(Lela Henry) Tricia seems to be a good supervisor/leader who knows how to effectively conduct her job. She runs a small team but that doesn’t stop things from getting done. After a conversation with her boos, Tricia decides to befriend her fellow coworkers on Facebook and Twitter to become more friendly and personable with her staff. During the first few encounters online, she kept everything professional, and business related. Overtime, she began to get more personal which made a few of them uncomfortable. 

What would you advise Tricia to do about future posts of a personal nature to the team?   

If Tricia was going to message her colleagues, via social media she should not send the type of messages she sent. Although most were innocent and actually gave compliments it’s no telling how the other person feels nor if it will cause problems in their personal lives. It’s okay to engage in general conversations but it shouldn’t get too personal. It seems like Tricia was trying to force friendships with her staff. If a friendship is to happen it will come naturally. But she has to remember not everyone wants to be friends with people that they work with rather it’s via social media or partake in activities with them. 

Which one or two relationship-oriented behaviors does Tricia appear to be exaggerating?   

Based off the information I gathered, I believe Tricia is displaying the relationship-oriented behavior of satisfying higher-level needs. Tricia allowed her boss to make her feel as if she needed to know her staff on a more personal level. Although there is nothing wrong with getting to know your staff personally, like I previously mentioned it should not be forced. Satisfying higher-level needs means to inspire people, effective leaders motivate the staff for personal growth, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, and a feeling of control over one’s life (Durbin, 2019). Tricia felt like she was too “business-like and task oriented” to be personable with staff. However, she allowed her boss to make her feel like she needed to “belong and fit-in” with the staff in order to motivate them and boost morale. 

If your team leader sent you a post about his or her team leadership role and your potential friendship, how would you respond?

If, my team leader reached out to me via social media to be friends, I would ignore the request. If I don’t interact with my team leader on a personal level already, I wouldn’t feel a need to invite them into my personal world. I’m one who doesn’t believe everyone should be allowed on my social media page if were not friends. If my team lead asked me why I didn’t accept the request, I would simply explain that due to us not socializing on a friend/personal level at work, there is no need to outside of work.