During difficult and uncertain times, strong social networks help us maintain an optimistic, upbeat outlook and ‘bounce back’ from adverse, difficult experiences at work and life. Below are several tips to help you build and maintain strong relations at work and outside.
- Try to remain positive and optimistic, even in the face of adversity. Try to search for the opportunity or upside of every challenge, problem or setback, even if this is not obvious or apparent at first. Research shows that people are more attracted to individuals displaying positive emotions and attitudes such as joy, happiness, and a “can do” mindset.
- Identify and focus on your personality strengths, as these are essential for a strong sense of identity and purpose. They express your personal ‘brand’ or what you can offer to those around you. Complete a strengths profiling tool like ©Strengthscope (www.strengthscope.com) to build awareness about your strengths. If you don’t want to complete such an assessment, there are several cues to help you identify your strengths: What type of tasks and activities do you find particularly energising? What do you find easy to learn? What type of tasks and activities lead to good results and highly positive feedback from others? What tasks and activities would you not want to give up if you are forced to make a choice? So, if you always find yourself showing a deep and genuine concern for the wellbeing and welfare of others during tough times, you are likely to have a compassion strength you can use to support others through these turbulent times.
- Seek out collaborative partnerships with others who have complementary personalities and strengths as this will ensure you have a strong, diverse network to help you deal with tough times and more challenging situations. We are fortunate in this highly connected Internet age as there are numerous social networking groups and online communities to enable us to make new connections quickly and cheaply. Use these to your advantage to make new connections in areas where you feel you have weaknesses or areas where you would like to explore new opportunities and friendships.
- Ensure your likeability factor is high, as this will help you build and maintain productive relationships and ensure ongoing success. People are more likeable when they are decent and trustworthy, have a good sense of humour, are friendly and smile a lot and are considerate and helpful to others. Displaying these behaviours will ensure you initiate and build relationships with equally likeable and successful people. Even if you are generally a more negative, pessimistic person, regularly being in the company of people who are happy, resilient and optimistic will result in a gradual shift in your mindset and behaviours.