Building and maintaining healthy working relationships are essential to an engaged and productive team. Managers are acutely aware when a team is collaborative, helpful, and engaged, they are usually the happiest and most productive teams to manage. Why? Because the working relationships are strong among the team! Great teams have great working relationships! So is it important for managers to have solid working relationships outside of work? Of course! Letting the hair down, having a few laughs and seeing people outside of work is definitely essential for team building. Learning more about people helps us connect and understand each other much better. The bottom line is that a good manager understands the importance of work relationships inside and outside of work. I’m confident we’ve all experienced that outside work event where it was not all rosy with perceptions, stories and possibly HR issues abound. So how does a manager and all employees ensure a positive experience? Here are a few key items.

Inclusion

It is absolutely imperative that when an outside event is organized, the entire team is invited. Sounds like common sense, right? When someone from the team is advertently or inadvertently not invited, it creates the perception of favoritism and can lead to an array of problems. If people can’t attend an event, that’s fine, it’s their choice. The key note is to include the entire direct report team. If two teams are having a joint event, invite the two teams, if the office is having an event, invite the entire office.

What about alcohol?

Many organizations are frowning upon outings involving alcohol or at least company sponsored events with alcohol. Most of the time, these events are fine and everything is jovial and great. Is it always the case? No. Some events with alcohol lead to inappropriate discussions, coworkers being offended and other things. It’s very important for a manager to still be aware of the surroundings and ensure the entire team is strengthening the bond and not deteriorating it. Have I seen senior leaders, managers and individual contributors terminated over outside events gone bad? Unfortunately yes. Balancing professionalism and loosening up a bit is essential for positive team building events.

Balancing Shop Talk

Managers and their direct reports are most familiar with each other inside the workplace where they talk shop talk. Some employees may not know the slightest tidbit about their coworker and having an outside event is a great place to learn more about coworkers. Many times the initial conversations will be consumed by shop talk but it should be not the entire outing. It’s been my experience that if there is too much discussion about work, it brings the team down. The goal is to ensure the event is positive and learning more about their teams and building great relationships. Sometimes coworkers will ask the manager or other team members, “what do you REALLY think of so and so?” or “what do you REALLY think of this new policy?”. Even though it’s outside of work, it’s essential to remain professional as a manager and any level of employee.

Working relationships are essential inside and outside of work. People feel connected, supported, and understood when they have great relationships with their team and their manager. These relationships are critical inside and outside the workplace. When outside events are inclusive and positive while balanced with maintaining professionalism and having fun, the bond of the team is strengthened which carries over into the workplace.