Frances McKay - Smart Skills: Working With Others

Smart Skills: Working With Others

Legend Business, 2 London Wall Buildings,
London EC2M 5UU
www.legendpress.co.uk

Contents Frances Kay 2011

The right of Frances to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available.

ISBN 978-1-9082480-7-7

eISBN 978-1-9082483-7-4

Set in Times

Printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes, UK

Cover designed by:
EA Digitial, Leicester
www.eadigital.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Foreword

Myriads of management handbooks in print purport to provide guidance on the key skills to success and business training manuals also abound. Generally, they suffer from one or both of two defects.

Sometimes, the scope of the book is too broad. Attempting to provide comprehensive advice on all the basic business activities, there is no clear message. Nobody can gain proficiency in every field of marketing and sales, administration, purchasing, bookkeeping and financial management in a short period of time, although those who start their own businesses do need to acquire a working knowledge of most. Other titles fail to distinguish between technical capability and personal skills.

However, there are a handful of personal and interpersonal skills that are essential ingredients for success in any business: the private or public sectors and the professions; large or small organisations; employees, business owners or management consultants. These are the subject matter of the Smart Skills series on which all readers can focus to advantage because mastery of them will surely enhance both job satisfaction and their careers.

Even those working for themselves as freelancers or sole business proprietors depend on good relations with customers and clients, suppliers, colleagues and professionals to be successful. In larger organisations, relationships with senior management and peer groups are crucial to career advancement, as well as sustaining an effective and congenial workplace. Time spent in improving your skills in working with others, whatever the relationship, is seldom wasted. As in her other book in this series, Presentations, Frances Kay offers experience-based on no-nonsense advice that is readily assimilated and will apply to your work environment.

In the Smart Skills Series Frances and her fellow authors bring together their know-how of core skills into a single compact series. Whatever your level of experience and the rung of your career ladder that you have reached, this book will help you to audit your personal effectiveness and raise your game when interacting with others.

Jonathan Reuvid

Introduction

People power the most important skill for a successful career

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools

Martin Luther King(speech at St Louis, 22 March 1964)

Getting along well with others particularly at work, whether its your boss, colleagues, staff, clients, customers, or suppliers is an essential skill. The ability to deal with people effectively is something everyone should be able to do. While most of us can engage reasonably well with the majority of people we encounter, there are perhaps a few characters youll meet at work that require special handling.

Professional people know that relationships with others can dramatically affect business success and career development. Despite the amazing progress of technology, which enables machines to do almost anything you want, instantly, it is still vital to get on, cope, and fit in with the workplace crowd. From time to time colleagues may behave in a seemingly unreasonable fashion; it is then that your people skills will be needed to help you solve the problem. It is a fact of life, in the ever increasing pressure of the work environment, that other people can be difficult, sometimes even impossible. So it will probably happen to you, if it hasnt already.

Making relationships with colleagues work is more than just being able to communicate well. Of course that matters. But now and then you may find troubleshooting skills necessary (for dealing with unexpected situations and emergencies). While many work-related relationships run smoothly most of the time, when problems occur it can have far-reaching effects on your career, your health and happiness.

Whether you are new to your career or have recently taken up a different position and want to shine, or just need to brush up on your people power, this book will help. The emphasis is on workplace relationships but it will also help you in dealing with others in all sorts of situations. Today many people believe that, with the right qualifications and technical experience, they are well equipped to climb the career ladder. But additional skills, often referred to as soft skills, come in useful too. Ideally, a balance of technical and people skills is best if you can achieve it. Quite often there just isnt time (due to pressure of work) to build positive relationships with others. But you may need to get on with colleagues reasonably well (and long enough) to get a job done.

If you find dealing with others an uphill task, the more likely you are to encounter difficulties. You could, for instance, come up against someone in a position to influence your career progression. How do you handle them? What skills are needed to ensure they dont ruin your promotion prospects? This book contains advice on acquiring rapport-building skills and how to get the best out of working with others. If you are keen to progress in your chosen profession, it will give you advice and help you on your way.

So why do workplace relationships matter? Because no matter how brilliant you are at your job, if you want to get ahead, good connections at work are essential. Task awareness is fine, and being good at your job is always desirable. But if you can harness this with being respected and popular with your colleagues you will progress further and faster than others who arent. If you are prepared to tackle this area of self-development and get it right, you will benefit. You may also have the opportunity to influence positively the growth and profitability of your organisation as well as enhance your own career.

Should you have a problem dealing with an awkward person, you are more likely to get a positive outcome if you have sound inter-personal skills to rely on. If you feel rather nervous about tackling this area, that is perfectly natural. You may be moving into unfamiliar territory. This can make even the most confident among us rather apprehensive. Just remember that getting along well with others in the work place isnt difficult or scary once you get the hang of it. Your people power will grow and your self-confidence increase if you follow the steps set out in this book.

At every level in any organisation you are likely to come across people with whom you may have little in common colleagues, team workers, staff, managers, directors, customers, clients, suppliers. It is quite natural to veer towards those with whom you can get on easily. But it is occasionally necessary to develop the ability to work successfully with those people youd prefer (if you were brutally honest) to avoid. Developing the skill to handle all types of personalities, both easy and difficult, will make you a huge asset to your company. Bear in mind that you may be able to accomplish tasks quickly, but dealing with people takes more time. When building relationships with people, you simply cant rush things; whereas you can establish rapport with someone quite quickly. We will distinguish the difference between rapport and relationship building in the course of the book.