It’s an established fact that people who have healthy personal relationships have greater trust and are more willing to extend themselves for each other than those who have lesser relationships. It then makes sense that leaders who want extra effort from their direct reports should have stronger personal relationships.
How well do leaders know their direct reports? They should be able to answer these four questions about each of their direct reports:
1. What is the name of their spouse or significant other?
2. What are their hobbies or interests?
3. What are the names and ages of their children or grandchildren?
4. What is the breed and name of their pet?
Leaders don’t need to be overly personal with their direct reports, but they should know a little about them. A personal relationship can come from casual water cooler type conversations. Regularly scheduled weekly one-on-one meetings are a great way to develop this relationship. In our experience, there is no more important leadership technique than one-on-one meetings.
Empowered leaders develop deeper personal relationships with their direct reports that lead to more success.