7 Ways to Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Colleagues

What’s keeping you in your current professional role?

You might cite job satisfaction, that you love the aesthetic industry, selling lasers and skincare or injectables is your passion, regular pay-rises, big commission checks, a healthy relationship with your manager, or decent employee benefits as your principal contributing factors.

While there’s no doubt these things are important, research suggests it is actually workplace friendships that contribute most highly to job satisfaction. One study found that 70% of employees believe having friends at work is the most crucial aspect of a happy working life. Another found that two-thirds of people would be inclined to stay at their company longer if they had more friends. As a sales Rep this is hard to do, especially when you are by yourself most of the time.

Why Do Employees Value Workplace Relationships?

When you focus on the development of meaningful relationships with your colleagues it helps to build trust and acceptance, improves teamwork, and makes open communication easier. Not to mention that having friends at work makes the day-to-day grind a lot more fun.

Employees without friends in the workplace are more likely to experience loneliness and increased stress, which can lead to a drop in productivity, engagement, and quality of work. Despite employees’ need for human connection in the workplace, a Future Workplace and Virgin Pulse study of 2000 people found that 1 in 10 employees have no friends at work and more than 50% have five or less.

Here are seven ways to develop more meaningful relationships with your colleagues.

1. Analyze Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Start by looking in the mirror and asking yourself, when it comes to social interactions in the workplace, are there any areas where I can improve?

Perhaps you need to communicate more clearly, call other reps on the phone for advice, practice active listening, or reconsider how you approach conflict. Think about the positive things you can bring to a workplace relationship. For example, how might your specific skill-set be of use to your teammates?

2. Set Aside Time for Your Colleagues

Friendships, whether professional or personal, don't happen overnight. You might have pressing deadlines, back-to-back meetings, client presentations, zoom meetings and an email inbox that won’t empty itself, but relationships won't form if you fail to make time for your colleagues.

Make it a priority to spend quality time with your colleagues outside of formal meetings. Arrange social events when things return to normal and team-building activities, take lunch or coffee breaks together or even on the phone during Covid-19 and arrange regular one-to-ones.

3. Offer, and Ask for, Help

One of the best things about having friends at work is the ability to lean on someone for help and support. Be approachable and patient with your colleagues and offer help where and when you can. You’ll find this is a great way to establish rapport and trust. Similarly, don’t be afraid to ask questions or seek assistance from your colleagues especially senior sales reps when you need it. Collaborative working is often more efficient and more enjoyable so they’ll likely be happy to help.

4. Be Reliable and Responsive

No-one appreciates a teammate who goes off the grid for hours at a time, ignoring emails and screening phone calls. A big part of becoming a trusted colleague comes down to your reliability. If you’ve made commitments or promises, it’s important to stick to them. Try to provide realistic time scales to avoid disappointing people in your team.

5. Be Mindful of People’s Circumstances

There will always be colleagues with whom you struggle to see eye-to-eye, whether it’s their working style or personal values. Unlike in your private life, you can’t choose your colleagues, and so you have no option but to execute patience and understanding. Try to better appreciate people’s motivations for behaving the way that they do and look to celebrate their contributions and achievements. This will serve to create a much more positive environment and, you never know, you may even grow to like and respect them.

6. Find a Mentor (or Become One!)

Mentor programs are a fantastic way to foster meaningful friendships in the workplace and they needn’t take the form of a manager-employee relationship. Peer-to-peer mentoring and reverse mentoring can be just as helpful and productive. Mentoring provides opportunities to hear about someone else’s experiences, learn new skills, receive career guidance, and be supported through a challenging time.

7. Ask Lots of Questions

The best way to kick start a friendship is by asking questions. Small talk in the workplace needn’t be mind-numbing and awkward but it does take effort and focus.

While it’s not appropriate to delve straight into highly personal discussions, you’d be surprised at the vibrant and exciting conversations that can be had over simple topics like reading or travel, as long as you genuinely listen and truly engage.

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