Dr. Ritu Anand on How TCS builds healthy work relationships

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Dr. Ritu Anand on How TCS builds healthy work relationships
To me, workplace camaraderie is an outcome of workplace culture. I am a firm believer in informality in the workplace. Having lunch,  going out for a cup of coffee, and celebrating each other’s personal milestones at the workplace is a great start to develop camaraderie among colleagues.

Rendezvous With Dr. Ritu Anand, Chief Leadership & Diversity Officer, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Healthy Work Relationships

Dr. Ritu Anand is a pioneer in the field of human behavior and people management with a career spanning 30+ years.

At Tata Consultancy Services, she spearheads the company’s leadership and diversity charter, focusing on grooming leaders of the future. She holds a doctorate in Psychology.

Q- Why do healthy workplace relationships matter?

Workplaces need to ensure each individual feels trusted and respected, and their contributions valued. Professional work relationships often dominate nearly a third of our lives and therefore have a huge potential impact on our physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. And they shape us, influence our personality and define our interactions not just at work but also in our personal life.

They have the capacity to lend shape to our personal lives, how happy, content, and confident we are as individuals, how we embrace different situations, how we respond to crises, and how we navigate different social settings. They can help us access and be part of new networks and social structures, opening up unique horizons for learning and growth.

Work relationships that are built on a foundation of shared values and beliefs, trust and respect foster greater inclusion across the organization, encourage open and honest communication, and enable support and collaboration – all critical to ensuring superior individual, team, and organizational performance, growth, and innovation.

For many, the workplace also offers avenues to promote common interests and goals and work together on a shared purpose. Work relations that stem from such holistic interactions have the power to go beyond being transactional. They can open up avenues for individuals to explore their true potential, pursue their aspirations, or progress to a higher level in their professional journey.

Q- How do you ensure strong and healthy work relationships in organizations?

Healthy and strong professional relations are an outcome of individuals feeling safe and psychologically, emotionally, and physically well. People need to feel included and respected and know that their contributions are valued and enable positive outcomes.

To balance out, it also means zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment. This comes down to organization culture and the values and beliefs we support, as individuals, teams, and as a company. When leaders live the organization values, and beliefs translate into behaviors, the workplace enables positive and healthy professional work relations. 

This also needs to reflect in how an organization operates – all the way from hiring processes that are fair and unbiased and open doors of opportunities to diverse candidates, to policies that enable equitable progress, to programs that drive greater engagement and improved employee experience across all avenues and at all levels.

Q- How do you advise to sort out conflicts at workplace, especially personality, and leadership disputes?  

This comes down to people’s personalities and individual leadership styles, but to me, as a leader, you need to look at people and situations or outcomes separately to address any unconscious bias.

When we start blaming or bringing down individuals rather than focusing on the circumstances and the situation, the interactions become negative, unhelpful, and even unhealthy. Instead, leaders and managers need to find ways to analyze situations objectively.

Empathy needs to rank high on the list of attributes you exhibit. Next comes intent – what drove a person to make a certain decision or behave in a certain way. And finally, how did the organization’s values manifest themselves in the situation and in the person(s)’ behavior.

It may look complex in theory, but keeping these points in mind can help ensure greater collaboration, and help shift instances of forced outcomes to those of compromise. 

Q- What are the Dos and Don’ts for building healthy work relationships?

  • Build on trust and stay true to commitments.
  • Communicate honestly and promote greater transparency. 
  • Recognize and reward success, and also leave room for failure. 
  • Respect individuals for their abilities, ideas, and thinking. 
  • Enable and support peers and managers, and empower your teams. 
  • Know that you grow if those who report to you grow.

Q- How to foster Workplace Camaraderie to build a Great Place to Work?

To me, workplace camaraderie is an outcome of workplace culture.

I am a firm believer in informality in the workplace. Having lunch,  going out for a cup of coffee, and celebrating each other’s personal milestones at the workplace is a great start to develop camaraderie among colleagues. Have you ever tried having lunch with a different person every day in office.  I found that to be the best ice breaker and a good way of getting to know your peers. Camaraderie to me is a first step towards building deep trust.

It starts at the very top, with senior leaders establishing an environment of trust. There are so many aspects to this- open and direct communication, acceptance of individuals for who they are and the strengths they bring to the table, encouraging people to voice differences in opinion, leaving room for failure, and avoiding a culture of constant internal competition.

These have the power to improve working in teams and across business units and functions. For large, complex and matrixed organizations, the resulting workplace camaraderie can translate into collaboration that isn’t forced but actively promoted to achieve shared outcomes.

People feel more confident in their roles and can take on greater ownership of outcomes. For managers, this also results in teams that are more positive and goal-driven. Where workplace camaraderie is real, employee retention is also higher.

Employees feel connected to the workplace, their teams, and their managers, and can often find greater strength, support, and purpose through their interactions and experiences, building a positive sentiment towards the workplace that is hard to replicate or replace. 

Q- Any final words?

Work relations and organisational culture should not be relegated to the realm of HR or another function. Building trust and strong teams c doesn’t demand complex programs or long-drawn initiatives. It starts with the attitude and approach that leaders bring to the workplace.

Don’t undermine the potential you have to drive greater connections and collaboration at work and don’t wait for someone else to take charge of it for you, your colleagues, and teams. Words and actions often have the power to create far more impact than policies and formal programs can so do everything in your power to promote this. When leaders, managers, and individuals embrace organisational values and imbibe the culture, everyone thrives. When workplace camaraderie is real, it fosters positivity at a new level. 

Not only do individuals grow professionally, but they can also see new opportunities open up for them through unconventional channels. And the cumulative outcome of it is reflected in teams that outperform, and organisations that champion growth, innovation, and change not just for themselves but for the broader ecosystem – their clients, partners, and the communities in which they operate.

Thank you, Dr. Ritu!

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