Six Ways to Grow Social Connections on the Job

When listening to a colleague, try to focus entirely on his or her story rather than reflecting on your own position or experiences. Asking questions and actually taking into consideration their answers is a sure way to understand their story and prove helpful when providing advice.
Active listening enables employers themselves to lead more effectively, as it avoids frustration on the staff’s side. 

Often enough, figures and facts are preferred to stories in the working environment, and this actually leads to building up a certain distance among the very team members or between the company and its customers. 

On the other hand, sharing a personal story makes people get closer to each other and gives them the feeling that anybody can make and overcome mistakes, proving therefore invaluable to the idea of bonding. Storytelling enables cooperation by creating bonds based on strong emotions such as empathy.

Admitting your own mistakes might very often result in the people around you feeling more comfortable, as they know they are dealing with a non-judgmental individual. 

Companies that encourage mistake-sharing often prove to be more productive than those that don’t. Moreover, the people working in these very enterprises find themselves as feeling less frustrated and more satisfied with their job, because this enables the exchange of opposing opinions and the acknowledgment of others’ solutions.

Creating bonding moments with your colleagues by means of celebrating new deals or people’s birthdays will have a positive effect on the overall atmosphere. 

Giving the feeling that everybody belongs to the same community while having the same goals, makes people feel more at ease and enables closeness.