After my previous article about operating in a human context and the fact that many of us are unconsciously looking to create Relations and in some cases making friends in the workplace it led me to the thought of promoting the importance of Relations in general.

It is nice to go for lunch with somebody and just to have a chat or discuss a book or article together, giving different tips to each other and so on, without it the day would be dry, if not boring, but once we know more about Relations as a concept and work on them we don’t have to worry about the lack of “friendships” at work.

Technically speaking HR has a huge and a very important platform called Relations or Employment Relations and that is just a basis of any work, I will touch on that a bit later, it is a very complex and interesting topic.

Relations, however, is a different scenario, let’s see what they imply, let’s see what they can build:

1. Relations don’t have to have a human pair. It can be just another form of attitude like your Relation to the situation, your Relation to that task, your Relation to the problem or upcoming work. It is both excitement and behavioural criteria.

2. Relations at work are stronger than a friendship, although a friendship is also a form of relations but yet it has more personal reflection whereas in the workplace we have to have relations anyway due to the business requirements and think about the impact on the business. Hence if no one is offering you to bring a cup of tea or inviting you for a drink for socialising it doesn’t mean they don’t have relations towards you. Or vice versa drinks whether hot or alcohol should not be the reason around creating relations, some relations are created during drinking, the question is how strong and for how long the relations will last or is it a drink or something else that triggered the relation being created? Relations and purpose should have a connection for a “healthy” result.

3. Common goals are from one side a connector for people and from the other they can be reached easier with Relations! In this scenario they are more strategic with probably less fun.

The takeaway here will be: Try to build relations with your work through passion, commitment and curiosity, that energy lasts for a long time.

What are your thoughts, am I right?

Each of us have a set of values we try to pursue with respect to ourselves and others. We can approximately work out what is good and what is bad, but there is a third factor, which is called “the unknown”. We sometimes mistakenly operate within this third factor, with limited data which has a higher probability of making a mistake.

So how do we know the process of making the right decision:

1. See what works already and use that as a platform for the decision making process, minor adjustments will do, but no need to reinvent the wheel.

2. Be curious and collaborative. If the situation is unusual, try to get support and different opinions, this is what will shape your understanding and that will feed into the decision making process.

3. Avoid knee jerk reactions, it does give comfort due to the short-term relief of finalising the decision but key information can be missed to serve you long term.

Things are resolvable if we approach them calmly and with support.

What do you think?

Hazra Atkinson

Career and Leadership Coach 

Need advice or career help & guidance? get in touch with me and I’m sure we can work together to help you get on the correct career path!

A lot of people today understand that they live in injustice world. If to put illusions away the elements of injustices can be prevented through patience after being criticised and analyse them.

If criticism was fair we admit and forget but if it was unfair it gives some heavy sediment in soul and angriness appears.

Different people express this differently – it doesn’t have to be an aggression , it is not rebellious, it is decreasing motivation to contentious performance.

Both sides suffer employee and employer, pointless relations, well, not the long – term ones.
If you consider to establish fair relations with subordinates – trust first, pretty much like Churchill did towards his Staff in his house.

Trust is another form of responsibility because it is an investment into healthy Relations.

I help establishing engaging relations at work….

Hazra Atkinson

Career and Leadership Coach 

Need advice or career help & guidance? get in touch with me and I’m sure we can work together to help you get on the correct career path!

This article is dedicated to people who know their discipline really well

My purpose here is to convince real professionals that they are truly needed by their organisations despite the fact they may not get immediate recognition. Knowing that you will be rewarded eventually is vital here in order not to get burnt out early. After you have built your career up (expertise) it is likely there will be a high demand on you by default.

Here are my 3 tips for professionals to control directions of their careers:

• Build a plan of your personal development.
• Build a plan of your organisation’s development (in your eyes)
• Do not go to your bosses and propose it straight away, it is better to work on your ideas collaboratively with your colleagues, as to get support for ready solutions is easier than for single ideas.

Professionals should not take it personally if their opinions do not match with bosses and colleagues because if you truly believe your idea is really valuable you can refine it and come back to it later. You should share your justified arguments both vertically and horizontally.

Your ideas might be used eventually despite the fact your name may not be mentioned but that means your ideas are used, you are indeed on demand!

If you have just joined the company you will be attracted by your colleagues in the meantime you might trigger competition, which is a good thing. If you have worked for the company for a long time you will still have many ideas on developing your discipline and organisation where recognition will come in the form of becoming an expert in which there always be demand for.

It is important that you plan your career development yourself, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you are free from existing hierarchy influences but only you can feel when to take the next step in your career, hence picking up a pen to draw your destiny will be inevitable.

Should you need a support I will show you the shortest path to reach your goals – career, financial growth and psychological safety.

Hazra Atkinson

Career and Leadership Coach 

Need advice or career help & guidance? get in touch with me and I’m sure we can work together to help you get on the correct career path!