Do you need to be a friend to your staff to draw out their best performance?
Quite simply the answer is, no. Everyone wants to be popular and well liked. We even want to be liked by those whom we dislike. Many executives and senior managers think they need to have the personal liking of their employees in order for the employees to follow the executive’s lead. They do not. Employees do not have to like an executive to follow them and to give them their best performance. But they do have to respect them, be motivated by them, and share and understand their vision. All of these elements are different from “liking”. In fact, some great leaders were not necessarily well liked by their teams at all – George Patton and Jack Welch come to mind.
Oakley Advisors executive coaches show their clients the difference between being liked and being respected as a leader. They help executives develop their innate leadership qualities and address weaknesses in leadership behavior. One of these weaknesses is assuming that they must develop a friendship relationship in order to lead their teams to top performance. To paraphrase Harry Truman, “If you want a friend in business, get a dog.”
Jerry Kleinhaus
Oakley Advisors
Certified Executive Coaching
Cincinnati, Ohio
