Don’t treat your colleagues like chess pieces
- Are people in your team regularly replaced?
- Do you have any idea how many children your team members have in total?
- Have you ever refused to discuss work-related complaints (long working hours, work-related calls outside working hours), stating that the given situation is normal and the person complaining knew this when they were hired?
Especially in fields that are highly technical, human interaction is often seen as something that only complicates matters. However, it should, on the contrary, be perceived as an asset. In project management and similar disciplines, people tend simply to focus on tasks just as they would concentrate on moves when playing chess.
Success is measured in milestones met, while social interactions are dismissed as a waste of time, according to an article on the management-issues.com website. Anyone who tries to start a friendly chat risks being regarded as just not working as hard as the others.
Recognise the human side of your colleagues
By doing so, you will gain multiple benefits:
- Turnover will be lower, so you will not need to bring new people up to full speed all the time. Productivity will thus increase.
- Your staff will maybe do more than exactly what is expected of them. Good relationships translate into extra effort, meaning that potential problems will be raised in time, tough questions will be asked and the extra mile will be walked when required.
-jk-