Repair a damaged leader-follower relationship deliberately

Take active steps to reset a deteriorated relationship, rather than allowing avoidance to compound the damage.

Why it works

Damaged leader-member relationships tend to spiral: the leader invests less, the member disengages, the leader interprets disengagement as confirmation the investment wasn’t worth making. Repair requires interrupting the spiral with a direct conversation that names what has happened and establishes new expectations. Without this, the implicit contract remains broken and both parties operate on unstated resentment.

How to do it

1. Request a one-on-one conversation outside normal work context — a walk, coffee, or non-task setting.
2. Name what you observe directly: "I notice our working relationship has felt more transactional recently — is that your read too?"
3. Listen to understand before explaining or defending.
4. Jointly identify one concrete change each person will make, and follow through visibly.

Evidence

Research on relationship repair in organizational settings suggests that direct, honest naming of the rupture is more effective than avoidance, which allows misinterpretation to compound. (mechanistic)

Specific LMX repair interventions have not been extensively tested in controlled research; the evidence base is drawn from adjacent trust repair and communication research.

Common mistake

Attempting repair through indirect signals — extra effort, friendliness, gifts — without ever naming the rupture directly, which leaves the underlying dynamic unaddressed.