How to build great work relationships

It's Valentine’s Day today, so talk of love and relationships is in the air, and that got me thinking about our work relationships.

Meaningful connection meets an important emotional need in all of us, and that extends to our work lives too. 

We don’t just check those emotional needs in at the office door every morning, they come in with us, and feeling connected to a close network of colleagues can make a big difference to our happiness at work.

For his book Good to Great, Jim Collins spent five years researching what makes the difference between a ‘good’ or a ‘great’ organisation and found that: 

“The people we interviewed from good to great companies, clearly loved what they did largely because they loved who they did it with.”

So it would seem that great people often achieve great things because they are part of a great team:

• Thomas Edison may have got the credit for inventing the lightbulb, but he did it with the help of 30 lab assistants.

• Neil Armstrong may have been the first person to walk on the moon, but it took a team of 400,000 scientists, engineers and technicians to actually get him there.

• The sound of The Beatles would never have been what it was without the combination of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star playing together.

Now in terms of your work colleagues, you might think you have no control over who you’re surrounded by, but that’s not necessarily accurate. 

What you can do is change the balance of who you spend most time with and how you spend it with them.

For example, you can choose to spend more face to face time with colleagues you like, by having in person meetings, or walking over to their desk when you need to speak to them, or arranging to have lunch together.

Whereas with those colleagues who you don’t get on so well with, you could choose to communicate more often by email or by text.

Of course it’s unlikely that you can completely avoid having to work alongside colleagues who you don’t gel with, but you can probably change the balance of time you spend with them face to face, and that small change could end up having a big effect. 

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Juliette

p.s Want to have a chat about your current career struggles and see if coaching can help you? Then schedule a free, no obligation 15min Clarity Call with me. You’ll finish the call feeling more confident, positive, motivated, and ready to start making the changes you want to see in your life and career.

Is your mindset holding you back from career success?

Sorting out your mindset is just as important as finding the right career.

In fact, do you spend as much time working on your mindset as you do looking for a new job or business idea?

If not, I would highly recommend that you do.

Because feeling strong and confident in your mindset can make all the difference between you actually going after your career dreams or just putting them off for another day. And another. And another.

Fear can really hold us back. It might manifest itself as not feeling good enough, or continually comparing yourself to others, or feeling like an 'imposter' and that you're going to be found out.

I can totally relate because I went through all of those feelings during my career change. One in particular was 'imposter syndrome' and thinking "who am I to start a business? I'm not an expert". Despite the fact that I had done my coaching training, that I'd had plenty of practice clients, and I was 100% ready to do the work. But those negative voices in my head kept knocking my confidence.

I've had to work really hard on my mindset since I made my career change, such as changing the way I talk to myself (those pesky little 'negative inner voices'), continuing to get support from a coach, keeping a journal, modelling confident behaviour from others etc etc. There are plenty of little mindset tools and strategies that have really worked for me, and that's why I include them in my coaching programme.

Often we can focus too much on the nuts and bolts of making a career change, such as trawling jobs boards, or fretting about making our website look perfect. But if your mindset is holding you back then your transition is going to be much harder than it needs to be.

I believe that a healthy mindset and career happiness go together.

Like strawberries and cream.

If you read about any of my clients, they will say the same, that they had to overcome at least some aspects of fear, low confidence, self-doubt, perfectionism or procrastination. And I have definitely experienced them all too. They still come up from time to time (to be honest they never 100% go away), but now I know how to deal with them and they affect me much less.

My Dream Career Discovery Programme contains lots of practical strategies for identifying new career paths or business ideas and creating an action plan for your transition, but what my clients often tell me is that the most powerful sessions are the ones where we deal with mindset. This is what gives them a solid foundation to build on when searching for their ideal career and being able to dream bigger than they ever allowed themselves to before!

Are you finally ready to tame those negative voices and make your dream career a reality this year? Then read more here and book yourself in for a free 15min, no obligation clarity call.

Speak to you soon,

Juliette

Why self care will help you achieve more

Phew! What a couple of weeks it’s been. I recently had to take some time off for a medical procedure and it just ZAPPED my energy.

It’s something I had done a few years ago but back then I was still working in my corporate job. On that occasion, I didn’t take enough time off to recover. I kept checking my emails whilst in bed and fretted the entire time that my team would fall apart without me! (err just to be clear, they didn’t). I came back to work exhausted, stressed and unable to give 100%.

However this time around, I knew the drill. I knew that I needed to block a full week off. I auto-scheduled my marketing so that my biz would keep ticking over without me, and set the OOO on my email so that people knew when they could expect to hear back from me.

And the change in attitude wasn’t just because this time I was working for myself. It was also because I’ve made more room in my life for self care. I’ve realised that it’s not just a ‘nice to have’. It is actually an ESSENTIAL part of how I manage my energy so that I can perform at my best in my business.

There’s a saying: Self care isn’t selfish, it’s self preservation.

It allows you to give your best to your career, your loved ones, and yourself. But it also gets easily sidelined in our busy day to day lives. We put everything and everyone else first, and then wonder why we end up burned out and unhappy.

So make some time for self care this week. Schedule it in. Especially if you feel that your energy levels are flagging. Take 10mins every day to do something for you. When you are at your best, then you can give your best.

Chat to you soon,

Juliette