Although it might not be the most obvious of reasons, when you spend time building relationships with the people in your team, there sometimes are those unexpected positives that come out of it.

One of the interesting points about creating useful workplace relationships is that you can't always predict the positives it creates.

When we manage others, we enjoy the rewards that management provides. It pays better than what those we manage get and, for many, the working conditions of managers will usually be better in the main, than those people in their charge.

With this comes a role that can be isolating and distant from colleagues in their team. The levels of discipline and detachment bring penalties amending relationships such that then can seem to have barriers in place.

Yet the purpose of relationships in the workplace are such that we expect value to be created. Value in terms of performances of those who work for us, creating enhanced returns in the results we need to achieve.

Value in terms of their behaviors when they do their job; when they manage their loyalty in their attendance longevity of service with us, because of the culture that supports and encourages them. Because of the relationships you build.

For those who manage, there can be spin-offs too. They can feel much more partnership and collaboration with the team than they might expect. This quite simply because they are prepared to make the effort to have open, honest and developmental relationships with their people, one by one.

When this happens and as long as we manage professionally and consistently, we can be taken into the group as friends as well as 'the boss' sometimes.

This can mean inclusion; support; being watched out for, as well as the general camaraderie that is such an important element of many workers' lives. We can enjoy this with our people too.

Inclusion can take many forms, yet it is the smallest things that touch managers when they feel much more accepted, whilst still being able to carry out their professional role competently and delivering the results expected of them.

One of the purposes of good managers creating worthwhile relationships in the workplace, is to create an ambience where everyone - including themselves - is nurtured to fulfillment and achievement of their potential.

Once the relationships are created between everyone, even managers will find small surprises come along, And even when it's such a small thing as a remembered birthday; a Christmas card or even a simply an occasion where someone has a humorous dig about a defeat for their football team.

This is when relationships are just right, and the effort is all worthwhile.

When we delegate as managers, we create time and space for ourselves, to do more of what we alone can do best.

We add new opportunities to our people to develop their skills and evolve a much more capable workforce. What could be better…

The first thing to understand about delegation is that it simply does not happen on its own. As with any other kind of work that you have to complete, you will first need to learn how to manage a task properly yourself, so that when you do delegate it, the results will meet, if not exceed, your expectations.

There are a few essential steps that you will first of all need to understand, so as to be in a better position to delegate tasks effectively.

Communicating the activity outcomes clearly will ensure success. This means that you will need to start off by describing exactly what you expect the person to do, to specify when the job is to be completed and, of course, what kind of end results are necessary, on completion.

It is necessary for you to provide the context within which the work is to be performed. This in turn will mean that you will need to explain the reasons why you need the work done and its importance to the bigger picture of your workplace.

Finally, it's worth sharing where there could be difficulties along the way and how these might be dealt with - if and when the complications arise.

It always pays to understand that you must be in agreement regarding the standards that you expect, in order to measure how successfully or otherwise the job has been completed. That said, obviously the standards that you require have to be achievable, as well as realistic.

Delegation - the free tool that gives you back your time and develops your people at the same time

What could be better than that?

Effective teams are the most effective and even the only way to make organizations work. Managers cannot deliver the whole job - it's just not possible.

That said, teams need to have some ground rules to be effective too.

Team building is a vital component of anything you need to do in business, unless you are a one-man band cobbler or something, with no-one else working with you.

The team is vital to make what you want to happen, happen effectively and efficiently, all the time.

For most managers, there will be a bunch of people upon whom you depend to get the job done, because, as we've come across before, you cannot do it all yourself. Leveraging their own particular skills is the way to create successful outcomes for all you want.

So, you need a bunch of people who are going to gel; work well together; synergize and deliver outstanding results - right? A group of like-minded people who will contribute for the greater good of all, to outcomes that contribute to the needs of the team at organizational level.

They need to ensure that they support each other whilst using their own individual skills to use for the length of the business need or project. Benefiting from their own peculiar talents, a team will generate more successfully because of the debate and collaboration through their individualities.

What better way to build your team than on the job?

There is a space for going building rafts and bonding socially. Truth is, the real work is where your team pull together in achieving the goals you need to work on together.

To start up, it's always worth creating some ground rules about the ways that you will work together. This will mean that you all agree on the boundaries you set between you all, so that what you do work on will be collaborative, and not fall foul of dispute, frustration and competition.

A great way to do this is to create a specific exercise for all what an operating charter is drawn up, with everyone contributing and, once agreed, signed up to. By setting aside time in the early phases of working together, you will be making an investment that will be well worth while for the team as a whole, as well as the results you achieve too.

By creating a way of working together, clearly stating goals and objectives as well as how you are going to go about it, you will stand a far greater chance of collaborative success for everyone, apportion activities and then be able to apply timelines that everyone signs up to.

