• Do you ever feel that no matter what you do that there’s some people who are just difficult to work with?
• Is there a tension that you can’t figure out and even though you try different approaches nothing seems to work?
• Do you resent investing time in building a relationship when you’ve got a million and one items on your to do list?
• Or do you simply ignore the relationships that are hard work in an attempt to get the job done?

At work we encounter many different people, and we naturally get on better with some people than others. Working with other humans can be challenging. If we’re working flexibly and not always in the same location as colleagues it can be even more difficult to build strong working relationships, especially with those that we don’t naturally hit it off with.

There’s often a person we find tricky to communicate with. It can feel that something doesn’t gel, yet you can’t quite put your finger on it. Perhaps there’s someone who you dread working with or know that it’s going to be difficult. Tricky working relationships can knock our confidence, reduce productivity and our enjoyment of our work.

It would be unrealistic to expect we’ll find everyone a dream to work with – we all arrive at work with different experiences, working preferences, values and priorities. And yet, our relationships at work can be the difference between happy and productive working days and unmotivated and difficult working days.

If you can develop the tools to build stronger relationships, even with those colleagues who go about things differently to you, it will boost your confidence, reduce the Sunday night dread, the inbox rage and will have a positive impact on your career, because now, more than ever, the ability to build strong relationships, especially at a distance, is a vital skill for any manager or leader.

Key learnings from this session:

• An understanding what gets in the way of building good relationships (and unlock the best solutions)
• Tips to better understand the tricky person (it might be you!)
• Practical strategies to start using straight away to build better working relationships.