Even though you follow the human relations guidelines, in any organization there are bound to be times when you disagree with others. And you will more than likely have to interact with people who do not follow the guidelines. Human relations problems often occur when the psychological contract is not met.

The psychological contract is the shared expectations between people. At work you have expectations of the things your boss and coworkers should and should not do, and they in turn have expectations of you. As long as expectations are met, things go well. However, if expectations are not met, human relations problems occur. Thus, when people share information and negotiate expectations, have clear roles, and are committed to meeting others’ expectations, things go well.

When you encounter a human relations problem, you have to decide whether to avoid the problem or to solve it. In most cases, it is advisable to solve human relations problems rather than ignore them. Problems usually get worse rather than solve themselves.

In most cases, the logical choice is to change your own behavior. But that does not mean doing whatever other people request. In fact, you should be assertive. You are not being forced to change; rather, you are changing your behavior because you elect to do so. When you change your behavior, others may also change.

To finalize the importance of human relations, if you don’t like working with people and don’t want to improve your people skills, it most likely will hurt your career progression. If you like working with people and think you are good at it, as the standards continue to increase, you will need to continually improve. Changing our behavior and habits is not easy or comfortable, but people skills are critical to personal and professional happiness and success. So make it a new habit to apply what you learn in this book to develop your people skills.