Relationship
Tips for creating healthy working relationships
A healthy working relationship with employees creates a positive work environment and helps grow an organisation. Not much is talked about the boss-employee relationship. Like any other relationship, it also has many wavelengths and needs a proper flow to sustain and grow.
Good relationships are more about mutual admiration and understanding. However, it is a process that needs genuine effort, time, and empathy.
1. Bond of trust
The most important part of a boss-employee relationship is trust. Always be honest with your employees and never twist your words. Always tell the truth.
Be more transparent while you approach your employees. And never gossip about your employees or share any of their personal information with others. Trust is the building block and makes your relationship with employees sustainable. So trust-building will give you great results.
Bridge the relationship with trust to sustain it.
2. Merge the gap with communication
Communication is one of the most important key aspects of the boss-employee relationship.
Open and honest communication gives you an understanding of the employees’ sentiments, needs, and a good company culture.
A workplace should not only limit to email communication. Weekly meetings and hearing out the employees help you achieve more employee loyalty. Good communication fills the gap between awkwardness and other human complexities.
3. Appreciate your employees
A simple gesture or a “Thank you” note can lift your mood and keep you motivated.
Give your employees the appreciation they need. They work for you and dedicate a lot of time and effort to your company’s growth. Pat their backs, make them feel special, and let them know how much you value their work. Do it honestly and not just for the sake of it.
Though it would take very little time to appreciate their excellent work, for them, this can bring a whole new motivation and engagement in their work.
4. Respect your employees
Respect your employees and their opinions. Never make your employees feel neglected. Please don’t be harsh on their face when you disagree with them. Respect their inputs and try to explain your point of view with a little more empathy.
5. Implement autonomy
Give your employees freedom in your workplace. Nobody would appreciate you if you don’t give your employees enough room and space to complete their tasks. Autonomy in the workplace increases job satisfaction and your relationship with employees.
6. Show value, be empathetic
Value your employees. When you do it honestly, your relationship would automatically transcend to another level. If any of your employees face problems and have a hard time dealing with them, give them your helping hand. Supporting them in their crises could create wonders for your relationship.
7. One to one interactions
Go a little extra mile to talk to your employees and have a one-to-one interaction with them when needed. This would create a sense of support for your employees.
Ask your employees if they are happy with the work assigned to them. If they find enough support from their team members? Are they keen on learning other processes? Or any suggestions they have on the current way of work.
Questions like these would give your employees a sense of morale boost and help build positive relationships.
8. Have a learning attitude
Don’t take the proverb “The boss is always right” literally. Keep a learning attitude, which would help the employees feel more comfortable while giving their point of view to you. This also allows the employees to realise that they are the same and gives a sense of oneness.
At the end of the day, the Boss-employee relationship is all about trust and believing in their work. Hence, it is a collaboration where genuine involvement from both parties is compulsory.
Parenting teens can be challenging. But it can also be a joy. The key is to know how to care for yourself, first and foremost. Before you have children, you might think that parenting will come naturally. And, to some degree, it does. But there are days (and sometimes months and years) when all parents could use some extra support.
Last week we looked at some four simple yet powerful approaches for parenting teens that build strong relationships for the long-run. Here are the remaining two:
4: Keep communication going
Because we are often busy and distracted, we do not always take the time to really focus on our kids when they’re trying to tell us something. Take advantage of the time you have together. Having dinner together as a family, using car time to talk, or chatting before bed are good ways to stay in daily touch with your teen. Prioritise quality time as well as quantity: Consider having breakfast out on the weekend as a special catch-up time to chat about the week. Or schedule monthly “family meetings” to discuss how things have been going and any conflicts that have arisen.
5. Be an empathetic listener
Listening with empathy and caring is one of the most important tips on parenting a teenager. Researchers have shown that people’s brain patterns synchronise when they listen closely to one another and watch each other’s expressions. As a result, the connection between them becomes stronger. Not feeling truly heard can lead to isolation and lack of self-esteem which are the root causes of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Therefore, take listening seriously. It’s not just a way of coping with teenagers; it has an enormous impact on their well-being.
The price of ‘I do’: Why money honesty is the real marriage insurance –Part 2
She did not find out he was cheating. She found out he was drowning.
It was two weeks after their beautiful wedding. The jollof was still in the fridge. A loan officer called her number-not his-and politely asked, “Madam, please tell your husband to pay his overdue loan. We have been calling him.”
That was how she discovered her new husband had entered their marriage with a hidden debt of over GH¢ 40,000. No cheating. No other woman. Just a financial secret.
And that is how many Ghanaian marriages begin to die. Not with a shout, but with a secret alert on a phone.
We prepare for the wedding. We do not prepare for the wallet.
What is money honesty?
Let me define it simply. Money honesty is not that you both earn the same. It is that you both know the same. It is the ability to sit down and say without fear:
“This is how much I earn.”
“This is how much I owe.”
“This is how I was raised to see money.”
“This is what scares me about money.”
Financial transparency is not about control. It is about clarity. You cannot build trust on top of secrets.
Many couples tell me, “Counsellor, we love each other, love will handle money.” I always answer, “Love is the car, but money honesty is the fuel. Love without honesty cannot move.”
How To Buy Your Marriage Insurance Today – My 5-Step Protocol
If you are engaged, newly married, or even 20 years in marriage, you can still fix this. At Counsellor Prince & Associates Consult—CPAC, this is what I give couples:
Step 1: The 90-Minute Money Naked Session.
No phones, no blame. Each partner writes down on paper: Monthly income, monthly debts, monthly family obligations, savings, and your biggest money fear. Then you exchange papers. Read it. Don’t react for 24 hours. Just absorb.
Step 2: Create OUR Money, YOUR Money, My Money.
You need three pots. OUR money for rent, food, school fees, utilities, properties, and the like— joint contribution. YOUR money and MY money—a small agreed allowance no one questions. This stops the feeling of being controlled.
Step 3: The No-Secret Debt Rule.
Agree from today: No new loan, no new hire purchase, no new family financial commitment above GHS 500 without telling each other first. Not permission, but information.
Step 4: Talk About Your Money Personality.
Are you a Spender or a Saver? Are you Risky or Safe? Most Ghanaian marriages are a Spender married to a Saver. Neither is wrong. But if you don’t understand your partner’s personality, you will call his saving “stinginess” and her spending “wastefulness.”
Step 5: Do a Monthly 30-Minute Money Date
Not an argument date. Light, with tea. “How did we do this month? What worried you? What should we plan for next month?” Couples who do this divorce far less.
My Final Word
Before you say “I Do” at the altar, have pre-marital counselling and also have the money talk on the sofa.
Ask your partner:
“If I lost my job today, how long can we survive?”
“What debt are you bringing into this marriage?”
“How much do you send to your family monthly and will that continue?”
If he or she gets angry that you asked, don’t get married yet. A person who is angry about accountability will be abusive about money.
Marriage insurance is not bought at Star Assurance or Enterprise. It is bought in honest conversations when no one is watching.
The wedding costs one day. The marriage costs a lifetime. Don’t enter a lifetime contract and covenant with hidden costs.
You can still insure your marriage today.
Source:
Counselor Prince Offei, CPAC’s founder, is a leading Mental Health Professional, Marriage Counsellor, Author, ADR Expert/Arbitrator, and Spectator Newspaper Columnist. He writes on relationships, marriage, parenting, special needs support, and their connection to mental health. For therapy, counselling, or enquiries, contact Counselor Prince & Associates Consult (CPAC) in Accra on 0559850604 / 0551428486.
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