The Workplace Coach

The Gallup Organization, a global analytics and advisory company, conducts extensive research on employee engagement and organisational performance. Their findings, based on over 10 million interviews with managers and employees, highlight 12 Elements of Great Managing for engagement and high performance. Consistently, employees worldwide have conveyed a clear message:

“If you do these things for us, we will do what the company needs of us”.

Responses to the Tenth Element, “I have a best friend at work,” can tell us a lot about how well someone performs on the job. Feeling really connected to your teammates can push you to go the extra mile for the business when you might not bother with otherwise.

Research has found that top-performing teams have a strong sense of friendship among their members. Studies across different companies confirm that having a best friend at work is a big deal, and it significantly influences business outcomes including profitability, safety measures, inventory management, and notably, customer loyalty and emotional engagement with the company. Unfortunately, not everyone feels this strong bond – only about a third of people will strongly agree that they have a best friend at work.

Friendship and Performance

Lots of studies looking at employee engagement suggest that customers can tell if the staff get along well where they shop. And it really affects the customer experience, even if it’s just because good vibes rub off on people naturally. In service industries, teams with strong friendships are rated by customers as 5 to 10 percent better than teams that aren’t as friendly. This can mean the difference between a business doing well or failing.

Having close friendships at work can have downsides too though. While it can be good for productivity, strong relationships in the team without people knowing what is expected of them (Element 1) and a commitment to doing good work (Element 9) might mean that people just come to work for a good time. Close-knit teams without effective leadership might spend too much time socialising and not enough time focusing on what the business or the customers need.

Working with Friends is Easier

The research on different types of working relationships also shows that friends are more likely to share information, ideas and opinions openly, and accept each other’s input and feedback without getting defensive. Friends are better at handling disagreements and moving past them than people who aren’t friends. Teams where friendships are strong are also statistically more committed to the team’s goals and put in more effort, no matter what the task is. And those who feel closest to the team are more likely to keep an eye on how well the team is doing compared to its goals.

Can a Manager be a Best Friend?

A manager can be close to their team, almost like a friend, offering support and guidance. But it’s important for them to keep things professional and fair. They need to balance being friendly with making sure they treat everyone equally and make decisions that benefit the whole team. This means avoiding any appearance of favoritism or conflicts of interest. So, while it’s possible for a manager to have a close relationship with a team member, they still need to maintain boundaries and act in the best interests of the team and the company.

For further information on this topic or any related to people management, feel free to reach out.

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The Workplace Coach.