Positive Workplace Relationship

Introduction

Relationships between team mates and colleagues have a direct effect on the business performance making it a priority for any business to focus on work place relationships at all times. The report shall discuss different approaches and strategies an organisation and its employees can adopt to develop a positive workplace relationship (Tools 2017).

How to Handle Difficult Behaviour in the Workplace

Conflict is a normal and natural occurrence of interacting with one another. The cost of resolving conflict is negligible relative to the cost of leaving conflicts unresolved. Most conflict within and involving people revolve around unfulfilled needs, primarily the psychological need for control, recognition, affection, and respect. These needs are natural and quite human in that we all crave them, but when unacceptable or problematic behaviour has been rewarded in the past in fulfilment of these needs, difficult behaviour motivates the individual. We should try not to reward difficult behaviour or reinforce actions or inactions that manifest it (Belak 2017). There is no magic pill but there is a prescription to change behaviour in others. It takes time and patience to cure such negative characteristics, and it doesn’t help to ignore the problem behaviour or respond likewise or criticize rather than cure or just brand someone as a problem and be the psychiatrist to their craziness. We can work to prevent unproductive and negative behaviour that leads to conflict.

Dealing with Workplace Conflict using Communication

If you reflect back upon conflicts you have encountered over the years, you’ll quickly recognize many of them resulted from a lack of information, poor information, no information, or misinformation. Let’s assume for a moment that you were lucky enough to have received good information, but didn’t know what to do with it…That is still a communication problem, which in turn can lead to conflict. Clear, concise, accurate, and timely communication of information will help to ease both the number and severity of conflicts. Another common mistake made in workplace communications which leads to conflict is letting emotions drive decisions. I have witnessed otherwise savvy executives place the need for emotional superiority ahead of achieving their mission (not that they always understood this at the time). Case in point - have you ever witnessed an employee throw a fit of rage and draw the regrettable line in the sand in the heat of the moment? If you have, what you really watched was a person indulging their emotions rather than protecting their future (Myatt 2012).

For the majority who are networking, face-to-face rather than virtual networking still comes out on top. Even among tech-savvy junior executives, 68% said they prefer to network in person, compared to 36% who network online. In her whitepaper, Hobsbawm says networking in person helps build trust and understanding, and she recommends choosing five contacts to meet for a coffee or lunch every week.

Build Relationships at Work through Networking

However, it's not just about paying lip-service to making connections. For networks to succeed and be effective, we need to be prepared to ask for help and be prepared to return the favour. I have lost count of the coaching conversations I have had with mentees who were concerned about using their networks in this way for fear of becoming a burden. Yet, if the tables were turned, most of us would feel honoured to be approached for help and guidance. It's a great privilege to be able to tap into relationships in this way, and not a sign of weakness which is how it can sometimes be perceived. It is easy to underestimate the value of making connections, but these relationships are vital for the span of your professional career, whatever path you pursue. Networking is not only about securing business opportunities, but should be about inspiring ideas, sharing information and collaborating. Those who master the art will be better placed to succeed (Bingham 2017).

Benefits of Maintaining Internal and External Relationships at the Workplace

The key to a completely social business is integrating both internal and external collaboration strategies into the business plan. Both types of collaboration enable businesses to be more competitive and do things faster and more efficiently. Collaborating externally builds relationships with consumers, increases revenue, decreases research, product development and marketing costs, and improves customer service. Collaborating internally improves the company at its core. It connects people and advocates a sharing culture, thereby increasing team productivity, leveraging specialty knowledge that exists within the company and reducing decision-cycle times (among other things).

