Understanding is a deeper term than knowledge. There might be many who know you, but very few who understand you. A person who fails to understand others, their feelings and their actions will fail to get ahead in his relationships. We all appreciate understanding more than love.
Understanding other people is an art. It is the soul of strong relationships. And, it is not just limited to our relations with our friends and family. We need to understand everybody with whom we interact.
Having pleasant interpersonal relationships at work is very important. We must understand the ones we work with, our supervisors, our subordinates, and our colleagues.
In this article, let us have a glimpse at those little tips that can magically help you understand your peers and supervisors better. It is no rocket science; you must strike the right chord.
Understanding Your Colleagues
Share Your Work
Many times, we get laden with urgent and large volumes of work. As much as finishing your work on time is important, helping others who are running behind is also very necessary. It not only helps you secretly build team spirit, but the help you extend to others at critical times also fosters trust among your teammates.
Listen
Listening to others is very important to shape relations. By listening to what other people have to say, you give them a feeling that their words hold value. It might be a personal issue, a good or bad experience, or a team plan. Listening to others makes them feel comfortable sharing their feelings with you.
Consider Mood Swings
Many people usually take out their anger, frustrations and mood swings out on the people around them. They might not mean to hurt you when they are rude or irritable. But it is probably the fact that they are having a bad day. If you deal with those mood swings patiently, they might apologize for their behavior and not repeat it.
On the other hand, if you have issues with anger, it might be wise to consider the services of a professional. A local directory like StarOfService has a huge listing of anger management professionals in your neighborhood.
Make Friends, Go Out
The more time you spend with your colleagues, the more you get to know them. While you might not get enough time to mingle and chat around while you are at work, meeting up occasionally is a great idea to develop cordial relations with your peers. A team outing once in a while, a movie get-together, a Sunday brunch with colleagues are all excellent ways to improve your networking.
Understanding Your Supervisors
Develop a Rapport
Don’t be intimidated by your supervisors. Feeling awkward and not willing to interact freely with supervisors is quite a natural feeling. However, to understand your supervisors better, you ought to build bridges and get rid of the superior-subordinate awkwardness. Developing a rapport with your managers is a crucial step to succeed at work.
Understand the Role
A manager or a supervisor is burdened with heavier responsibilities. In an attempt to do justice to their duties, they might have to burden you with more work and urgent tasks at times. They might also ask you to wait back and work a little extra. Do not take it personally. Understand it that your manager does not want to trouble you unnecessarily. It is his role that forces him to get work done from you.
Take Feedback Positively
There might be times when your supervisors would give you harsh or negative feedback for your work. However, what you need to understand is that the feedback is for the work not done well and not for the person that you are. Taking feedback positively is a key to improve your performance. Feedback is an important part of growing and developing as a professional.
Communicate Politely
Communication is the greatest means to understand others. The way you communicate with your superiors, or in fact anybody, typically called soft skills, speaks volumes about your personality. A cordial, friendly and polite communication from subordinates is something that every manager expects.
We are not robots, but human beings with brains and hearts, which do not stop working even at work. Regardless of whether you are interacting with your colleagues or your management, a mutual understanding is always important. A person who can develop this understanding with others always succeeds in building great interpersonal relations at work.
