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As a manager, is it important for your employees to like you?

Results so far:

Yes
65% 736 votes Total: 1137 votes
No
35% 401 votes

You can't make everyone happy and you can't be everyone's friend. It isn't even important that your friends like you. Relationships are built on respect. A manager is not a person in the round, he or she is a person in a role. A good manager has empathy and a good worker has empathy. We are all cogs in the machine and should have the social skills to provide enough grease to keep the job's wheels turning. Anything beyond that is a distraction.

A manager should be human and should display the full faculty of human emotions and reason and interests, but whether one is liked by all is not important. No one respects a glad hander. A manager is only part politician. A manager doesn't need to curry votes. A manager needs to make unpopular, but sound, decisions. Being liked isn't part of this equation. Being effective and efficient is. There are different definitions for this, but likability comes from respect. The manager is a human technocrat. If decisions are made on a business basis, then everyone is on the same page. Nothing is personal. A good manager is a leader and that entails a bit of charisma. A bad manager is a body with a title.

Respect is earned and good will is earned. These things take time. A good manager doesn't go out of his or her way to be liked. A good manager goes out of his or her way to be effective. When everyone is on the same page, the respect for a manager's goals and abilities outweighs any abrasions his or her personality may cause. They become charming. If you can't swing the charm factor, you will never be a good manager.

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As a manager, is it important for your employees to like you?

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    by Arthur Gibson

    Wondering or worrying about whether or not all of your employees like you is a trap that ensnares many new managers. ...read more

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