There is a dichotomy of leadership. On one side, the leader is demanding and expects their employees to work hard and follow their orders. On the other side, the friendlier leader tries to be more approachable and gets to know their employees on a personal level. Both of these styles can be effective, but it’s essential to find the right balance for your business. This blog post will discuss how to juggle these two roles and become a better leader for your team!
What Is Dichotomy of Leadership
If you’re starting as a leader, it’s essential to understand the dichotomy of leadership. On one side, the demanding and expectant leader expects their employees to work hard and follow orders exactly how they are given (even if those orders seem unreasonable or impossible). On the other side, there is the friendlier, approachable boss that gets involved in his team members’ lives outside of work hours by engaging with them over social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter; they will not only be more relatable but also help increase productivity because people respond well when they feel appreciated! It all comes down to finding this balance between being too harsh versus having no expectations at all – which takes time to practice, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t come naturally initially.
Effective communication between the leader and subordinates is vital to running a team smoothly. But sometimes, team leaders send wrong signals to their employees even though they are friends, which may hurt the trust within the group. Good communication holds mutual understanding and gets work done without hassles or issues.
- Not sharing information
- Partnering up with nasty and rude
- Being passive about communication
- Always being right about communication
- No Treating everyone equal
- Being personal and not professional
For example, let’s look at team leaders and tasks that need to be done. If individuals on a team are not communicating effectively, there could be underlying problems like communication, communication style, communication preferences, and communication frequency.
Separate Personal and Professional Life
When you find a healthy way to separate your work life from your personal life, you are sure to have more success in both. What is true with social media it’s with real life as well.
Working for yourself means you are your boss. Unfortunately, this means that nobody but yourself separates work life from personal life. So then, how does one separate their business and personal lives? The answer isn’t as hard as you might think, and what is if you are not? A great way to separate the two is to separate your workspace from your personal space. For example, if you have a small business that requires an office in your home, then keep the two separate by using separate rooms for each. This will help ensure that both spaces are entirely separate and avoid any confusion or temptation of mixing work life with private life or anyone else who is your friend you are working with. Another helpful method would be not allowing specific clothing (e.g., work clothes) in your private sleeping area (e.g., bedroom).
Separating your home into different areas/spaces is very important when it comes to separating business from personal life; however, there are other ways that this can be done outside of one’s own home – like working in separate places. For example, if you run your business in a public place (e.g., Starbucks), then try to avoid working in that exact location on non-business-related tasks (e.g., personal errands).
Whether you like your team member or not, treat everyone equally. This will make them appreciated, and it is good for the team morale.
Everyone needs to have a motive in a team, no matter a friend. This motive should be the same for all the members of the team. For example, if you work in an organization and your motive is to bring more profit to get an increment, motivate your teammates to contribute their bit in bringing profit into the company.
Strategy to Balance Being a Leader and a Friend
Frankly, you cannot be friends with your team members if you want to lead them. The only exception is when your goal is something everyone in the group can relate to, like wanting everyone to get an increment at work.
If you are in a position where you have to handle both friendship and leadership simultaneously in your workplace, make sure you do not show any favoritism. You cannot give more attention to a friend than to other teammates because this will create hostility, resulting in hatred later on. Dichotomy should reign supreme for both management and friendship to stay afloat at all times.
How Much Dichotomy Is Too Much Dichotomy?
If your organization does not require teamwork or friendship among its employees, you do not need to worry about the dichotomy at all. Dichotomy must be there if people are assigned to different areas, and they only come together during their breaks and lunchtime. Dichotomy should also be present when people work in different departments so that each person has an opportunity to meet different team members. The dichotomy can be used to learn how different people think and behave, which is essential in these modern days. Dichotomy should not be present when you want everyone to work together because this will create disharmony among employees. The dichotomy is not recommended if only two or three people are working on the same project because it will further break teamwork. Dichotomy should be present in organizations where more than 50 percent of the staff works remotely, often without supervision. The dichotomy will make workers feel they are doing their job independently despite being part of a larger team.