A healthy employee relationship is essential for employees to find their work interesting and perform at their best. Everyone needs to understand that they come to their organization to work, and that conflict is nothing more than a waste of time. Employees must be comfortable with each other and work in unison towards a common goal — no one can stay tight-lipped and work in isolation for long; people need others around them to talk to and bounce ideas off.
Employees also need friends at the workplace they can trust well and share things with, without worrying about it getting around. This is what keeps people motivated and glad to come into the office each day — they take fewer unnecessary leaves and work harder to meet what the organization expects of them. For an organization to perform well, employees need to be friendly with one another and steer clear of criticism and backstabbing, both of which are reliable ways to spoil a relationship.
Much of this comes down to the team leader or manager, who plays a central role in promoting healthy relationships at the workplace.
Assigning and Structuring Work
- Match tasks to interest and specialization. A supervisor should assign challenging work based on what each team member is actually interested in and specialized at. Without that interest, the work becomes a burden, and people start cribbing about it unnecessarily.
- Understand your team before assigning roles. Take the time to find out what each person is interested in and what they expect from the organization. When setting KRAs, call the team together and invite their suggestions rather than deciding unilaterally — let them have a say in what they think they can perform best at.
- Let ownership prevent blame later. When employees have had a hand in deciding their own roles and responsibilities, they’re far less likely to later blame each other or their superior. Encourage them to accept the challenge willingly, and they’ll work harder toward a better outcome without the fighting and fault-finding that comes from work being simply handed down.
Treating the Team Fairly
- Be a role model, not a source of favoritism. A team leader should treat every individual the same and avoid partiality at work. Don’t give anyone special treatment just because they happen to do you a personal favor or always agree with you.
- Correct mistakes without harshness. Appreciate people when they’ve done exceptionally well, but also make sure to correct them when they’re wrong. There’s a right way to do this — a team leader should never be rude or insult a team member; it’s unethical. Sit with them, help them realize the mistake, and they’ll genuinely look up to you for it.
Staying Accessible and Transparent
- Don’t be difficult to reach. A superior shouldn’t act aloof or unavailable. Team members need the freedom to walk up to their immediate boss whenever they have a doubt and get it cleared. Keeping the hierarchy simple, rather than layered and complicated, prevents confusion and avoidable disputes.
- Communicate on an open forum. Important communication should happen with everyone present, not one-on-one. Problems tend to arise when information is passed along piecemeal — call the team together so everyone is equally clear on what’s expected of them and what their colleagues are working on.
- Keep everyone in the loop. Transparency matters for a healthy employee relationship. No one should feel neglected or left out of the loop — if you’re passing on information to the team, send it by email with everyone relevant copied in.
Managing Competition and Conflict
- Encourage competition, but keep it healthy. Some competition is necessary for individual growth, but it should never turn friends into rivals. Keep motivating the team to perform better than one another, while making sure there’s no gossip feeding into it.
- Shut down mockery immediately. If you see any team member criticizing or making fun of another, stop it right away.
- Intervene early, not after the fact. Never provoke anyone into a fight — and if a conflict does start, step in and try to resolve it as quickly as possible rather than letting it run its course.
Building Personal Connection
- Share lunch as a team. Make sure the whole team, including you, has lunch together, and don’t turn it into a work discussion. Let people enjoy it, and encourage everyone to talk and participate.
- Show genuine interest in their lives. Take the initiative to ask about their families and personal lives too — it makes people feel more attached to the team.
- Pair up people who don’t get along. If two team members aren’t getting along, put them on the same assignment together. With no real choice but to talk things through, and with adjacent workstations to increase their comfort level, the relationship often improves on its own.
Manager Actions at a Glance
| What the Manager Does | What It Builds |
|---|---|
| Assigns work by interest and specialization | Engagement instead of resentment toward the task |
| Involves the team in setting KRAs | Ownership, which prevents later blame |
| Avoids partiality and favoritism | Trust across the whole team, not just favorites |
| Corrects mistakes privately and respectfully | Respect without humiliation |
| Stays accessible, simplifies the hierarchy | Fewer confusions and unresolved doubts |
| Communicates on an open forum, keeps everyone looped in | A shared, transparent picture for the whole team |
| Encourages healthy competition, shuts down mockery | Growth without gossip or rivalry |
| Intervenes early in conflict | Disputes that get resolved instead of escalating |
| Shares lunch, asks about personal lives | Genuine personal connection |
| Pairs up team members who don’t get along | Forced but effective collaboration |
Quick Reference: Do This, Not That
| Situation | Do | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Assigning a new task | Match it to the person’s interest and specialization | Handing out work without regard for fit |
| Setting team KRAs | Invite the team’s input before deciding | Deciding unilaterally and announcing it |
| A team member does you a favor | Treat them the same as everyone else | Giving them special treatment in return |
| Someone makes a mistake | Correct them privately and respectfully | Insulting them or correcting them in public |
| Sharing important information | Communicate it to the whole team together | Passing it along one-on-one, piecemeal |
| Two team members clash | Step in early and help resolve it | Waiting to see if it resolves on its own |
The Bottom Line
A team leader should stay neutral among team members and make sure they enjoy a healthy relationship with both the leader and each other, for the sake of better output. Ultimately, a good team leader’s job is to bring the team closer together and genuinely bind them into a unit — not just manage the work they do.
