The Price of Friendliness: Pros and Cons of a Friendly
The Price of Friendliness: Pros and Cons of a Friendly Leader
Its always hard to fill the shoes of a leader because of peoples expectations. More often than not, good deeds are ignored while the smallest of mistakes are magnified out of proportion. At times, many leaders are tempted to use a friendly approach so that their followers will look upon them more kindly, but taking that path doesnt always lead to glory and success.
TRUST The word trust can be many things. A friendly leader is usually someone people may trust not to get too angry when they voice out their complaints, but a friendly leader might not be trusted to lead them to progress because theyve mistaken his friendliness for immaturity.
NETWORK One surefire benefit of being a friendly leader is that he almost always has a large network of contacts to depend on. This will definitely come in handy when he needs people to invite to his parties or prove that he has the majority on his side.
OBEDIENCE Because youre a friendly leader, its possible that people under you will forget that there are still lines of authority separating you from the rest of the group. If they dont forget, they might believe that it doesnt apply anymore simply because youre their friend. This is one of the greatest disadvantages of being a friendly leader, but its also something you can work around by exerting just the right amount of authority at the right times.
LOYALTY More often than not, friendly leaders have the loyalty of the people theyre leading. Being friendly is a better way to obtain someones loyalty. Its better than taking bribes or threats because all youll get from those is false loyalty. On the other hand, loyalty brought by friendship is something thats often freely given and priceless.
PEACE Because youre deemed a friendly leader by all, it suggests that everyone under you believes youre on their side. When any confrontation occurs, the fact that youre a friendly leader will facilitate your role as a mediator and pacifier since neither will think you capable of biased judgment
OPENNESS Lastly, it might be obvious by now that your friendliness is more like a double-edged sword for your leadership. Being friendly allows you to get to know them better, but this is a vice versa thing. Unfortunately, letting your subordinates most things or everything isnt always a good thing because it could give them too much bargaining power.
But in the end, what matters beyond being friendly is that youre a responsible leader as well. Hopefully, your subordinates are smart enough to understand that as well.
Related posts:
Recent Comments