Leadership traits | Why being popular at work is important

Some may argue that leaders looking to be liked are searching for the wrong thing in the workplace; whilst team bonding is important – as is commanding respect from your staff – great leaders throughout history have proven that respect rarely comes from pandering to those in your team in the hopes of being liked.

In fact, a Glassdoor study that quizzed workers on what they look for in a boss found that qualities such as ‘straight talker’ ‘reliable’ and ‘logical’ feature highly on the list, whilst ‘likeable’ isn’t even factored.

Yet surprisingly a new series of 10 reports released by Northeastern University professors Charn McAllister, Sherry Moss and Mark J. Martinko, in which over 3,000 professionals were quizzed, found that likeability has a massive impact on productivity, wellness and overall business performance.

People read five statements about their management and rated their leaders/supervisors on a scale from one to seven. One was strongly disagree; two was somewhat disagree; three was slightly disagree; four was neutral; five was slightly agree; six was somewhat agree and seven was strongly agree.