Healthy employer-employee relationships are essential in the workplace. Without such relations, collaboration becomes more difficult than it needs to be, important pieces of information are missed or mislaid, and workplace productivity takes a nosedive.
To find three ways you can forge a better relationship with your boss, be sure to read on.
Take the initiative when it comes to meetings
Your boss is a very busy person. From workplace disputes to sealing important deals, he or she has to deal with hundreds of tasks every single working day. You should never be offended, then, when your boss fails to make time in their schedule for you.
As well as not taking offence to this perceived lack of attention on your boss’s part, you shouldn’t take it lying down either. You should take the initiative when it comes to setting up meetings between the two of you, as sitting down to talk to each other is the only way you are going to build any kind of relationship between the two of you.
Resolve conflicts amicably
You and your boss might have a healthy working relationship, but the two of you are never going to be best friends. They are still your employer and, as employers so often do, they will no doubt annoy, anger, and upset you during your tenure at their company. Whether this involves them belittling you in front of others for no reason or them demanding too much of you, conflict between you and your difficult boss is sure to rear its ugly head at some point.
If you want to protect the relationship that you have worked hard to forge with your boss, then you need to ensure that these conflicts are resolved as amicably as possible. Going in all guns blazing and landing your employer in hot water is not going to help the situation, no matter how tempting it might be for you to go down this route.
Even when your boss steps over the line, you should try to react to their actions in as amicable a fashion as possible. This means avoiding employment tribunal claims at all costs, and instead aligning yourself with an employment lawyer that takes a proactive approach to workplace problem-solving. A specialist in employment law is worth his or her weight in gold.
Remember, your boss is only human
It might not seem like it sometimes, but your boss is only human — in order to forge a better relationship with him or her, you should attempt to treat them like one. Ask them questions like, ‘Did you get up to much on the weekend?’ or ‘How’s the family?’ Doing this will show your boss that you see them as being more than just the person that signs your pay checks, and they’ll be sure to appreciate this.
Forging a healthy and productive working relationship with your boss will benefit everybody involved. It will ensure you aren’t forgotten about when big opportunities and promotions present themselves, and it will see you work harder to make sure your employer’s business is successful.
Take the above advice, forge a better relationship with your boss, and watch both your career prospects and the company that you work for flourish.