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explain how communication affects relationships in the work settingIf you work as part of a business or company, navigating the work environment can be a challenge at times. There are many upsides to working with other people: you have someone to socialize with, you have a team atmosphere, many times your coworkers will have your back. When you are working with many different personalities, however, this can throw in a couple challenges. Some of these challenges might be things your employees may not have experienced before, especially if they are young and new to the workplace environment. So, what do you do to catch them up? How do you explain how communication affects relationships in the work setting to them?

The most important part of having a successful work environment is communication. This can be between two people, between team members, between the higher-ups. No matter who you are communicating with, strong communication skills are an absolute must. This course on Udemy shows many examples of communication through communication skills training. In it, you will learn how to understand people better, how to use email more effectively and more.

How Communication Can Affect Relationships

If you are not communicating properly, your relationships in the workplace will suffer. Think of what happens when you don’t communicate with your significant other. When there is miscommunication or no communication, relationships will start to fall apart. People become frustrated when they don’t get the answers they need from you, or have to work hard to get an answer at all. If your wording is confusing, jobs and assignments can be completed wrong, making more work for the whole team and eating up much-needed times in the workday.

This can all be avoided, however. There are many different things that can be implemented in the workplace to help make communication better, resulting in a much better and happier workplace. Here are some examples of how to communicate more effectively and strengthen relationships in the workplace.

Schedule Weekly Meetings

The best way to get everyone on the same page is to get them all together in one room and discuss what’s going on. Meetings have a bad reputation for going on longer than necessary, so you should aim to make your meeting quick and effective. Go on with talking points you need the team to discuss and make sure you hit them all. Think about the goals and work your business has to tackle that week so you can bring them up and make sure they get done.

As for when you schedule your weekly meetings, Monday is usually the best day to hold them. That’s because these meetings will set the tone for the rest of the week and give people items to put on their to-do lists without feeling overwhelmed with how many weekdays they have left to get the items done.

When scheduling your meetings, make sure you have someone on-hand to take down the minutes, or subjects covered during the meeting. That person’s responsibility will be to take notes, type them up and send them out to the meeting’s attendees. That way, you will all have the same information in case you need to reference it later. Having the job of taking down the meeting minutes is sometimes a trying task. It doesn’t have to be, however. This course can help taking down meeting minutes easier and more efficient. In it, you will learn how to be more confident in taking down meeting minutes, the role of the minute taker and how you should prepare yourself for before, during and after the meeting.

Knowing How Different People Work

We’re all different. We know this, but sometimes, it’s hard to work with someone who works different;y than we do. It’s not that we want them to be the same as us, it’s just that it is sometimes hard to see how someone else may work when it differs from how we work. Like your personal relationships, your work relationships require understanding and compromise. If you are working in a team environment, you will need to be able to work together with your other coworkers and be able to consider all ideas and work styles.

Every once in a while, you will come across someone who is extremely difficult to work with, who will not compromise or consider other people’s ideas. It can be very discouraging when you come across a person like this, but you still need to work with them and work on the relationship you have with them at work. If you respond negatively to this kind of person, it can make for a hostile and uncomfortable work environment, as well as affect other relationships in the workplace. Unless you or the other person are planning on leaving the workplace in the near future, there is nothing else you can do to help the situation except work with them to form an understanding of how each of you work. Take the time to learn how to work with difficult people by taking this course. With this course, you will learn how to recognize and address situations with coworkers that can result in problem situations. The course will also feature a section on how miscommunication affects relationships in the workplace and how to use constructive criticism to get work done efficiently and effectively. You can also take a look at this blog post, which highlights the various communication skills you need in the workplace and how to get your point across.

Ask Questions

One of the biggest mistakes we make when it comes to communication in the workplace is not asking questions. You should never be afraid of asking as question when it comes to something you do not know. By asking, you will be able to better communicate, better do your job and assignment and strengthen your relationships with your coworkers. The more you ask, the more you will learn and the better you will get at your job and the better relationships you will have.

Write Clear Emails

With the way technology is today, email is one of the most used ways to communicate with another person, especially when it comes to the workplace. One of the perks of using email to communicate is that you can go back and look at your correspondence. This is a key to good communication, so things do not get forgotten or misunderstood. Email is also quick and lets you communicate the things you need to without extra fluff. You can easily send out or respond to multiple emails in a matter of minutes. One thing that many people get overwhelmed with is how quickly emails pile up in their inboxes. If you are not on top of checking and responding to emails, you could spend hours trying to catch up. Nobody wants to spend their time doing that when they have other work to be doing. The good news is, you can learn how to catch up with your email quickly and easily with this course. In it, you will learn the different types of email, email etiquette, how to maintain clutter, save time and more. The better you are able to manage your email inbox, the better you will be at communicating in the workplace and making the relationships around you even stronger.

Page Last Updated: February 2020

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