How to Behave Professionally and Socialize with Colleagues?

7 StrategiesBehaving with ColleaguesTo ensure effective communication at work

Having a close relationship with your colleagues can cause problems if your behavior isn’t professional. Sometimes, identifying communication barriers at work is quite simple. When communication breaks down, you may notice it as conflicts or decreased productivity.

There is sometimes a lack of transparency, which may be unintentional. Many believe they communicate effectively because of their education or experience, but in reality, they are still trying to influence others with their messages.

The outcome of poor communication can be seen repeatedly in the section on success atSelMagzMissed opportunities and wasted resources. You might notice some factors that influence transparent and effective communication at work: personal traits, physical distance, message clarity, context, technical jargon, and culture. Here are some ways to ensure effective communication at work to create a productive, efficient, and inclusive environment.

Behaving Respectfully with Colleagues

How should you behave with colleagues?

Ways to socialize and behave with colleagues

1. Know Your Audience Well:

Understanding your audience is essential for effective communication at work, whether through spoken and written messages, daily emails, company-wide announcements, or project updates. You should consider if your message is being conveyed clearly and understood correctly by your audience.

Who are you communicating with?
What is the goal of your message?
What do they need to know?
What actions should they take?
What is the best way to deliver your message?
How will your audience interpret or perceive the message?
How do your audience feel and react upon receiving your message?

To answer these questions, you should research ahead and observe your audience’s behaviors.

For example, your approach to communicating with your team or peers may differ from that with your manager, as these groups have different interests.

2. Try to Understand and Clarify the Situation:

Take time to think. Before communicating at work, pause and be patient, understand the situation, clarify it, and show empathy. Here are some tips from SelMagz to help you communicate effectively at work:

Be Curious:

Ask open-ended questions starting with “what” and “how” to gather information. The answers are usually descriptive, and then you can ask more open questions to get more details. The more you know, the better your message will suit your audience.

Learn Like a Child:

Children typically have no prior knowledge about what they want to learn. Their humility in learning can be a good model—approach understanding with openness, readiness, and willingness to see the perspectives of others.

Check Your Assumptions:

Your experience might cloud your judgment. Challenge your preconceptions about your audience—decide who should speak to whom and what research is necessary to verify your assumptions; ensure there’s space for this before jumping to conclusions.

Be Inclusive:

People want to feel included and valued in the workplace. Think carefully to ensure everyone’s ideas are heard—if you’re requesting input in a meeting, make sure there’s enough time for everyone to share. Avoid missing out on opportunities to connect during discussions.

Dealing with Colleagues

Proper and Respectful Behavior with Colleagues

Ensuring Effective Communication at Work through Proper Behavior with Colleagues

3. Practice Multi-Level Listening:

You are likely familiar with the basics of listening. However, when we feel setbacks, weak points, or misprioritizations, we tend to miss the key messages that can help us communicate better at work.

Below, you will learn how to continue practicing:

Interpretation:

Confirm your understanding of the message by repeating or rephrasing it in your own words. If there’s a disagreement, it’s time to clarify.

Exploration:

If you feel there’s information you need, ask questions.

Clarification:

If you don’t fully understand something, be sure to ask questions.

Remember:

Try to recall points that are important to your audience; this information can be useful later and shows that you care and actively listen. Effective communication at work means matching your skills in active listening.

Remember:

Practice empathy.
Understand others’ perceptions, not just your own.
Account for emotions, reactions, etc.
Be aware of your own values and beliefs, as well as those of others.
Observe non-verbal cues like body language.

4. How to Receive Feedback Effectively:

Being open to feedback and accepting criticism is easier than ignoring or rejecting it. Everyone makes mistakes. When you are distracted by life’s events or under pressure at work, you might defend yourself against even minor comments or criticism.

Sheila Hine and Douglas Stone provide strategies to improve your ability to receive feedback, helping you recognize what to discard that doesn’t help you learn or move forward.

Some of these strategies include:

Understanding and managing your reactions to stimuli, and perceptions.
Separating messages from who they come from.
Listening without judgment, just offering advice when appropriate.
Breaking feedback into manageable parts and applying useful insights.
When actively seeking feedback, be specific and ask for one thing.
You can learn and grow from feedback.
Breaking feedback into smaller parts can help you process messages and react less emotionally.

Effective Workplace Relationships

Proper Behavior and Manners with Colleagues

Important tips for professional conduct with colleagues

5. Giving Clear, Actionable, and Visible Feedback:

This is one of the most challenging tasks because you might want to avoid hurting others, may not be emotionally ready, or your assumptions are clouded by negativity.

The Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) model can help you provide precise and specific feedback:

Situation:Describe the context. Ask yourself what happened, where, and when.

Behavior:Describe the behavior. This is the hardest part because it involves checking your assumptions.

For example, saying “You are rude” (mindset) versus “You interrupted me in the middle of my speech” (observable behavior) changes the tone of feedback. “Rudeness” can have many interpretations, while observing who interrupted and when is clearer.

Example 1:

“During yesterday’s team meeting, when you presented your speech (situation), you seemed unsure about two slides and your sales calculations were incorrect (behavior). I felt embarrassed because everyone was there. I’m concerned this might affect our team’s reputation.”

Example 2:

“In the client meeting on Monday afternoon, you ensured the meeting started on time and everyone received prior support (situation). Your research was thorough, and all client questions were answered (behavior). I am proud of your great work, and you have set the organization in a good direction.”

Knowing how to provide clear, specific, and observable feedback is a vital skill for effective workplace relationships.

Effective Communication at Work

Proper Behavior and Effective Communication with Colleagues

Social skills and professional interaction with colleagues

6. Follow-up, Acknowledge, and Foster Accountability:

Effective communication at work is an ongoing process. You should continually monitor progress and provide ongoing support. Don’t forget to recognize your peers, team members, or leaders’ advancements.

Use the questions below to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous communication at work: