Develop and sustain productive working relationships with colleagues*

Overview

This standard is about developing and sustaining productive working relationships with colleagues within your own organisation. This standard is relevant to managers and leaders who work with colleagues in their own organisation but not with external stakeholders

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do:

  1. Establish working relationships with relevant colleagues within your organisation
  2. Recognise and respect the roles, responsibilities, interests and concerns of colleagues
  3. Seek to create a climate of trust and mutual respect, particularly where you have no authority, or shared authority, over those you are working with
  4. Seek to understand difficult situations and issues from colleagues’ perspectives and provide support, where necessary, to move things forward
  5. Provide colleagues with appropriate information to enable them to perform effectively
  6. Consult colleagues in relation to key decisions and activities and take account of their views
  7. Fulfil agreements made with colleagues and let them know
  8. Advise colleagues promptly of any difficulties or where it will be impossible to fulfil agreements
  9. Identify and resolve conflicts of interest and disagreements with colleagues in ways that minimise damage to work activities and to the individuals involved
  10. Monitor and review the effectiveness of working relationships with colleagues in order to identify areas for improvement
  11. Seek and provide feedback in order to improve your own and your colleagues’ performance

Knowledge & Understanding

You need to know and understand:

General knowledge and understanding

  1. The benefits of developing productive working relationships with colleagues
  2. Principles of effective communication and how to apply them in order to communicate effectively with colleagues
  3. Why it is important to recognise and respect the roles, responsibilities, interests and concerns of colleagues
  4. The importance of creating a climate of trust and mutual respect where you have no authority, or shared authority, over those you are working with
  5. The importance of understanding difficult situations and issues from other perspectives and providing support, where necessary, to move things forward
  6. How to identify and meet the information needs of colleagues
  7. What information it is appropriate to provide to colleagues and the factors that need to be taken into consideration
  8. How to consult with colleagues in relation to key decisions and activities
  9. The importance of taking account, and being seen to take account, of the views of colleagues
  10. Why communication with colleagues on fulfilment of agreements or any problems affecting or preventing fulfilment is important
  11. How to identify conflicts of interest with colleagues and the techniques that can be used to manage or remove them
  12. How to identify disagreements with colleagues and the techniques for sorting them out
  13. The damage that conflicts of interest and disagreements with colleagues can cause to individuals and organisations
  14. How to monitor and review the effectiveness of working relationships with colleagues
  15. How to get and make effective use of feedback from colleagues
  16. How to provide colleagues with feedback designed to improve their performance

    Industry/sector specific knowledge and understanding

  17. Sector-specific legislation, regulations, guidelines and codes of practice
  18. Standards of behaviour and performance in your industry or sector
  19. The culture of your industry or sector

    Context specific knowledge and understanding

  20. The vision, values, objectives, plans, structure and culture of your organisation
  21. Relevant colleagues, their work roles and responsibilities
  22. Agreements with colleagues
  23. The identified information needs of colleagues
  24. Mechanisms for consulting with colleagues on key decisions and activities
  25. Your organisation’s planning and decision-making processes
  26. Mechanisms for communicating with colleagues
  27. Power, influence and politics within your organisation
  28. Standards of behaviour and performance that are expected in your organisation
  29. Mechanisms in place for monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of working relationships with colleagues.