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As a manager, it is important for your employees to "respect" you, "liking" you is just an extra bonus that makes things easier. I've held several management positions over the years, and the one cardinal rule that should never be broken is "Don't become friends with your employees", unfortunately, many people think that this also means that you cannot treat your employees with care and compassion, and this is just not true.

Think of things this way...if you were the captain of a ship, you would want a crew that respects your word as law; you would want a crew that understands any order given must be followed. In addition to this, however, you would also want a crew who feels as though they are being treated fairly and justly, so that they aren't ready to gather up and mutiny at every chance...this is where the "liking" you as a manager comes in.

My mother manages the bakery section of a large supermarket chain, and her story is a great illustration of the point I am making. In the beginning, she struggled with the line between "respect" and "friendship", and eventually ended up having a few problems. She turned over a new leaf and decided that she would be the standard "hard nosed" boss who demanded respect and didn't care if her employees "liked" her...what happened, you ask? Well, eventually, all of her employees started filtering to upper management complaining about how poorly they were being treated. While it wasn't true that they were actually being treated "poorly", rather they were simply not being treated with "kid-gloves", it didn't matter. Today, her bakery runs smoothly because she found the right mixture of kindness and demanding of respect.

In the end, you do not want your employees to "like" you to the point that they expect to be your friend outside of work, but while in the workplace, you do not want someone beneath you who is disgruntled either. Treat your employees with the respect that you require them to give back to you.

Learn more about this author, Sarah Williams.
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