To Be or Not To Be a Friendly Leader

There are no limits to the expectations of people from their leader. The leaders are always expected to be better than the rest and make fair and effective decisions every single time. Most of the times, the leaders manage to fulfill these expectations, but in the few times that they don’t, they have to face a lot of flack. The qualities of the leader are then forgotten and all that is remembered are the vices. In order to save themselves from such situation, the leaders opt for a friendly approach. This friendly approach does manage to make the followers take the leader more lightly, but this approach does not always bear fruit.

TRUST: The feeling of trust can be interpreted in different ways. On one hand the followers are in a better position to trust a friendly leader while voicing their opinions and complaints trusting him to not lose his temper. On the other hand the friendly leader might lose trust of his followers with regard to progress as they might doubt his seriousness considering his friendly nature.

NETWORK: having a good amount of networks is probably the biggest advantage of being a friendly leader. Such leaders have good contacts with a lot of people who will readily attend all his parties and even offer him their support, giving him the benefit of having a majority.

OBEDIENCE: the obedience factor of friendly leadership is quite tricky. Most often, the followers of such leaders tend to forget the leader’s authority and cease to obey the orders given to them by their leader as they begin to consider him as a ‘friend.’ However, this situation can e tackled by the leader if he decides to assert himself and apply the right amount of pressure at the right time. In this way, the leader can be friendly towards his followers as well as maintain his power.

LOYALTY: It is always observed that the friendly leaders have all the loyalty of their followers. The best part is that this loyalty is obtained by being warm and friendly towards the followers and not by threatening or bribing them. Making friends with the followers is the most efficient way of gaining voluntary loyalty from the followers.

PEACE: A follower will always think that his friendly leader will support him in every way possible in case of a row. It is this confidence of the followers that wins the leader a lot of faith and dignity. In case of any kind of disagreements, the friendly leader can easily facilitate a solution as he is on friendly terms with everyone. Also, in case of such leaders the thought of partiality never pops up.

OPENNESS: The characteristic of openness can work as a boon as well as a bane to the friendly leader. The friendship between the leader and his followers makes it inevitable for both of them to know a lot about each other. The information about the followers is useful in taking care of their needs but if the followers get to know more about their leader, they might use the information against him.

In order to be a friendly leader, you must strike a balance between friendship as well as responsibility to ensure that the friendship does not obstruct your leadership skills in any way.