Gallup says if you have a best friend at work, you’re more likely to be engaged.
But what good is an engaged employee with friends who don’t create value for the business?
Relationships at work matter—a lot. It is, however, a certain type of relationship that makes the difference your customer can experience.
When Friendships Don’t Work
Several members of a leadership team we worked with recently had long-standing friendships. And therein was the cause of their poor performance. As in most friendships, patterns of conduct were formed based upon familiar, unwritten agreements:
- I will only tell you what you want to hear. (Translation: Our shared reality won’t be what is true for the business.)
- I won’t expose your faults to others. (Translation: I won’t hold you accountable.)
- I will be loyal to you. (Translation: We’ll make decisions based upon what is best for you rather than the business.)
When Friendships Work
Deep alignment—the full focus and maximizing of collective energy towards an objective—has requirements, including: Expanding relational capital.
Importantly, relational capital is not just two or more people who have high trust, respect and caring for one another. Those qualities exist in low-performing teams.
Capital = value. Therefore, relational capital only occurs when colleagues have high trust, respect and caring that consistently creates greater value for the business.
Here’s a simple, two-part test to know if the relationships you have at work are expanding relational capital:
- Can I tell my friends my truth about their conduct or performance?
- When I do tell my truth, does it drive a change of behaviors that improves our business performance?
P.S. Some of the greatest professional relationships are formed in associations. We’re putting together our 2025 speaking and workshop schedule. If you belong to an association or are responsible for an annual meeting where members would benefit from being equipped to create deep alignment in their organizations, contact our Superman, tah.yogo@verusglobal.com
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