| Could You Build Better Relationships At Work? |
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Can you work with a peer who seems hostile and aggressive? Are you skilled at managing conflict in your team? Do you sometimes misinterpret what people say? It's just too easy in today's business world to get snagged in conflict and misunderstanding. And this happens at every level of organizations--from front-line customer service all the way to the executive lunchroom. Could you use new techniques to build better relationships at work? If you are part of the human race, I bet your answer is "yes!" One of the fastest ways to explore what's going on with your relationships at work is to make a storyboard. It's amazing what you'll notice when you map it out. Once you see what's going on, you'll be in a much stronger position to know exactly what you can do about it. A storyboard, or set of frames is a fast and easy way to depict your 'current state' of relationships at work. Examine your relationships at work just in the same way you would map out a process flow to understand current state, analyze bottlenecks, collect data, prioritize best-wins and track improvement. What Is Your Relationship "Mantra?" Anytime that you examine relationships and seek to build results-oriented communication at work, there's one single phrase or mantra that must play in your mind. Here it is: "It's not the person." That's right. It's not Joanne or Jeremy or Becky or Bob that's the problem. It's the system. It's the pressure. It's the situation. As tempting as it might be to blame, bicker and escalate emotions around the person--that's not really the problem. And that's also not where you'll find your solutions. Everyone that you have a relationship at work has people with whom they communicate clearly and openly. If you want to build trusting relationships at work, then you have to look at the situation and system. Objectively.What are the best tools to do this? A storyboard or visual display of the situation. What Are Your Must-Haves?
Of course, you may have more detailed maps about relational communication, effective listening and managing change or conflict. These subsets of your communication storyboard will grow organically as you dive into this territory. Once you make a storyboard of this, you'll certainly spot opportunities to refine and work on your communication skills. The question of course is, are good managers and leaders born or grown? Do you have to be born with the communication gene or can you learn it? The good news here is that communication skills are ability, not just a genetically produced talent. That means you can learn how to communicate for better results. You can learn how to build better relationships at work--just in the same way that you can transform your productivity with time management skills. It's learnable.This is very good news! It means that you can identify your current communication style. Perhaps how you are relating and expressing yourself is part of the problem. In addition, you can examine and refine your verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Very often, colleagues at work interpret the 'unsaid' louder than what's said. This simple adjustment may alleviate many of the conflicts stemming from interpretations of your body language. Finally, you can learn how to use questioning and feedback skills to better understand the people you work with. And your storyboarding skills will come in handy as you refine and improve your communication relating. How does that work? Once you use storyboarding to understand your 'current state,' you are in an ideal position to share your insights. You can use a pre-made storyboard and show this to a co-worker. Or you can make one with a colleague on the spot. Whether you use a pre-made storyboard or create one from scratch, you are demonstrating your willingness to build better work relationships. You're taking a specific risk. You're inviting input. And you are listening to feedback. Walking The TalkThis is not just talking about building better relationships. You're walking the talk. Once you do share the storyboarding process, be sure to listen to what your coworker tells you. If you listen and record their feedback, you are demonstrating that you really are working for improvement. If you take new and specific actions based on their feedback you could gain their respect and trust. Why Bother Using StoryboardsAgain, I have to emphasize, this is not truly about making storyboards. It's about why storyboards work. Storyboarding is critical and foundational tool in every successful manager's toolbox. It is the 'how' that helps you skillfully do the 'what.' It's how you can manage teams, engage people and build better work relationships. Storyboarding is the tool to use when you want to confidently engage employees. When you want to proactively build a workplace where everyone wants to come to work. If you want to build better work relationships…if you want to focus on results-oriented communication, use the best tool for the job: storyboarding.
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