Strong relationships have always been important in the workplace. As businesses become global and professionals work together across time zones, managing and maintaining workplace relationships has become challenging.
The manager-employee relationship has a critical affect on performance. Smart business leaders know if managers are trained and charged with responsibility for the success of their reports, departmental and organizational performance will take care of itself.
Companies that don’t drive home the importance of this relationship to frontline managers will eventually pay the price, whether it’s in the loss of good employees or decreases in performance resulting from employee dissatisfaction.
Ming Ong wrote an article entitled “How to Find Balance Between Leadership and Management,” and it dives into how to build positive relationships. As business leaders and managers, we need to build and foster positive relationships with our employees.
Employee Awareness
Don’t just act interested, be interested. Ong suggests to keep in regular contact with your employees and really hear what they are doing as well as what they have on their plate. If you take a sincere interest in your employees, they will feel you are truly interested in them and they’ll be more dedicated to their work and the company’s success.
Accountability
Employees need to be held accountable for their tasks. For a group of employees to work together, they need to understand group and individual goals. Understanding shared and individual goals eliminates finger-pointing because everyone understands the relevance of the teams contributions. This provides employees with increased awareness of their interdependencies.
Empowerment
Offer guidance, but let your employees make the decisions when possible. They will feel valuable and it encourages them to learn more and grow. Inspire, don’t control. Encourage feedback, and communicate what is happening. People want to know their input matters and how they contribute to the company’s success.
What our businesses need today are managers who lead, inspire, and motivate employees to achieve business-wide goals. In the long-term, building solid relationships with employees builds an environment where they want to meet their goals and are not forced to do so.