Not to mention that there will be a team spirit and bonding engendered by the exercise too.

Positive actions come when people feel they are contributing well. Excellence of performance comes from knowing that we are recognized to be doing well.

With the right relationships with your people, you can make the most of this.

People feel good about themselves when they feel that they are achieving success. They like to know that the challenges they have accepted are progressing and they are thought well of.

Yet sometimes, for many of us, it's hard to take that objective position where we know for ourselves just how we are doing. Praising ourselves is difficult indeed.

When we are responsible for others in our team, it's part of our job to get the most from each one of them. A manager's role is closely focused on our skills with our people and nothing else should get in the way of that.

By taking the time to use the relationships we have built with them to full effect, we can make sure that the feedback we give is positive and constructive for them, giving them a sense of well-being in the work they do.

These relationships cannot be created overnight. The trust that is required to ensure that what they hear you say is accepted at face-value, is an investment that doesn't come all at once.

As you make the deposits in the emotional relationships that you have between you over time, there comes an understanding that makes what you say to them be trusted and have all the more impact as a consequence.

Once the 'feelgood' factor starts to show up for them, there is a power in the new-found confidence that emanates from them.

Every action has an enhanced level of belief; every opportunity to try on new opportunities is met with possibility; every time they see something risky, there is a confidence to try that comes from their absorbed understanding of what they are capable of.

Feeling good about ourselves offers a further value that extends outside the workplace too. When we know that we're doing a good job, we take it home with us. We are happier in our other lives, because we have a new confidence.

The value of a manager taking the time to get to know us well enough, to spend time telling us how well we are doing is immeasurable, in all sorts of contexts.

For the manager, they build on potential being realized. We grow our people and squeeze out of them what's tucked away inside, making much more - almost anything indeed - possible.

Feelgood is a unique product of great workplace relationships and a manager taking the time to tell their people - authentically - that they are doing well.

From this, much more becomes possible too.

Complaints are a valuable asset to any organization, once you can ensure that your people are willing to play.

And to get them with you, they need to know that it's not personal…

There is no greater value than that to be gleaned from your customers and clients who are prepared to take the time to give you feedback - which is a much more constructive way to describe a complaint.

These gold nuggets are literally worth their weight, when you are able to capture, dissect and respond positively to what you find out. Yet many organizations revel in low complaint rates!

The key to this is your people – all of them. It's about turning them from being fearful of when a complaint comes in, to positively gleeful, because of the enormous opportunity it presents.

By ensuring that every one of them is geared up to sense when things aren't going well, you will create an army of willing volunteers who are ready for action. Their job is to seek out and get to the bottom of any dissatisfaction they perceive.

This has to happen in the moment, all the time, or it will have passed and the opportunity will have disappeared into the anonymity of an ended phone call; a person now back out on the street; or the lost data storage of an online interaction that never sees the light of day.

It needs to be pro-actively sought, not passively responded to - or worse, swept under the carpet with the hope it will go away.

By encouraging your people to engage and interact with their clients, in any way at all, they will be able to get under the tough skin of a dissatisfied customer 'not wanting to make a fuss'. They have to smell it out or it will slink away, unspoken, which is of no use at all to you.

They will probably capture more customer dissatisfaction, than you expect, especially to start with.

And when they do, it’s to be applauded. It's to be celebrated.

Working as a team to find out critical information from those who have it, is a tactic any manager can adopt to ensure that customer service progresses, whilst also building the team togetherness ethic in a constructive, value-creating way.

By encouraging each and every one of them to engage their clients in any way they can, will make the conversation much more open and relaxed – and valuable.

Because, with this in place, many of your customers can easily be asked what they would love changed if they had the choice in the experience they have most recently had.

And that gives you - and your team - the vital intelligence to make your offer even better than it already is.

(c) 2010 Martin Haworth. This is a short excerpt from one of 52 lessons in management development at Super Successful Manager!, an easy to use, step-by-step weekly development program for managers of EVERY skill level. Find out more at http://www.SuperSuccessfulManager.com.

There are many, many ways that a manager can empower those in their team. The value comes from enlightened individuals freed up to express themselves through the release of their potential.

And you are the one to do it.

Almost any situation where you let an individual express themselves freely, through the contribution they themselves make, is through helping them to be empowered.

Empowerment unleashes many opportunities for individuals to develop, grow and come to fruition, bring a host of new resources to the team, organization and the results they produce.

Here are some of the ways that you can offer the gift of empowerment to your people. Remember, you are limited only by your ability to be creative in what you offer your people as ways to build them up.

1.Delegation

If you've been keeping up with the lessons, you will know that delegation is one of the best ways to empower employees.

Through giving up tasks of your own to others, with support at first, you will build confidence; develop skills as well as free up your own time too.

2.Say No

When asked to do something that you know they could do just as well, finding ways to say 'no' and support them to be able to do the task will make them feel able to do more in the future.

