Do you have a best friend at work?

If you do have a best friend at work, you are very lucky. Apart from the benefit of knowing that someone at work cares about you, you will be more loyal to your organisation, deliver better work and be more engaged. Having at least one high quality relationship at work, as in the rest of life, matters greatly to your wellbeing.

With remote work becoming the norm and less face-to-face interaction taking place, there has been a global increase in the levels of loneliness experienced in the workplace. We are not connecting as well, regularly, or deeply as we did before, even though we might be interacting regularly via various electronic channels.

But interaction does not guarantee connection.

So, what can be done to boost connection when we are not in the same room?

Talk about something else than work.

If this is not part of your company or team culture already, your people might be reluctant to take the first step – so as a leader you must set the tone. Encourage your team to check in with each other about how they are doing. Ask them to reflect and share where they are physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually before jumping into work. Do this in one-on-one or smaller team meetings – whatever you prefer but give them the opportunity to get to know the person behind the role or position better. You don’t need to share overly personal information for this to be effective – rather focus on setting the tone for people to share their experiences about the everyday, unusual, normal and mundane parts of life.

Work and solve problems together.

Deep connections are also formed when we combine our talents to deliver something greater than what any of the individuals could have done on their own. The lonely feeling is more likely to creep in when we are working in parallel to others or simply hand off a piece of work to someone else. When we create opportunities for collaboration there is a high likelihood that the quality of output will increase, with the added benefit that people get to form a connection that might not have existed before. People are also likely to learn at a quicker pace when they get to see how others approach a problem – so you get the added benefit of training or peer-to-peer coaching happening at the same time.

The Takeaway

Life is easier when we do it together. The past 18 months have shown this to be true. Even the most hardened introverts are craving interaction and deep connections to stave off our increased levels of loneliness. Switch on your camera, look each other in the eye, be real, share, listen and connect.

In closing…

Are you or your teams experiencing the lonely feeling? Do you feel that there is more to life than what you are currently experiencing and need some guidance on how to get back on track? Get in touch at info@purposeworks.co.za to let us help you get back on track.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.