I was once told by supervisor that I was too friendly with the people who reported to me and for me to be the "boss", I should not "hang out" with direct or indirect reports. Well, I soon left that organization.
We spend a considerable amount of time with people we work with . . . as a leader I want to know the people more than just as work colleagues (someone just to tell what to do). I want to know the families, what they like to do for fun, what are their ambitions, and I just want to break bread with them in conversations about the world and life . . . Someone might say, would the leader who spends time with colleagues be able to know the difference between work and friendship . . . if you are a good leader who do . . . it is important to me to know the people who work with me (or as I saw in another posting, who I work for) because we all work very hard and trying to accomplish the same result at work . . . plus, when things are not going too well for some reason, knowing more about each other will help everyone succeed.
My family and I went to a wedding of an old colleague this past weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and there were lots of other old colleagues in attendence. It was great catching up . . . I knew many of their spouses/partners and some I just met for the first time . . . but you know what, I was no longer their leader, that part ended a few months ago, I was just a friend . . . and I value that . . . we as a team accomplished alot but more importantly I watched these "friends" grow up, get married, have children and advance their career . . . if i was just a leader, I would have missed out on sharing my life with a lot of wonderful people! I wished the time never ended and wish I was able to talk to more of the colleagues than I was able to . . . but for those leaders who are just all business . . . you are missing out of being a leader with a bunch of friends!
it was great seeing many of the readers of the blog and received many positives comments (like they would actually say something horrible, well, one sort of did, as he said, there was not anything really deep in my blog . . . agreed, this was never met to be a piece of literary work but share my thoughts on leadership based upon my many years as being a leader in three different organization . . .
Be Leader, Make a Friend!
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2 comments:
"I went to the wedding of an old colleague" funny! I think I will let her know this is how you described her: "old colleague"
It was great to see so many friends, and yes it is wonderful to call them friends, even if we work(ed) together. AND there is never enough time to talk to everyone. Wish we'd had time to say more than the few words.
I would go a step further and say that there is something wrong with people who don't have friends at work. A boss with no friends in his office -- now that's going to be a pretty paranoid guy. It's those informal, indirect channels where mentoring happens.
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