What’s the worst working relationship you’ve experienced?
The worst working relationship I ever had? Prior to starting my own company Purposefully, I had a series of relationships I stumbled – and actually fell – while trying to build. Unfortunately for my colleagues and I, these relationships were all at one organization: the relationship with my boss who didn’t want to be my boss; the relationship with a peer I didn't realize was actually my boss; the team member who didn’t want any input or feedback, and gosh, all of the others who had to work through this mess each day.
A disaster of unaddressed expectations.
Had I read Michael Bungay Stanier’s new book How to Work with (Almost) Anyone, I would have learned key strategies that could have prevented so much angst and unrest for the entire team.
The book gives a step-by-step guide -- what to say, what to do -- when you have a conversation about how to work together (rather than the usual thing of just ignoring it, hoping for the best, and getting on with the work). It’s a hands-on guide to making your key working relationships safe, vital, and repairable.
It might not have been able to have saved my particular mess of tough relationships, but already, it’s helped me strengthen relationships I value today.
