Do your work relationships haunt you?

I was recently in a party where a woman leader (who heads an international firm) said that "at this stage, one wants to work with good people and do good work...not get stuck with office politics"

That got me thinking about "good people" and their aversion to "office politics"...but in this entire reflection, I kept landing back on stakeholder relationships and how a lot of our joy at work depends upon how we manage these.

I remember a time when in a feedback session, my team member asked me if I was trying to get her to leave the organization. Whoa! I was too shocked for words. On deeper probing, I got to know that the one-line email reminders I sent her to check status on tasks were being misconstrued as documentation that I was creating to get her kicked out! And all this while, I thought I was being super considerate by not interrupting her work-flow with unsolicited phone calls or walk-ins. It was a wake up call for me and I realised that my style of working was determined by my own preferences without considering hers. What a lesson!