Many leaders would rather avoid tension to create the appearance of harmony. What they don’t realize is that by avoiding tension all together they are unknowingly creating silos and internal disruption amongst employees. A leader must be expected to neutralize or minimize conflict, not allow it to grow and run rampant.

Went an employee arrives late everyday at work, or at a meeting, you may be surprised, and maybe even do not want to do the "bad cop" or play the manager card.
Here are some context and ideas to help you manage this situation.
It depends on how frequently it is happening, and the past record of the employee, and what kind of work they are doing.
Ask yourself: “Is this a pattern?" or "Should I let it slide this time?”
👉🏾If the teammate is not in a client facing role, or need to work overtime most of the time, coming late is not big deal, as long as he/she is getting his/her work done or not missing critical meetings (eg: software enginneer).
👉🏽If s/he is in a client facing role, timeliness is critical for the image of the organization.
👉🏾If a new joiner in the team starts being late from day 1 and continue to be late, on day 2 or 3 a one on one meeting should be scheduled with him/her. Once they understand that the behavior is acceptable, it will be very difficult to change.
👉🏽On the other hand, if someone who had been in the team for a long time and always had a track record for being on time and reliable, s/he should be given more freedom, but eventually a discussion would be required.
- When meeting with the employee try to remain calm, do not make it personal and avoid getting angry, remember you are annoyed with the time lost over lateness, not the actual employee personally.
- Ask questions before jumping to conclusions: prove that you care more about the person than the infraction.
- The feedback follows a three step process.
 “When you are late for work…”
 “Those who are here have to struggle to keep up with the workload, and I begin to wonder if I have to find a sub, if it’s time to start making calls, or if I can hold off just a little longer.”
 “Can you do that differently going forward?”Effective feedback is always about encouraging future behavior — not about rewarding or punishing past behavior.
- I would ask the person if everything is alright first. There should be a number of things that could occur and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I usually set expectations when I first take over a team that the person. Should call, text or email me if they will not be coming in. That is just respectful to your boss and your team. The person should also let their backup know of there is anything that needs to be taken care of while they are out.
- We need to first ask the person if they are facing any challenge and can be helped. Often people face unavoidable situation, and should be helped as much as possible in such cases. In most cases there will be opportunity to adjust the work according to the convenience of the employees.
- If it’s the first time or rare, get some insight into why. Try to get a good understanding of what may be going on in their lives and identify ways that you may be of assistance.
- If it turns out they are just sloppy (and the same sloppiness is reflected in other deliverables), they need to correct themselves.
- Eg: a teammate who is 15-20 minutes late at least once a week. S/he has a long commute that can be unpredictable when it comes to traffic. It's ok at the beginning, but after a quarter of working, don’t consider traffic a valid excuse.
- Always have more patience with an employee when they were trying.
- Let him/her know that when they are late it affects others, their work, your agenda.
- Set some guidelines for the future. Be kind.
- Allow the employee to suggest a solution: if the employee is able to offer a reasonable solution, they’ll most likely be more apt to stick with the solution. It works for them. It was their idea.
- If it's recurring, whatever you say to the employee follow it up with an email or a quick slack message to say thank you and remind him your discussion. This way it’s in writing too.
- If they repeatedly don’t notify their manager that they will be out or continue to show up late with no excuse then there needs to be a tougher conversation. The person needs to know that this is not acceptable and leaves the team in a bad position.
- Set a good example with your own punctuality: Beyond your arrival at work, make punctuality a habit. Show up to meetings on time or even a few minutes early. This shows employees that you respect and value their time and expect the same courtesy.
- Make sure your attendance policy is in your employee handbook: You will have no basis for disciplinary action if the employee did not receive notice of the attendance policy in the first place. It must be in writing and accessible.
- Discuss it at the end of the week during your 1:1 with the teammate, so you're more calm and can discuss it between other topics.
- Reward improvement: when the teammate pay attention to the details you discussed together, tell him/her that you noticed and validate this behavior
- Everyone else on the team knows that he/she is late, and will be watching for how you handle it.
- If you decide it is okay for there to be no rules or no consequences, your workplace will suffer it. And it's hard to get control again after losing control.