[December 21, 2015] In high school all my friends and I took every science course we could. We did this because we’d made up our minds that we were going to college and wanted to see what we liked most as a potential major. The chemistry teacher was the schools most likeable and that helped explain why many of us went into related majors: chemistry, chemical engineering, and geology (yep, there’s some chemistry in geology studies).
Of course, it’s well known that a good leader doesn’t need to be likeable or popular to be effective but studies have consistently shown that it helps … and helps a lot. Certainly, leaders that are hated or not trusted are least likely to be successful and the reason is simple. People work harder, more creatively, and are much more productive for leaders they like.
Human interaction is based on relationships. Those relationships go more smoothly, have less disruption and less stress when the leader is liked. Who hasn’t found themselves in a stressful work situation where a good leader helped us over some obstacle by giving us some emotional support? Anyone would do better because we believe likeable people have our back and will support us regardless of the challenge.
Care should be taken however for many leaders have fallen into the old trap of making all their decisions on whether they will be liked. I’ve had many friends in senior leader positions who took a stand on an issue just because they thought others would love them for it. It turned out that was not to be and they spent a lot of time regaining the respect of the men and women who worked for them.
Niccolò Machiavelli proposed the question whether it was better to be loved than feared. He ultimately concluded that it was better to be feared.1 However, scientific investigations into leadership and likeability show that it is better to be loved. Our lack of the full understanding of the complexity of human relationships should make us hesitant to simply write off Machiavelli as wrong. Even he admitted it was better to be both feared and loved.
Leaders who have been successful in the past are generally liked by people. They possess social skills that allow them to navigate within the difficult arena of personal interactions. Commercial enterprises rely heavily upon the likeability as does, contrary to the stereotype, our military leaders (which is considered to lead the most powerful military in the world).
Leadership and likeability go together like bread and butter. You can have either one separately but they taste better together.
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