Getting shit done while making sure your team loves you, that's every boss' dream! Yet, we see most managers and team leaders struggle with finding a balance between the two. Why does that happen?

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As a boss your primary responsibility is to deliver results, whether you're leading a team or an entire organization, consistent failure to meet targets set for your team can be detrimental to the organization and potentially your job.

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This builds pressure to constantly meet targets and rightly so, I mean you started a business or you were recruited to one to deliver results and make money. In an endeavor to deliver maximum, a lot of leaders/boss's tend to overlook their team's sentiment towards them, often adopting a no nonsense approach of simply focusing on work.

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This approach may deliver results in the short term but leads to several complications in the long term:

1. People start leaving the organization because they feel disconnected to their boss/leader or the organization as a whole.

2. People start getting burnt out without boss/leader realizing and the performance starts to drop.

3. People lack motivation and ownership for the job and only want to deliver enough to keep their jobs.

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Weary of this, some leaders/boss's try to take a contrarian approach. They are focused on building strong relations with their team but this often results in an obsession of being liked by everyone and a fear for confrontation and conflict. This kills room for constructive feedback and creates a culture of nearly zero accountability within the team leading to acceptance of mediocre work and subsequently poor results.

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So how does one(boss/leader) find a balance between managing work and their people?

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Build a relationship with your team:

It's important to start by building a strong relationship with your team for them to accept you as their boss/leader and not feel forced to do the work you demand of them.

Take interest in their lives outside work as well so that they feel confident in opening up to when they face issues at work or even in their personal lives if it could affect their performance on the job.

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Set clear performance expectations

Every employee must have a clarity of their job description, the daily work that is cut out for them and how they are being assessed from their boss.

Have regular one-one meetings with employee's to let them know if they performing as per expectations or not and giving them tips to improve can go a long way in performance management.

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Provide mentorship and feedback

Employee's want to grow professionally, for that share relevant experiences and resources that you feel help them do a better job and grow as professionals.

Provide consistent constructive feedback to help employee's improve at their work and never berate them publicly if they make a mistake. A public scolding can be detrimental to somebody's confidence and affect their relationship with boss as well as their team.

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Create a friendly work environment

As a boss, make work fun and create a strong camaraderie within the team so that everyone is comfortable, open and honest with each other and genuinely enjoy coming to work.

Consciously look at organizing spaces where your team indulges in activities outside work with each other. Don't shy away from taking them out for drinks or playing games together.

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