Is there someone in your life or work that you are having difficulty getting along with?
If so, you are not alone. It seems that everyone I speak to has a person or personality in their life or workplace that makes getting along tough.
We should work on our relationships even if they do not seem like they need work. If you find yourself saying your relationship doesn’t need work, then you may want to employ these tips in your most important relationships just in case. Sometimes we are not aware that our relationships are eroding and need work until it’s too late.
Here are five quick tips to quickly improve your relationships:
- Complement the other person – This needs to be a genuine compliment about a character trait, skill, or mannerism that the other person exemplifies. Tell them what you admire about this trait and let them know you value this trait in your interactions.
- Listen – Take time to really listen to the other person, what they are saying, ask clarifying questions instead of judgment. A clarifying question may be: tell me why you feel this strongly about this?
- Do not Judge – No one likes feeling judged, when you judge a person is it natural for them to want to defend themselves. Instead, make observations, use words like, I was wondering, is this, I’m curious, or do we have the same understanding of this?
- Be Kind – Show acts of kindness to the other person, this may be difficult if you think of the other person as mean or miserable, if you practice point 3 above it will make it less taxing to be kind.
- Respect – Show respect to the other person, this can be done by respecting their space, saying please and thank you, greeting the other person. Remember you don’t have to like someone to respect them.
Try these five tips and let me know if you see a change in your relationship. You can download the five tip sheets I created here for you to keep of these five points.
Be Well
Joyce