THE IMPORTANCE OF A CLEARLY DEFINED WORKING RELATIONSHIP By Allie Freeland July 01, 2017 As a boss, one advantage to have friendships with your employees is that you can have a strong, positive relationship with each of them. You can understand what motivates your staff, because you've learned about their families, their interests, their goals in life. And employees with a strong connection to their managers are more likely to work longer hours and be loyal to the company. However, in order to be a good manager, you must be careful to distinctly define the boundaries between yourself and your staff; achieving that could only be possible by following some important ways. The first thing to do is being careful with the distance between you and your employees. To maintain the respect of your employees while being friends with them, you must be direct about the nature of your business relationship. This means being clear about what the goals are, how your employees are to help you accomplish them, and what they can expect from you. By communicating these things clearly, you curtail the risk that an employee can misinterpret your friendship and behave in an unprofessional manner. In most offices, there's usually a lot of social mingling, whether it's a Friday lunch, drinks after work, or an industry function. It's natural for managers to be a part of that. Just remember while socializing with everyone, it's important to keep it to a minimum as you may want to ensure that you are respected as well as liked. Being professional is the other important factor for the relationships at a workplace. As sometimes an employee who is also your friend may perform less than his/her colleagues. You may not want to face it, but for the sake of your company, you need to take a cold, hard look at how this person's behavior is impacting employee morale, work schedules, customer relations, time spent fixing mistakes, and most importantly, the bottom line. In this case, you must be this person's employer first and friend second. If you can help this staff member return to being a productive member of your team, then do so. If not, you need to let the person go before more damage is done. All in all, being a boss requires good relationships with employees. In order to have an efficient working environment in the workplace, employers need to pay attention to some important points as mentioned above. Therefore, a good boss needs to be able to manage the relationship well to maintain respectful and fruitful environment for the sake of both the employees and the company. Taken and adapted from: https://www.allbusiness.com/importance-of-a-clearly-defined-working- relationship