One Tip for Building Better Workplace Relationships

"Everyone wants to be appreciated, and everyone likes hearing that they’re doing a good job..."

Beyond just ‘speaking English better’ one of the biggest desires I hear from clients is they want to build better relationships with the people they work with. 

So, in this article you’re going to learn one simple, incredibly easy communication tip to build closer, more fulfilling workplace relationships. 

That tip is to:

• Compliment/praise people more
• Let people know that you appreciate them and are grateful for them

This is true with everyone whether it’s a colleague, a business partner, your boss….everyone wants to be appreciated, and everyone likes hearing that they’re doing a good job. 

When I say compliments, and praise, I don’t mean, ‘Your hair looks nice today’. I mean praise people for their work performance, for helping you, or for their knowledge. 

EXAMPLES:
I really appreciate your help on this project. You did a fantastic job and the final result is definitely better because of you. Thank you.

I’m very impressed with your sales numbers this month. You’re doing awesome, keep up the great work. 

Doing this says a lot about your character. It says that you are confident enough in yourself that you want to build other people up. No matter what industry you’re in, no matter who you work with, that is an attitude that people will like and respect. 

People are also going to enjoy working with you more as well as be a lot more motivated to work hard and to help you because they know that they’re being appreciated. 

I can say from personal experience, that when clients compliment me and show appreciation for how I’m helping them, I feel that much more motivated to do everything I can to make sure they reach their goals. 

Two Additional Tips:

FIRST TIP: Don’t be afraid to praise people ‘above you’ in your company

I think sometimes people are hesitant to give compliments at all in the workplace, but if they do give compliments and appreciation to people, it’s often the colleagues below them that maybe aren’t as confident or experienced. 

You should do this with everyone regardless of your relationship to them or their position in the company. 

Quick story to prove my point: 

One of my older clients was a high level senior manager at an international company. He was a nice guy but was pretty serious, and I could imagine that he would be maybe even a little bit intimidating to his employees. 

We were practicing one of his presentations, and he made some really good improvements in a pretty short amount of time. 

After practicing, I said to him, ‘This is such a huge improvement. You are doing awesome. I can really tell that you’re working hard and it’s going to pay off, you’re gonna make a great impression in this upcoming meeting.’ 

When I said that, he responded by saying, ‘Wow…you know people don’t really talk to me like that anymore, so it’s really good to hear’. 

People still deserve to hear that they’re doing a great job even if they’re in a high position, older than you, or seem really confident. 

SECOND TIP: This doesn't have to be a private, 1:1 conversation.
Don’t be afraid to praise people in a group setting like a team meeting. This is going to make those people feel great and make you look like an awesome team player. 

EXAMPLE:
Let’s say you’re presenting the results of your company’s online advertisements. During your presentation, you could say, ‘We had a 14% increase in ad revenue this month. The new advertisement that Jina created is doing really well. Great work with that, Jina. People are loving it.’ 

Something small like that is gonna stand out, make her feel great, and show everyone there that you appreciate them. 

Conclusion:
Now I’m going to practice a little bit of what I’ve taught in this article and say that I really appreciate you reading all the way to the end. It might seem small, but you chose to keep reading instead of clicking on something else and because of that you’ve gained a little bit more insight to create better relationships at work. 

Excellent job.

- Grant