3.Say Yes

As your people try more on and develop themselves, be prepared to take risks on them.  Whilst they will need to understand that you will be generous when things go wrong, that should not put you off saying 'yes' to them when they want to try something new.

4.Ignore Them!

A favorite tactic! When you work closely with people, ignore them sometimes when they get frustrated or get things wrong. Rushing to their assistance is often the least effective way for them to succeed for themselves.

5.Coach

By asking questions, hearing answers and facilitating their own ability to find solutions for themselves, you will go a long way to empower. Remember, empowerment is about them building confidence. Nothing does this more than when they are helped to find their own solutions.

6.Let Go of How

Now, when you do give them the freedom to do your stuff sometimes, you have to be able to let go of telling them everything about the way they are to reach the solution. By letting go of your own 'how' you give them the opportunity to find their own.

7.Praise and Thank

It's sometimes difficult to have a sense of how you are doing, so it's important for you to tell people that are doing well. By reinforcing their belief that they are being successful, you will encourage them, which is, after all, empowering in itself.

8.Seek Opportunities

And you can get creative with people to empower them! Take your role as one where you spend some time each day coming up with ideas to grow your people's view of themselves. It's a worthy activity for you - after all, your role is to manage and develop your people.

9.Help with Learning

Employees like to be challenged and may be reluctant to show that they don't know the way to do things. If you can show them how they can learn, they will be encouraged to do more of it, opening the door to empower themselves.

10.Treat Mistakes/Failings Generously

Empowerment is all about building confidence - that's its purpose, so when things don't quite go to plan, it's important not to ruin all the good work by reacting negatively when what's needed is support and encouragement.

The gift of empowering others is one that is rich indeed, changing lives along the way for the good, you bring opportunities for new successes for your team too.

What could be a better win-win than that?

Relationship building is a vital core activity of anyone who manages or leads others, yet those being managed also have a responsibility to make the interactions work. So, why is understanding about responsibilities so important?

Understanding the relative responsibilities in relationship building in the workplace is important, so that suitable focus can be attached to each side, working towards consistently successful interactions.

Knowing that each side has a part to play and that this will involve deep consideration (especially where relationships have been strained in the past), helps to frame the mindset that will be important to create.

Responsibilities are not to be taken lightly. They are indeed a responsibility in themselves. Of being in a place where behaviors can create or destroy the outcomes that each side might want as well as appreciating that sometimes these may be different.

Holding responsibility is important, yet sometimes gets stuck behind a number of challenging and conflicting attitudes that can make the decisions about how to approach a relationship somewhat blurred.

For example, an individual may well have set ideas about what they want from their job. This needs to be aligned with what the job entails, the conditions within that job is offered and the rewards, some tangible, some not, that are provided.

A manager, on the other hand needs results for their area of responsibility and that is usually their overriding focus and can, on some occasions blinker the expectations and hopes of their team members.

Without understanding that the responsibility for a mutually beneficial relationship lies on both sides equally, it could be easy merely to push for only the respective needs of each side.

Yet, without taking the responsibility to realize that both sides want their needs met, neither side is likely to win. Indeed it is likely that antagonism and mistrust will take over and the relationship founders, which no-one wants and is quite value-less.

The philosophy of responsibility in relationship building is that it is an important 'gift' that each holds and this is to be used in a way that enshrines the values of both sides, whilst acknowledging that one side does not have any greater grip on their own outcomes than the other.

When we take up a responsibility, it is not to be taken lightly. Where this relates to the interactions we have with others, taking responsibility means that we have to know and understand what is important to them, as well as what's in our own interests too.

Ultimately, the responsibility element of relationship building is a critical element of success, with each side being clear on what the best outcome will be, not just for themselves, but for everyone.

Are there special components that great managers need to have when they want the best from their teams? How many are there; what are they and how on earth can you implement them.

Or is it much simpler than that.

In the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, England, there are many wonderful exhibits. None less so than the half a floor or so that is devoted to the Atlantic battles that took place during World War 2.

The exhibits are enhanced by explanations and multimedia that explain what happened, as well as the character of the nation that was able to withstand the threat and provide magnificent men and women who were able to succeed on the open seas of the North Atlantic.

One of the exhibits shows a small - and highly relevant, even today - extract from the famous wartime movie, "In Which We Serve", starring (and written and directed by!) Noel Coward.

Upon taking up his command, he seeks advice from his new crew, what sort of ship would be needed for the forthcoming voyage.

One wag in the crowd pipes up, 'A happy ship, Captain.'

…and quickly another, 'An efficient ship, Sir.'

Coward repeats these two qualities back to them.

"A happy ship and an efficient ship. In my experience, you can't have one without the other."

Despite all of our modern naval (my apologies!) gazing, could it be that management is really that simple? Could it be that there is little else of importance than these two qualities?

