How to Develop Friendships and Connect Meaningfully with Work Colleagues

Improve your ability to initiate and maintain healthy work friendships, and tactfully extract yourself from ones that don’t serve you, whether interacting online or in person.

Introduction

• The gift of friendship and connecting meaningfully at work

1. Recognizing How Friendships Have Never Been More Important

• The feel good factor
• Staying connected virtually and remotely
• Building bridges inclusively

2. Sidestepping Friendship Land Mines

• Cultivate friendships, not cliques
• Clarifying and enforcing boundaries with over steppers
• Avoiding gossiping, triangulating, and complaining
• Disagreeing with friends: Don’t just go with the flow

3. Distinguishing between Common Work Relationships

• Partnering with your boss
• Treading carefully with a work spouse
• Maximizing sponsor relationships
• Getting the best out of client relationships
• Strengthening referral relationships

4. How-to Friendship: Examples

• Addressing a work friend's negative behavior
• Setting limits with friends the right way
• Deflecting others' negative behavior
• Managing friendships outside of work

Conclusion

• Be the first: What dogs teach about friendship
• Cultivating friendships and building a legacy