Being a leader when you have your friends on your team can be tricky. It is not easy to have tough conversations and hold them accountable the way you would if you were not friends. It is an issue many of us run into in the door-to-door world, right? We love having a good time together, we work hard, and we play hard. What happens when these relationships get too casual? It happens to all of us, we have great leaders, but they stumble when it comes to leading their friends and we find them not doing the things a leader needs to do- having regular conversations, holding them accountable, talking with their friend/rep when they are not meeting goals and attending meetings, setting boundaries, etc. These relationships are tough to navigate because you naturally want to be more relaxed with each other and the friendly relationship you have built with one another carries over into the work environment. It is hard to address these situations, but in D2DU we cover how to handle all kinds of situations that are hard to navigate, even this one. So, what are some tactics we teach in D2DU to help companies out when they face this friendly situation?
One On One
If you are feeling like there is a struggle going on, pull your friend aside and have an in-depth, one on one conversation. First, no one wants to be held accountable in front of everyone else. That is not the way to handle things. It will just bring some negativity to the whole situation that you do not want to deal with. Second, by pulling them aside, it becomes more personal. You can honestly get down to the real and raw, find out their goals, and their weaknesses, see what they need help with, find out where they are the most confident, all the things that are below surface level. You won’t get to the bottom of things by calling it out in a meeting and being a jerk, right? You want to have a discussion that is more about telling them to up their game. Find out what is going on. Is there a reason they are slacking? Do they realize they need to have a level of respect for you at work? Or, has it slowly relaxed over time because they are more comfortable as your friendship gets stronger? You don’t want to become resentful of your friend. Pull them aside and have the hard talk.
Reset
If they are truly your friend, you do not want them to fail. Be a true leader and set them up for success by having the hard talks and pushing them to be greater than they are right now. You don’t want them to fail, you want to help them achieve greatness. Don’t sit on the sidelines and let them crash and burn on their goals. Have a hard talk and grow your friendship.
For more great training videos, check out D2DU. Get in contact with us for a free demo and see how beneficial it would be for your company. We have hundreds of training videos for every level in the industry. It does not matter if you are a rep starting out, a tech, a leader, and manager, or even an owner. Our training videos really are for everyone and the video library is constantly being expanded.
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