“If you have one bad apple in the bunch, it can really hurt the morale and enthusiasm of an entire department,” says Andy Teach, author of From Graduation to Corporation, and host of the YouTube channel FromGradToCorp. “A department, or company, that works well together, has the most success together. When you enjoy working with your colleagues and look forward to interacting with them, everyone benefits.”
Working with other team members whom you have a great work relationship with can actually make work fun, he says. “Morale is high, which leads to better productivity, which leads to better results.”
Skip Weisman, a leadership and workplace communication expert, agrees. “A high-morale work environment will always produce more than a low-morale work environment.” When people care about the people they work with, things get done faster, he says. “People will go the extra mile; they will take ownership of a job, a decision or problem and work through it without feeling like they have to go up the chain to get things done.”
Another benefit of colleagues working well together: Information flows more freely, says David Parnell, a legal consultant, communication coach and author. “In addition, the group’s well being and success become more of a priority; patience, generosity and a gravitation toward interaction grows; and good moods and dynamic information beget better moods and even more dynamic information,” he says. “All of this conspires to create a more balanced, functional, aggressive and successful company.”
So, what happens when colleagues don’t work well together?
Parnell says time and cognitive bandwidth is wasted “exercising restraint, measuring words and otherwise forcing hands to play nicely in the sandbox.” The outcome is shoddy workmanship, pushed or missed deadlines and severe lacerations to the company culture or your group’s sub-culture.
“If you don’t look forward to working with a particular colleague or colleagues, guess what? Your enthusiasm suffers, your morale suffers, and ultimately, productivity suffers,” Teach adds.
Deborah Shane, a career author, writer, speaker and professional branding and social media marketing strategist, adds that a bad workplace relationship creates negative energy, which can affect everyone on the team, as well as customers or clients. It can also cause employee turnover, which “interrupts building and creating a strong, unified team.” Finally, she says, “conflict fosters cliques and factions within a team that always works against it.”
If you want to get your colleagues to work with you better, here’s what you can do:
Make teamwork a priority by making it part of the performance management system. This begins with performance expectations when someone joins the organization, Weisman says. “I was speaking with a prospective client last summer who was complaining about this very thing–that their people were not working well together–so I asked her, ‘Well, do you assess their contribution to teamwork as part of your annual performance review process?’ She looked at me like a deer in headlights and responded as if it was a master stroke of genius.” If you don’t measure it and give people the expectation at the very beginning of their role with the organization, it will not be seen as priority.
Pinpoint the issue. “Explore your feelings and behavior toward your colleagues,” says Parnell. “Social and professional relationships are inextricably symbiotic and interactive, and much of the communication that occurs is both subconscious and reactive.” If your colleagues seem to be difficult, they may actually be reacting to the signals you are giving off – whether consciously or unconsciously. While this might be a bitter pill to swallow, you may be the very root of the problem and the first step toward recovery is discovering this.