Sometimes, you just don’t want to work with a person, no matter what they may offer you. There are two easy, but not very good, solutions for working with people you dislike: Don’t work with them, by either excluding them from your team, or finding another project, or another job. The second poor solution is to limit your relationship with that person. Focus exclusively on the work you do together and be cautious in your communication to make sure your dislike does not show, and that your work still gets done.
But there is a much better option than those two, which is to find something that you like about the person. In other words, just stop disliking them. Why bother? I’ve worked with thousands of people, and I can hardly think of anyone that I actively dislike. It’s almost impossible for me to not be able to find something that I like about a person. Once I do, I focus on that, and life becomes so much easier. You should try doing the same.
If you think that you need to agree with someone on everything, or even most things in life before you can like them, you’re setting yourself up for a very disappointing life.
[Read more…] about How to Repair a Relationship with Someone You Dislike – Andre Castillo