Quick leadership thought. I wrote about this in a newsletter column a few months ago, and it's the idea that as a leader of your business, you no longer can be friends with your employees. You can certainly be friendly, and I strongly recommend that, but not friends.
What's the difference:
1) Friendly: having some drinks together with the team. Friends: getting drunk with one guy on the team.
2) Friendly: getting to know a little about each other's family. Friends: getting intimate details about each other's family.
3) Friendly: getting together once in awhile to socialize after work (family time). Friends: getting together frequently to socialize after work.
You can probably figure the rest out for yourself, and you may even take issue with some of my points. The bottom line is that when your employees begin considering you their friend, and not their boss, you're going to have problems when you need to get tough for poor performance. You may also have problems if others get jealous of your relationship.
Remember! As a leader, be friendly, not friends.
Grow Strong!
Coach Grev
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