RELATIONAL WISDOM AT THE WORKPLACE PART 2

IN life, reaching our best capacity is not just about our own achievements, but also our relationships with others, and how we could work together in enhancing each other’s lives.  A great nation or society usually consists of people whose focus is not just on me, but on we.

Positive relationships have the potential of improving our productivity and capacity. Actually relational capacity is key to personal and professional success.

We all must learn to build better relationships, and increase our relational capacity. The key to build effective relationships begins with cultivating the habit of valuing our workmates. We must intentionally value people, believe in people, and unconditionally love people. When we fail to value people and respect our colleagues, it will create a barrier to our relationships with them.

Our thoughts, actions and words usually manifest our value levels. Author and Professor Leo Buscaglia said, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” We must learn to believe and speak right about others even if they are not always doing what is right. It keeps the work environment friendly.

We must never allow other people’s behaviour to control our emotions or attitude. Do not get sucked by the behaviour of difficult people. Wisdom demands that you choose to have less interaction with negative people. Dealing with people at the workplace can sometimes be difficult, yet we must love people unconditionally. Our aim should be to treat people better than they treat us or respond to us.

We all have the capacity to show love, mercy and generosity to other human beings inspite of how difficult they are. In her book, “How to Hug a Porcupine” Debbie Ellis calls difficult people porcupines. There are so many porcupines at every workplace; we must all develop the art of hugging porcupines.

It is a quality of growth and maturity. The basis of real life is people and how we connect and relate to them. Christ said something very profound in terms of how we should treat one another, “Therefore whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them.” (Matthew 7:12).

Almost all of us want people to encourage us, appreciate us, not take advantage of us, not speak evil about us, fairly criticise us, forgive us when we mess up, pick us up when we fall, listen to us when we have issues, and even to understand us. 
The key to walking in relational wisdom is to learn how to treat others the way you want to be treated. What we sow, we will also definitely reap.

The principle of sowing and reaping applies in our relationships. If we sow hate, we will reap hate. If we sow violence, we will also reap violence. If we sow strife, we will reap strife around our lives. We must always treat people the way we want to be treated. We must not see people as just objects, we must be concerned with their needs and interests.

We must use our gifts and talents to help people. Let us make things happen for others, and build them up.
One of the foundational keys to walking in relational wisdom is good character.

The biggest problem we have in society today apart from the lack of visionary leaders and generational thinkers; is the lack of morality and ethics. Character defines who we really are, while reputation is what people know about us. We must be trustworthy. Our yes must be yes and our no, no. Our talk must be consistent with our walk.

Our lives must have integrity so that we can be trusted.“Better is the poor that walks in his integrity, than  he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool,” (Proverbs 19:1).
Actually the greatest thing that can be said about us is not that we have money or are very gifted, but that we have a good character and integrity. A man of character always means what he says. He does not steal time from his employer or take something that does not belong to him. To have character is to have the capacity to refuse to compromise valuable principles, or to betray trust and confidence.

Relational wisdom demands that we learn how to compliment others and not to compete. If our focus is on how to outshine, outclass or outdo others, we will lose the sense of who we are and where we are going in life. Competition and contention are children of strife. “It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling” Proverbs 20:3.
Strife takes our focus off our destiny and unto unprofitable things. When we live just to impress people with our achievements, we will fail to express who God has really made us to be. When people relate well at work, productivity is increased, the economy of the nation grows, and Vision 2022 could become a reality.

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