Leadership and Care

The very backbone of any effective leadership approach must be care. A good leader needs to care for his/her charges. Afterall, how can you consistently inspire people you care very little about? This is not possible, a leader who doesn’t care will not consistently inspire his/her people to consistently achieve great things.

Care is clearly necessary to be an effective leader. But, of course, a leader must be careful not to become everybody’s friend. A leader who i everybody’s friend can’t do their job properly. It is clear that leadership involves difficult and unpopular decisions, decisions that would become a lot harder if there were friendships in the equation. But one may reasonably ask “how can a leader care but avoid becoming everyone’s friend?”

Practically speaking, the answer lies in accountability. The biggest difference between a friendship and a leadership relationship is that a friendship is between equals, a leadership relationship is not. In a leadership relationship the leader holds authority over others. Wielding that authority is about instructing people about what they need to be doing, and importantly, holding them accountable for their performance and behaviour.

Unlike a friend, a leader is not allowed to stand by and accept when you are not living up to your potential, behaving badly, under-performing, etc. It is an absolutely essential part of leadership that the leader remain completely intolerant of poor performance and misbehaviour. In order to achieve this, the leader must hold his/her people accountable. When censuring is necessary, the leader must censure, when harsher disciplinary action is necessary, the leader must implement the course of action that is appropriate, even if this means firing. These are not things we would ordinarily do to our friends but these are definitely things which a leader must be willing an able to do.

We must not be inclined to think however that accountability is incompatible with care. The leader can care and hold you accountable, if holding you accountable is in fact in your best interest.  It all boils down to intent. If the intention of the leader is to better you by holding you accountable, then the act of holding you accountable, even if it is harsh, is an act motivated by care. Leadership requires a different brand of care than friendship. Leadership requires the brand of care in which the leader takes personal responsibility for the development and growth of the subordinate. This brand of care often requires the crack of the whip so to speak.