Is It OK to Be Friends With Your Employees?

Posted by dhennessy under Management
From http://experts.allbusiness.com 4143 days ago
Made Hot by: SJC on July 27, 2013 12:04 am

It’s one thing to strike up a friendship with a business peer; it’s another thing when a potential friend is your subordinate. Where should business owners draw the line in their friendships with employees? Yaniv Masjedi shares a few rules to live by.

Who Voted for this Story

Top BizSugar Users

This week's most active BizSugar users. Join Them!

Comments

Written by ksbharath86
4138 days ago

I suggest not to make your employees as your friends, which affects the results.

- 0 +

Written by MyNoteTakingNerd
4138 days ago

The whole idea of "not playing favorites" can be hard to resist - especially if you've got somebody you've hired who is mega-charismatic. They're almost always going to be more interesting to be around and be really good at conversation and live interesting lives so it's hard to not give this person more attention than the low key person who is smooth doer but not a smooth talker.

Another rule of thumb I learned from John Wooden, the most successful college basketball coach ever, was to let it be known that you're not going to treat everyone the same, but instead are going to treat them according to what they've earned and deserved. So in his case, the people that performed well in practice and performed well in games, got to start to start the game and everyone else was second string.

This one is hard to forget when you've got a smooth talker but not a smooth doer who uses their "friendship" to get you to give them preferential treatment they haven't earned nor do they deserve.

Thank you Yaniv for reminding me of such important lessons. :)

- 0 +

Written by BizRock
4143 days ago

Very well thought...Great article!I never thought of it that way.I love that I have made many friends at work but I am not the boss. Thanks for the insights!

- 0 +