Being Respected in Business

Do not confuse being liked as the same as being respected.

Being liked as a leader is nice however, being respected is critical to successful leadership because it comes from a higher sense of duty and care for the people whom you are responsible for. Through respected leadership people will like you and will do so at a deeper more genuine level because they know you will be fair and at times make hard choices that will be in their best interest.

The late Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”