Establishing strong relationships with the team is important for a manager before he/she focuses on overall performance. People in a managerial position should learn to trust and empower people before micromanaging and stressing over productivity.
Getting to know team members aids in creating the necessary rapport to work well together and to become comfortable with one another. This thus develops loyalty and efficiency once the manager and team members have become acquainted.
Strong employee to employer relationships also develop a pleasant environment for people to work at. Once this has been achieved, then managers can begin to focus on productivity, which should easily increase since employee engagement grows with better connections within the team. Strong relationships also reduce conflict since the work environment is efficient and friendly.
Source: BusinessNewsDaily.com