How important is the manager - employee relationship?

The relationships we have with our leaders and managers is pivotal to how we experience our roles at work.

Research shows that when people leave jobs it is often their managers they have quit - far more than their roles or their workplace.

We can be highly impacted by the relationship we have with our leader or manager. In our life experience, we know there are pivotal relationships that can significantly impact our wellbeing - our relationship with our direct line manager is one of those. It can be positive or poisonous or anywhere in between. These relationships will significantly impact performance, wellbeing, motivation, engagement and ability to learn.

Interpersonal neurobiology shines a light on how this occurs. If you are often in fear at work, the neural pathways to the primitive parts of your brain will become reinforced, making it harder to access your higher cognitive and psychological functioning. 

Leaders and managers who take responsibility for the psychological impact of their interactions with employees are highly emotionally intelligent and positively powerful. 

Take a moment and consider and reflect on the below questions in the context of your workplace and your role as either a manager or a staff member:

• How does interpersonal behavior in your workplace influence you and your colleagues?

• What are some of the worst below the line behaviors you have witnessed at work?

• What are some of the most positively powerful above the line behaviors you have observed?

“It turns out that trust is in fact earned in the smallest of moments. It is earned not through heroic deeds, or even highly visible actions, but through paying attention, listening and gestures of genuine care and connection”

Brené Brown