Here is the question for you. How should country leader/ company leader or just basic group leader act and look like? Do they need people to love them or be afraid of them? Which leader people would follow more?

Really relevant theme but perspectives about this changes all the time. If we compare dark ages and nowadays we can notice how the governance changed. 

What kind of leader you would like to have?

It is important to think about it just because everywhere we go there will be some kind of leader. Countries elects their leaders. We elect leaders, rulers all the time too in daily life circumstances. But firstly let’s define what the leader is and what his goals are.

Country leader obviously represents his citizens, they  need to transfer right political message to the whole world and create image between other countries leaders. Company leaders goal is a business. Most of the times. Their need to make sure that company work is fluent and people are doing 120% work. Yes, not 100%, but 120%. And group leaders just take responsibility for the whole group work and thoughts. I also think that leaders should know psychology really well. To accept employees by their personalities not by their experiences.

So leader must: make a good image, be responsible, ensure fluent work, motivate others, represent someone and be educated.

When I was learning management we analyzed leader types. But still there is no right answer about how leader should behave. Most of the leaders didn’t even had any education on how to be a leader. They just improvise.

Let’s begin from a strict leader which everyone is afraid of. I think everybody had experience with these kind of leaders at least once. Especially schools uses fear a lot so that students wouldn’t be able to resist. I wonder what do you think is purpose of being strict and scary? Do we give more respect if we are afraid of a person? I don’t think so. We don’t respect people who make us feel fear. We are just more concerned about ourselves. We don’t wanna have any more problems that we’re already have. So we listen and do what strict person tell us to do. To resist means to feel something negative. And nobody wants that. So it is easier to give up and hold every dissatisfaction inside us. Fear and strictness helps to control masses and makes people act in the way ruler wants. I have worked with really strict company leaders and I hated them . Yes, they are professional, they make a lot influence. But they remind me of robots not humans. Also, most of the times they manipulate and humiliate you, maybe it is because nobody respects them. Subordination is really important to them.

In my school we had a really strict teacher. Even other schools heard about her and everybody were afraid of her even those who haven’t met her in real life. Everyone always asked what kind of monster she is. We had silence during her teachings all the time because everyone were afraid to say something. But I somehow managed to get through her, I started to talk with her and I understood that this is just her image. She is not a bad person or monster in reality. She acted like that just to make silence during her lessons. But is it worth it?

Now let’s take a completely different example. Leader which is good one. Everybody loves him and respects. The question is, can love be enough to control everybody? If leader makes something that is not acceptable, can love end for him then? Because of love we can do many things and a lot of times something irrational. Fear doesn’t let you to be free and decisions are made more carefully. So, love makes us blind. But without love we even wouldn’t exist. And if we need to choose between love and fear? We would always choose love because it is more beautiful. Is it more easier? I am not sure. If love ends, same thing happens with a respect. We always judge more the people we love rather than the ones we are afraid of.

Also, I noticed new trend as young people looks for a leader who would be also a friend. The one you could discuss about things or even meet unofficially. Leader = friend. But what we say about friends? Friend for a day, for a week, month or for the whole life? Too much risk.

Next example. We had a teacher who was really likable and she wasn’t strict at all. If you had question you could always come up to her and ask. And you could even discuss with her with no fear. I didn’t like her. And you couldn’t hear any bad word about her. Do people respected her more? I would say 50/50. But if we needed to compare which teacher was more professional, unfortunately, that strict one.

Now let’s think about balance. If the leader would be strict and lovable at the same time. If everyone would respect the leader and be a bit afraid of him. Is it even possible? Is it real? I think, yes. But to have a balance you need to work on yourself, you need a lot of life experience and you need to know what affects every person together and separately.  What motivates and demotivates person. There are people who loves to work in a scary environment. Others the opposite, hates fear. Well, actually love should make us go forward. And only love. But there is a long way to this kind of lifestyle.

And the last example from my school – there was a teacher which everybody liked, but she was strict. In other words – she had a balance. You respected her, loved her and was afraid of her. I have no idea how she managed to do that, but this is a high level of professionalism.

That is how leader should look like for me. Balance = efficiency. This is the way to be liked by the most and be a leader everybody wants to follow.