Though this generation of digital natives might think it easy to build relationships online – but it is not as easy as it seems, as our current experience with the shift to online workplaces is proving. Be it the struggle to fight through a terrible wi-fi connection, or a lack of ideas when it comes to workplace relationship-building activities, the worldwide pandemic has forced us to face a new normal we might not have been ready for despite having the technology to move our work online. A task that once took a few minutes might take a little longer and take more of our energy to complete, and our productivity may have taken a hit as we try to navigate ways of remaining focused while working from home. There may be misunderstandings, miscommunications and missed deadlines that makes work a little more maddening.
However, humans are an adaptable species. It is how we have survived for so many eras, across many generations. The pandemic has not bested us yet, and the fact that we have been able to come out of quarantine and make the shift to online workplaces so far has shown us that. The more and more time we spend doing something, the better we can get at it.
The core of improving our experience with working online lies in building better and more meaningful working relationships, even if it might be the one thing that seems impossible to do on an online platform. You have heard about the ‘3Rs’ of recycling; try to follow ‘3Cs’ of online relationship-building:
Connect
Being genuine with the people you meet is the first step. Make an effort to reach out to them for a simple online meal together or short one-to-one meeting where you get to know your colleagues and clients more closely. Find out what motivates them, what would help them work better and try to use that information to help them with any issues they might have at work, or even open new opportunities for them by connecting them with others they might benefit from. By proactively reaching out a helping hand in response to what they have told you in a genuine manner, this will help them feel more valued.
Having trouble deciding how exactly to go about connecting with your business relationships? SendQuick may be the application for you. With omnichannel messaging on any platform of your liking, whether it be SMS, Whatsapp, Line, WeChat or other collaboration tools like Slack, this allows for a single API to offer a unified means of communication to connect with every one of your business relationships – from varying customer touchpoints to communicating with colleagues.
SendQuick can be especially useful for companies with a need to respond to customer expectations oftentimes, providing them an option to connect on any social channel they prefer. In turn, SendQuick helps to align organizations with its unified communication and collaboration tool and prevent disjointed customer experiences or miscommunication by encouraging seamless collaboration.
Compassion
Compassion can be the most important quality in working online. By viewing other’s struggles and work approaches with the same compassion you might view your own, this can help you to manage your expectations. Listening to others with compassion can in turn encourage them to help you feel more valued and listened to. As the Golden Rule goes, “Treat others how you want to be treated”.
Capable
Showing that you are capable of doing your job well not only improves other’s expectations and perception of you, but also encourages them to reach out to you for help and opens opportunities for intra-organisational learning. Some ways to show capability might be to follow-up on tasks, be ready with information when it is asked for and take the initiative to take on tasks that need doing. This ties in with Compassion and Connecting; by listening with compassion and connecting with others, you can find out the kind of resourcefulness that would most be appreciated in your workplace. Capability does not only mean showing your mettle. It can also mean acknowledging the limits of your abilities, but expressing an interest to improve and learn. This will not only encourage people to connect with someone realistic, but also allows them to respect you as someone who is constantly striving to give their all in work – even in an unfamiliar virtual setting.
This is simply the beginning of a new era of virtuality that 2020 has brought us into. It might feel unfamiliar to us, and we might want to go back to the old norms. The essential need for communication can make IT solutions like SendQuick ever more important to our work life, and a greater reliance on such solutions might just make the 3Cs much more approachable.
