8 Tips for Building Better Professional Relationships

Are you looking to build better professional relationships? Here are some tips to help you establish better professional connections.

How people relate with each other in the business setting shows the serious and unique nature of the professional world.

Indeed, certain things are critical to building better professional connections.

Factors that strengthen personal relationships cannot wholly be relied on when establishing and building professional connections.

Fortunately, there exists an overlap between these two endeavors (personal and professional relationships).

If you are someone with great personal relationship skills, it is safe to assume that you are already halfway through establishing great professional relationships.

This is because the interpersonal communication skills you develop in your private life can also be applied to your professional life.

Interpersonal communication skills help to nurture your workplace relationships and strengthen critical partnerships.

Here are my seven tips to help you build great professional connections.

1. Develop your interpersonal communication skills

In order to build better professional connections, there is a need to have sound interpersonal communication skills.

You must understand that effective communication isn’t just about what you say (verbal communication). It also includes your gestures (non-verbal communication) and your ability to listen actively.

Checkout: 5 Ways to Improve Your Interpersonal Communication Skills

By respecting someone else’s opinions, minding your body language, actively listening when they talk, and showing genuine interest in others, you are positioning yourself to build a strong professional relationship with others.

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2. Build trust and respect

Trust is a vital component of any great relationship, whether professional or personal.

It is the foundation upon which all other components thrive.

Where you build trust with your colleagues, they feel psychologically safe around you empowered.

In research conducted by Google, it was shown that trust and psychological safety play a major role in making people feel comfortable and empowered at work.

As stated by leading psychologist Amy Edmonson in the study,

“Psychological safety creates a team characterized by mutual respect and interpersonal trusts in which people feel comfortable being themselves.”

By fostering a high level of trust, you not only strengthen your relationship with your connections but also increase productivity at the workplace.

A study shows that employees at companies with high levels of trust display 106% more energy, 76% more engagement, 40% less burnout, 75% less stress, and 50% higher productivity than companies with trust issues.

3. Ask questions and listen

This is an important part of the relationship-building process.

By actively asking questions and listening, you learn from your connections and also learn more about them.

You set yourself apart from others by asking questions that seek to know more about your connections’ professional goals, daily needs, and personal life.

When you ask questions, you encourage open communication, and your connections will see you as a great communicator whom they can always approach for comfort, advice, and business.

4. Leverage your strengths and accept your weaknesses

It’s common for people in professional relationships to be more guarded to avoid being viewed by others negatively.

Instead of developing and leveraging their strengths, professional colleagues and connections spend a lot of time hiding their mistakes and weaknesses.

They don’t subscribe to accepting being vulnerable in the workplace.

To establish great professional relationships, there is a need to be transparent about your weaknesses. This will encourage others to do the same, and they will come to respect you more.

When everyone can recognize that no one is perfect, this fosters increased productivity as the team can now play to each other’s strengths.

5. Check-in on your professional contacts

Checking in on your professional contacts can particularly be useful for people you have only just met, probably once or twice.

By getting in touch, you maintain the professional bridge between you and them.

Do not worry about not having anything specific or work-related to talk about.

However, keep it short and straight to the point as this shows you respect their time.

6. Give constructive feedbacks

By giving your colleagues and professional connections supportive feedbacks, you are identifying and offering solutions to their areas of weakness.

This means that your feedback must come with a positive intention.

According to the corporate finance institute, to properly give constructive feedback, there is a need to;

• Focus on observation and not inference
• Focus on the behavior and not individual
• Provide solutions or recommendation

When your colleagues realize that your feedbacks are aimed at making them become a better person, they respect you more.

In the business world, it’s rare to find someone willing to help the other person grow, so when you do, you naturally stand out in their minds.

7. Excel in your role

To successfully establish strong professional connections, in the long run, you need to know your stuff. Be great at what you do.

The truth is, no matter how good your interpersonal communication is and how well you treat your professional connections, if you are incompetent, you are likely not going to gain their loyalty and respect.

Everyone wants to work with someone who makes life easier for them, not someone who constantly struggles to get the job done.

So, in addition to having good interpersonal communication skills, strive for work excellence.

This attracts respect and helps you build strong professional relationships.

Conclusion

To build great professional relationships, there is a need to display sound business principles and ethics while demonstrating that you are human with weaknesses and flaws.

Show how human, professional, and competent you are even in a business setting, and you are well likely to establish better professional connections in no time.

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