Some of the benefits of a completely social business:

• Anyone internally can participate, creating a collective intelligence repository that can be used for external activities.
• Platforms such as Crowdcast can be used for market predictions. The information can be shared to an external community to balance consumer expectations.
• Discussions around ideas, opinions, and strategies can be created and feedback gathered internally and then used externally for marketing campaigns, sales strategies and other customer facing activities.
• External community recommendations and ideas can be shared internally and evaluated for appropriate action.
• Communication between internal and external communities can be facilitated; employees can speak with other employees, customers can speak with other customers, and employees and customers can speak with each other. This breaks down communication barriers and helps both customers and employees take action.
• Valuable connections or relationships can be established internally that can enable new external relationships to be developed.
• Top quality talent is attracted to companies that adopt and embrace new business and technology practices.
• Customers are more likely to support companies that are known to have a caring reputation, and are interested in building long-term relationships with them

We addressed the benefits of implementing an internal and external collaboration independent of each other and working in tandem. For companies to position themselves for success, essential ingredients to being a completely social business are:

Strategy comes first and the tools come second, not the other way around.

• Focus on the business value, opportunity costs and risks. It's crucial for companies to understand the business objectives of creating internal and external collaborative communities.
• Benchmark and set up a solid measurement framework that relates back to business objectives, i.e. increase productivity, increase sales, and/or reduce costs.
• Cultivate and nurture a collaborative culture within the company.
• Understand that this is a long-term process that requires a solid adoption plan. Make collaboration fun and reward participation.
• Develop governance guidelines, and training programs around internal and external collaboration efforts to maintain cooperative rules of engagement.

The advent of internal and external collaboration to build and maximize business value is inevitable.  Learning to see the value in social software platforms and comprehensive strategies will position companies ahead of the competition.  Companies that will take advantage of internal and external collaboration in 2010 and beyond will win (Leggio 2009).

Addressing complaints on religions discrimination

To resolve such conflicts, managers must frame the issues carefully and consider the long-term effects of their decisions. How they act can either improve morale by affirming an inclusive culture or it can suggest that religion is merely tolerated — and possibly invite litigation. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits, among other things, religious discrimination in any facet of employment. Not only must employers not treat workers differently based on their religion, but when a conflict arises between a religious practice and a workplace policy, employers must also try to accommodate the employee.

How to prepare to approach this meeting

religious conflict is caused by a particular approach to religion. this approach causes people to go into the extreme of thinking that it is justified to kill in the name of God. However, this is where we need to be careful not to react with denial or finger pointing and focus on expressing the importance of unity and team building rather than let religious differences take over employee relations.

How to approach networking to achieve goals

To prevent disagreements over religious accommodations boiling over into conflict, companies can take several simple steps:

• Make the equal treatment of all employees regardless of traits like religion a mandate.
• Regularly remind workers of the importance of that tenet and consistently enforce it.
• Review and refine policies for different religious practices, and
• Anticipate staffing needs and factor them into any policy or accommodation discussion in order to identify limits and possible areas of flexibility.

Leading teammates to achieve organisations goals in the next three months

Most great leaders have a passion for building and leading an elite team but leading elite teams takes persistence and a consistent pursuit of personal and professional development. some tips to help lead Sam and Alex to meet their organisations goals include:

• Create an environment of leadership
• Make the team members feel safe
• Actively manage through adaptive change
• Be a servant to your team members who need assistants
• sacrifice for your team and they will sacrifice for you

Conclusion

Building Great Work Relationships required for employees to be happy, enjoy working so as to be Productive. This can be achieved by understanding their own needs and implementing effective Human Resource management approaches which encourage a friendly work place environment. This in turn than encourages increase workplace productivity which contributes towards the organisations envelopment and growth.

References

Belak, T 2017, How To Handle Difficult Behavior In The Workplace, viewed 14 August 2017, <https://www.mediate.com/articles/belak4.cfm>.

Bingham, L 2017, Networking: how to succeed at building professional relationships, viewed 14 August 2017, <https://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/networking-professional-relationship-building-career-success>.

Leggio, J 2009, Importance of external and internal collaboration, viewed 14 August 2017, <https://www.zdnet.com/article/importance-of-external-and-internal-collaboration/>.

Myatt, M 2012, 5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict, viewed 14 August 2017, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-conflict/#5a82c51d1e95>.

Tools, M 2017, Building Great Work Relationships - Making Work Enjoyable and Productive, viewed 7 August 2017, <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/good-relationships.htm>.