up to a small few who need to take the lead. Will this be you?

 

Nurture your employees for a happier workforce

 

Invest in your people’s personal improvement and foster a more productive workplace with easy access to short courses that are designed to improve soft skills.

Valued employees are happier to lead by example, influencing everyone in their sphere of influence. Our short and easy to access courses will develop your team’s leadership skills so that they supervise and direct each other.

Everyone gets better with Short Guides and you can find a list of our courses here: https://shortguides.com/

 

Try our Creative Thinking https://shortguides.com/ course for free! Or contact us https://shortguides.com/enquire/ to find out how Short Guides can become part of your learning mix.

The key to productivity and teamwork is communication. If you’re in HR, if you’re leading teams or part of a team you’ve probably heard this many times before. Communication isn’t something you learn once, it’s an ongoing development process.

Quality communication is at the core of all human relationships, and in our experience, developing better communication skills where both parties connect is relevant not just for business communications, but in every aspect of life.

When good communication which includes empathy and respect for another is present, people feel at ease and at peace, and they’re able to do their best work. This fosters a sense of safety and trust, empowers people to grow, and they will naturally be more willing to contribute in the best way they can.

On the contrary, if the environment we work or live in has too many unanswered questions, voids that are ignored or communication that just doesn’t hit home, disharmony runs rife, and people shut down.

Here are 5 simple ways to improve your communication style in the workplace that you can begin today.

1. Pick up the phone or arrange a meeting to chat

It’s very easy to avoid difficult conversations by using emails and text to try and solve issues. It’s best not to use communicating in writing as an excuse for avoiding a conversation. Even if it feels uncomfortable, your commitment to solve challenging issues by talking will be appreciated in the long run by your peers, team members and management.

2. Stick to one topic at a time in emails

When writing emails to address something, ideally write on one topic only, especially if it’s an important one. It brings due attention to the topic at hand and compels people to focus on that only.

Also don’t presume the recipient of your emails is a mind reader. Be clear about the subject, respectful in your language and don’t use emotive language. Your emails will be received with more attention and care by the reader. If you are feeling a little emotional about a subject and struggling to get a different perspective, then write the email and place it in your draft folder for a couple of hours, or even overnight. Once you return to it you will see ways to improve the language used to help you get to the heart of the matter in a practical way that will help you achieve the outcome you want.

3. Stay open-minded to the course of a difficult conversation

If a difficult issue needs to be addressed the parties involved need to be open minded and listening to each other to be able to arrive at a solution. This requires being respectful of the other person’s time during the conversation. By allowing a conversation to take its natural course, you may find unexpected solutions you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

4. Remember – two ears one mouth

Listening is the first key to establishing trust and empathy with another person. Listen twice as much as you speak, and you will hear as well as sense the subtle queues that will help you to develop the rapport and ease required in your relationship with that person.

5. Be consistent and transparent in your communication

Daily work life come with normal distractions, and it’s easy to forget consistency and transparency in communication. In the 24×7 connected world we live in today, communication quality is much more obvious. Be consistent in your communication style to help your team feel at ease, and transparent to maintain the trust you have worked hard at developing.

 

Improve your workplace communication with Short Guides

The simple and accessible short courses  https://shortguides.com/  that we offer, such as Active Listening, Writing Emails and Difficult Conversations, will help your people continuously improve their communication style. In our experience, good communication leads to better work productivity, which leads to a higher quality of work and improved wellbeing in the workplace.

 

Short Guides give your people the opportunity to contribute greater value to your organisation and will help them to improve everyday life skills and realise their potential. Our short and easy to access courses will develop your team’s leadership skills so that they can better supervise and direct each other.

These effective guides are an essential training add-on for any enterprise who is committed to the professional and personal development of their people.

Try our Creative Thinking https://shortguides.com/ course for free! Or contact us https://shortguides.com/enquire/ to find out how Short Guides can become part of your learning mix.

Effective and thriving workplaces with high functioning teams will have a blend of individuals who take on the role of mentoring, coaching and influencing.

At Short Guides, https://shortguides.com/ when we talk about influencing, we’re not referring to social media influencers. We’re referring to the people in your workplace who embody and model your company’s values, people who are willing to share knowledge and experience to empower their peers. 

Coaching, mentoring and influencing are all important developmental processes in healthy workplaces, and each one has a distinct benefit. 

 Let’s explore the difference between these three styles of team development.

 

Coaching

A coach is someone who provides guidance in a more formalised manner, to help you to achieve your professional and personal goals. These can be your own goals, or goals that are aligned with the company’s objectives. Coaching helps companies develop their employees’ skills and leadership capabilities to take on more responsibility in the business.

Coaching can also be performance driven, especially when a team member may be struggling to meet company goals. In healthy teams, performance coaching is a constructive and supportive process which facilitates and remediates, delivering positive outcomes for both the coach and the coachee.

In some cases, coaching can also have a negative connotation and a reason to focus on the problem of that individual. We’ve seen coaching used inappropriately, to isolate and bully individuals who are not performing. This only leads to time wasted, unnecessary money spent and disharmony for everyone involved.

In a healthy workplace, coaching is performance driven and encourages people to perform better in their day-to-day roles.

 

Mentoring

A mentor is someone who has the experience and knowledge in the field you wish to grow in. They don’t have a particular outcome related to your work performance, but they have succeeded in the areas you wish to succeed and are willing to share their knowledge to help you achieve your goals.

Their support is offered by providing guidance, leading by example, and pushing you to achieve your goals. A mentor doesn’t give you hands on coaching. They provide advice and guidance based on what they have learned through their own successful careers. They have more experience and understand the challenges involved to grow and develop in order to evolve, so they are able to guide you as they are further along the path to the success you want for yourself. 

 

Influencing

Definition (Cambridge dictionary): “a person or group that has the ability to influence the behaviour or opinions of others”.

Healthy and high functioning teams have influencers in them. These are not necessarily leaders, but people who are an integral part of a team working toward a common goal. They influence through their commitment to their work, their knowledge and experience.

Someone might be an influencer for a period of time, and then change to take the role of an influencee for another project. These roles are not “formal” roles but rather an observation on your part. The purpose of identifying these roles is to understand your team’s dynamics and the different role each person plays. You’ll be better equipped to create highly productive teams with the right blend of skills and personalities.

 

Expand your people’s human and social capital with Short Guides

A healthy and thriving workplace with employees is never static, but constantly evolving. Maintaining a healthy culture requires ongoing development of your staff, which includes the softer skills that underpin good communication.

Short Guides give your people the opportunity to contribute greater value to your organisation and help them improve everyday life skills to realise their potential. Our short and easy to access courses will develop your team’s leadership skills so that they supervise and direct each other.

These effective guides are an essential training add-on for any enterprise who is committed to the professional and personal development of their people.

You can find a list of our courses here: https://shortguides.com/

Try our Creative Thinking https://shortguides.com/ course for free! Or contact us https://shortguides.com/enquire/ to find out how Short Guides can become part of your learning mix.