Bosses shouldn’t try to be liked

This Mantra: ‘I care about whether you like me’ is obviously worthy and admirable in almost every environment except in your Business.

I have seen it so often develop from an expression of goodwill into a belief and once the boss has a belief that it is important to be liked by the staff, then he/she arguably is no longer in control of the operation.

A typical problem is the annual bonus: if you don’t give a Bonus the staff won’t like you, so what do you have to do?? Regardless of whether you can afford it or not, regardless of whether they have deserved it or not, the temptation is to give a bonus.

The belief that it is important to be popular can affect all rational decisions surrounding staff issues at work, from salary rises to promotions and particularly to disciplinary issues and similar.

Where on earth did it come from? Why should we have to like and be liked by those around us in the workplace? Of course we should be kind, understanding, caring, tolerant, forgiving, understanding and generally civilised to everyone around us, but I urge you not to strive to be liked.

I suggest that what all good bosses should strive to achieve is to be respected by their staff. Respected for their industry, their skill, their drive, their inspiration, and above all for their fairness and their equal treatment of their staff.

If you suspect that you may be needing to make even slight changes to your attitudes to your staff then you may want to attend an event I am holding in Henley-on-Thames on 10th April, covering this topic:

EVENT: HOW GREAT LEADERS NATURALLY GET PEOPLE TO DO WHAT THEY WANT
April 10th 2018, 15:30 – 17:30