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Popularity & Leadership: Should You Try For Both?

Popularity and leadership — at first glance it might seem as though they are two entirely separate ideas. You can’t be popular and a good leader. You can’t be a good leader and be popular. It just doesn’t work. Yet many people strive to be both popular and a great leader. They want to have it all; they want to be amazing at their jobs and they want everyone to like them.

At some point, for most people, it’s going to come down to a choice; do you want to be effective or do you want lots of friends in your workplace? You should know which one is your ultimate goal.

The problem is, this can get confused, particularly because of the multi-rater feedback process, usually called the 360 degree assessment. This assessment is meant to evaluate your leadership by looking at what the people you work with and — in particular — manage think of you. It’s meant to then help you with your own personal development, but it can become something of a popularity contest, and this is where the problem lies. Many feel that a good leader who also happens to have a tough way of working would score much lower than someone whose leadership skills aren’t up to scratch, but who is well liked.

This is a valid point of view. It’s all very well being the best friend to all in the workplace, but this is a big problem when you need to put any disciplinary measures in place, or make changes that people aren’t…