In building a team there are several things you need to consider and do. Amongst these are understanding the personalities of the people you lead as well as a good way to receive feedback from the team members. In trying to receive feedback, some managers or adminstrators have resorted to having some members of the team who serve as an eye 👁‍🗨 for them. 

These people are usually made to provide informal feedback and serve as a grapevine or informants for the managers. They may be relatives who stop by to see how things are going, and give feedbak to the business owner or executives. 

They may also be employees who have warmed their way to the heart of the employer or manager, and who have decided to play the extra role of being an informant- telling on others on things that go on in the orgnanisation. 

Whilst the initial intention may be good, a lot of times, these so-called favourites would usually take advantage of their closeness to the manager and begin to get toxic to others. Because they are not trained to handle this extra respnsibility in a professional manner, they resort to snitching on others and misrepresenting other people to the manager on the pretext of trying to protect the interest of the organization.

Then personal feelings come in. If they do not get along well with a particular emolpyee, they want to extend the dislike for this employee to the manager. And because the manager feels that they're doing this in their best interest, they fall for it. 

Here are a few things to do when staff members clamour to become your favourites:

1. Confirm the reports that they bring to you.

2. If they are making the reports in person, watch their body language closey. What is their body language telling you? 

3. Learn to question their motives for the reports they bring to you. Why are they reporting? Is it to suggest a solution? If so, ask them to suggest what might help. 

4. If there are allegations against another employee, then you may nicely want to bring this to the attention of the staff involved, so that this is resolved. 

Whilst you want to receive feedback from the people you lead, ensure you do not allow any staff to manipulate you and take over the team to crate a toxic work environment. Some organisations have actually lost very great employees for this reason. 

I'd recommend my new book 📙 The School Administrator's Companion where I shared in depth about building a team. Please get your copy at https://bit.ly/preorderschooladmincompanion. The offer to deliver the paperback version is available in Nigeria and expires on 31st May. After this date, everyone getting the book will pay for the delivery. 

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^{Nancy Ekpezu is the author of the books Dear Educator and The School Administrator's Companion. She has a Facebook group Educational Administration Network whre she shares content on school administration and management.} 

^{In 2020, Nancy was named a Global Educational Influencer and in 2021, she was featured among 100 Liked People in Educaton by The Excelligent iMagazine n Asia. She resides in Lagos, Nigera where she works as the Lead Consultant of Pezu Smith Consulting, an organisation that works with managers, administrators and organisations to improve their work culture through improved administrative processes and management. She trains, consults and coaches and can be reached on WhatsApp at +234-8035880367.}