Surviving a tough professional connection

With a great team, comes great accomplishments. A well complementing team is a strong backbone to any project irrespective of the technology, the innovation, the timeline or the criticality. A team can be visualised as a mesh. If each team member were represented as a node, an unerringly resilient team can be represented by a distributed mesh network with each node connecting to the other — the connection lines signifying the need to communicate or work closely with the other person. While the project manager does play a key role in harnessing the strengths of each person to make the mesh sturdier, the connection lines between nodes are no doubt the locking factor.

Not all of us are lucky to function in a team that doubles up as a support system to enable us to grow in all areas even the ones we are struggling in. Often, we have had to work alongside people with who, for various reasons, we have trouble building a professional rapport with. This causes the connection lines to go weaker with days and with a very high possibility, break some day. In a distributed network, when two nodes stop communicating if left unfixed, it is only a matter of time before the entire mesh breaks down.

Situation worsens multifold when you are one of the nodes at the end of the bleak connection line where force tension is extreme. Whatever the reason is, we are all looking for a conducive work environment where we can work to our maximum to bring out our highest productivity.

First and foremost, attempt to release the tension by communicating directly. If not, involve people you think may be able to help. However if none of these work, here are somethings you can do.

• Everyone is equally entitled to getting frustrated. Seek out methods to vent out your frustration in a healthy way. Maybe talking to a colleague, maybe writing, maybe sports etc..
• Interaction and overlap is good, but in such cases, it can be mentally tiresome. If so, draw a clear boundary between your role and theirs.
• Express yourself clearly. Take time to articulate your thoughts well and present them. This helps to a large degree especially when there is a conflict.
• When there are unwarranted talks from the other node, ignore and learn to let go. One of the toughest skills is the ability to let go but you once you learn to distinguish what really matters and what does not, it removes all the pain associated with some unpleasant situations.
• If it impacts your productivity, introspect to see if the incident takes more priority than what you had committed to deliver or if the sting is because you had taken it personal.
• One of the strongest points that helps all of the above, is to take genuine efforts to attempt to understand the intent behind the tension being generated from the other node. If the intentions are malicious, report it to the relevant stakeholders. However if the intentions are pure, take it as constructive feedback and see if changing something from your end can change things. After all, we are all here to learn.

The working environment isn’t only a place to improve our technical skills but also gives an opportunity to have some major learnings about our personalities as well which can be used everywhere.

Happy learning. Happy social distancing.

Published By

Dhivya Raj

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.