I have seen this time after time – a common relationship issue is being unable to let your guard down. We tend to get defensive when we are not comfortable with sharing our true feelings. What is important is that you allow some vulnerability and stop pushing away all the people around you. Below are some of the tips to help you become more open and less prone to shutting out opportunities:
Try To Find the Right People to Trust
It might be that people have let you down in the past. Such bad experiences of the past might be preventing you from opening up to new people at present or in the future. However, you need to believe that not all will be like that. There are many great people who you can rely on, provided you let them to get to know you. Communication key to building strong relationships in your personal and professional life. Building trust at your workplace is essential to your career success. You should start looking for people to build strong relationships.
Know Your Comfort Zone and Get Out of It
Keeping things to yourself might seem comfortable and secure. You should try to be more experimental by taking risks. A good way for you to open up is to start slowly, exposing yourself to others and doing things that you would not normally do. Find that someone who looks friendly at your workplace and introduce yourself to him/her. I know that the first step is never that easy. There is a high likelihood that the other person will actually be glad that you did. Are you an introvert leader? Perhaps this blog post will help!
Show Your Feelings Honestly
Never be afraid of sharing your true feelings with your friends and family. It can be a great release to let them know what is on your mind and how you are feeling and in return, you can expect them to give you valuable advice. Now I am not saying that you should blurt out every single thing that comes to your mind. What you need to do is just let go of those stresses and worries that you really should not be holding onto. One big reason behind relationship issues is when you are unable to communicate or share your feelings enough, even with people who are supposed to be very close to you.
Embrace Being Vulnerable To Others
It can be very exhausting to maintain a tough appearance, holding everything in. Stop connecting being emotional to being helpless. Chances are that your colleagues will appreciate that you trust them and will look at you as someone who is honest. Showing vulnerability will make you feel strengthened. Do not take it negatively – embrace the vulnerability.
Be As Straightforward As Possible
No other way is as effective in letting your guard down as by being just straightforward with others about your intentions and feelings. Just try it – it really will liberate you! After spending so much time and effort hiding your emotions, it can feel very rewarding to be straightforward with others. Just do not be rude and try to maintain a decent demeanour.
Give Up Being Critical and Pessimistic
A major reason for people to put up walls is the fear of getting hurt or used by other people. Such an approach leads to you having false perceptions and assumptions of people who might be sincere and honest with you. You need to understand that people are not always selfish and in fact are often quite genuinely interested in you. So let yourself connect with others in your life and let them get to know you on another level.
Give Others a Chance
Be open to taking risks and give others a chance to be a part of your life. Let them in! You might find it to be hard at the start and you might also get hurt sometimes, but this will also reassure you that letting go of your emotions and expressing your feelings is worth it. Understand that risks are a part of life and al relationships come with some element of risk. Therefore, whether it is at work or in a personal relationship, you should let your guard down.
Building Trust at Work
Letting down your guard will help you build beautiful relationships at work. An important element of being closer to others is to be able to build trust at work. Your trustworthiness will be extremely helpful in determining your success in your career. Below are some of the steps that you can take to build a genuine relationship with your workers:
- When It Is Due, Praise Co-Workers. A strong way to cultivate strong relationships with your colleagues is to praise them for their good work. Giving credit to your peers will make you look gracious. Just make sure that your praises are well times and authentic. For example, you might use the next team meeting to celebrate a co-worker’s career achievement or simply to say thank you to someone for his or her help in a project.
- Stay Away from Office Gossips. I know that this is easier said than done. The plain truth is that office gossips can end up being very toxic. Moreover, you fail to build trust even with the people you are gossiping with because of the fear that you will do the same to them. Want to know a better way to cope with frustrations at work? Vent to someone outside your workplace. If you experience an issue with a co-worker, you should try to resolve the matter with that person in private before bringing it to your boss and the human resources department.
- Make a Habit of Sharing Information. Having a perception of being a team player by your peers builds trust. You need to take steps to shape up your image. Look at it this way – at an industry conference, instead of taking in all that you learned and keeping it to yourself for your own benefit, you should share what you learned with your co-workers to help establish your credibility as a team player. You need to have the right intentions. If you intend to honestly help your peers and colleagues develop and succeed professionally, you will build trust. On the other hand, if you are just sharing the information because you want something in return, chances are that your co-workers going to end up trusting you less.
- Invest In The Development Of Your Employees. In case you have a team that you are managing, it is your responsibility as a professional to help your subordinates grow by sharpening their skills and gain new skills. For this to be possible, you need to provide them with honest feedback, which is a combination of constructive criticism and praise on a regular basis. Performance reviews are another opportunity for you to build trust with your subordinates. As humans, we value leaders who make us feel valued. By offering support and feedback to your employees, you will solidify a strong working relationship and boost their own level of engagement at work.
- Show Some Consistency. Leaders are always looking for people who can deliver top quality work each day. None of your team members should be given the opportunity to stop and wonder if you will be delivering top quality work today. You must be trusted to do a good job and deliver results on time. Just like your performance, your mood also needs to be consistent. Your boss must have the impression that you are trustworthy and can be counted on to keep your cool. Failing to guarantee this will make your trust level to go down.
- Focus On the Non-Verbal Communication. Believe me, you can help build trust with your peers by using your body language. At the same time, your body language can also undermine your efforts if you are not careful. Having crossed arms or a slumping posture can seriously turn others off. Nodding to show interest and making eye contact, on the other hand, can boost trust. You should create a welcoming atmosphere for people around you, so they do not hesitate to approach you. Being open to your colleagues will definitely make them feel invited to share feedback and ideas with you.
- Be Warm and Gracious with New Hires. As a professional, you play a crucial role in your company’s onboarding process, paving way for boosting employee retention. According to this survey from Paycom, great onboarding experiences can reduce turnovers by 157% as well as boost employee engagement by 54%. If you are a supervisor, you should do everything possible to make new hire feel welcomed. This can even be small gestures like taking someone out for lunch or coffee. Building rapport and trust will be critical to your own career success.
Did you find these tips helpful? Let me know! Do check my other blog post on Gaining The Trust Of Your Employees in Five Steps and Building Employee Trust Through Words And Actions.
