Developing a healthy manager-report relationship (Zhou)

Trust is key to an effective relationship. You will need to know what’s going on and how people are feeling before your an do anything about it.

Signals of trust

Reports regularly bring their biggest challenges to your attention
You and your report regularly share critical feedback, and it isn’t taken personally
Reports would gladly work for you again

Works similarly to any human interaction.

Respect and care about your report as a /person/, not as a tool that does things for you. Think of a parent-child relationship. There’s respect and care no matter what.
Invest time to help your report. One-on-ones are essential time dedicated to helping reports succeed. See Effective manager-report 1:1s (Zhou)
Be honest about your reports performance. It should always be clear to your report, no reading between the lines.
Admit your mistakes and growth areas. People make mistakes and don’t have all the answers. Be human in these situations, and make things right when you have made an error.