Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, where we help

leaders activate high performance and dial back burnout. We run boot camps, workshops, talks, and off-sites.

Reach out anytime if your team could use a boost. I met Rachel at Lead Above Noise.com.

And hey, if you've been listening to Modern Mentor and it's

sparked a fresh thought helped you lead differently or made your workday feel a little more

doable, it will be awesome if you'd leave a quick rating or review in your podcast app. It's a great

way to help others find the show. Okay, so today, let's talk about Sandra. Wait, you know her too? No, of course not. But she's

somebody who worked for me some number of years ago. She was really good at her job. She was just,

I don't know, ornery. Like she was always kind of cranky, and I struggled to connect with her.

I mean, we just weren't friends.

And it troubled me until one day one of my actual friends reminded me that not everyone at work

has to be my friend. Having friends at work is great. We should all strive for it, but we can pick

and choose the relationships we choose to elevate to that level.

What is important is our ability to work successfully with everyone at work. Whether or not we

like or enjoy each other, we need to respect and collaborate with each other. Maybe you're

struggling these days to do that with someone. And by the way, so many of us are. Let's talk about what we can do

in these moments, like how we might gently reset a work relationship that feels a little rocky,

even if there wasn't a specific incident creating the tension. Sometimes it's personality clash.

Sometimes it's just a misalignment or a buildup of small things that never got resolved. Sometimes it's personality clash. Sometimes it's just a misalignment or a buildup of small things that never

got resolved. Sometimes it's just there. Either way, if the energy's off, it's worth pausing and

paying attention. For me, when a dynamic starts to feel strained, I find the most helpful

way to work through it is to think about it in two phases. First, reflect,

...