Of course Coward is not discussing management today, yet he is idealizing the values that are required to make a successful voyage in very difficult circumstances.

Can you have a happy ship, without efficiency?

Well, if you try, my guess is that happiness evaporates as your people get annoyed and frustrated with the inefficiencies of others.

An efficient ship, without it being happy - is this possible? Well, maybe, for a while. As time goes on, the lack of happiness - which in itself is a symptom of a malaise - will lead to conflict. And that is no ingredient to have in the efficiency cake.

With efficiency and happiness, together, is this enough for a successful venture?

Well, in themselves, perhaps not - yet, when they are there, it's more than likely that there is enough of a base for every other quality to drive success to be enabled too.

Being efficient and happy at the same time will surely underpin any other values that the team needs for success.

Truth is, where you have both of these in place, you are much more likely to reap positive rewards. Not least because whilst you are focusing on just two things, your life as a manager becomes that much more easy.

There are many opportunities for misunderstandings when we work in organizations. The most common reason is the way we fail to communicate properly.

The relationships we have with our people can easily change that.

Managers who have a vested interest in the success of their teams, have a role to play to ensure that communication is right. Simply expecting that what gets said is interpreted the way intended just does not always work.

By getting to know their people well, there will always be signs to help ensure that understanding is a priority. Employees have ways of showing when they aren't sure and a closer relationship will make sure that you see that too.

Only by being close enough to their people, will a manager have the ability to use their sense of intuition to recognize these signs. Sometimes it will be blatantly obvious when something has not been clear. On other occasions, it will be some small and almost insignificant sign - especially to the untrained eye and ear.

That's why making the smallest of investments in time, of getting to know people well enough, is vital. And that goes both ways too, where their better awareness of you is critical to understand your nuances too.

When we lead teams, it's not enough to view them as a team alone. Communications don't work when we try to do things that appeal only to a mass. By spending time in easy conversation with each of our people, we will build our own awareness of them, whilst also showing them that we are interested enough to make that investment in them too.

The truth is, where we want to understand our people better, we have to make the effort to talk to them and even more importantly listen to them hard. It's not effective enough to pay lip-service to our people these days. Listening hard means really understanding what they say and how they say it - even expending to appreciating what's not been said too.

The effective relationships we build will always help to make sure that we are understood as well as possible. As in the great adage from Stephen Covey in '7 Habits of Highly Effective People', we must always 'seek first to understand and (only) then, be understood'.

The prerequisite to our expectations of being understood is that we take the time to understand fully our people first.

By making efforts in getting these one-to-one relationships working right in the first place, we always have the much better chance to make sure that the understanding between both sides is working to its full potential.

And that's a value for everyone involved, leading to success being that much more likely.

Management is the art of getting the very best from your people. It is essentially a people skill that many managers have, yet struggle to make the best of.

The workplace relationships you form are most likely the major critical factor in your success.

The purpose of creating effective relationships with each and every one of your employees has many aspects. And every single one of them adds value to your proposition as a manager. That's why building relationships adds much more value than having a buddy or two in the team.

Here are a few reasons that give purpose to relationship building - reminding us that every minute we spend getting to know our people well, is a great minute's work!

• Power of More than One - When we synergize our efforts, using the great interactions we have with our people, it is incredibly productive
• Openness - workplace relationships worked well, offer the opportunity to share more; explain more; create more, in an environment where trust is strong
• Hopes and Fears - as trust builds, each and every partner will feel able to expand their thinking - their personal thinking sometimes - and share with others, who will help
• Better Understanding - avoiding miscommunication, because the relationship is strong enough to ask if not sure, means we become more effective & efficient
• Feel Good - good relationships foster a general feeling of goodwill around the place, limiting politics and gossip, because 'we just don't do that round here'
• Unexpected Positives - the best relationships add fun into the mix, where we can share laughter and enjoy each other's company
• Intuition - as our relationships build with our people, we are able to sense more, giving us the benefit of an 'early warning system' to catch problems early
• Getting Support - where we support and help our people, they realize that we have needs too and offer help where you might need it
• Hidden Talents and Skills - knowing our people well from the close interactions we have with them, means we get to know them well, uncovering the possibilities
• Problem Shared - is a problem halved - at least! When we trust and others trust us, we have a reservoir of talent to supplement our own. Sometimes, others really do have better solutions
• Bottom Line - the ultimate goal, providing focus and purpose to the work we do. Adding value to the results we seek is far, far easier when we have good working relationships with others in our teams

So, the purpose of building relationships in the workplace is many fold for anyone managing others. From the purely business focused results to the emotional personal sense of success and belonging that it can create.

The time investment is minimal, because relationship building is best done in the moment, informally, so there are no excuses.

What are you waiting for? There's no time like the present to make this your immediate goal.