Likability vs. Respect vs. Trust

From a leadership perspective, the liking has to be qualified and be able to garner respect.

Respect is based on being trustworthy and authentic. Likeability is subjective, people often like people who are similar to themselves, or have a certain charisma. Being likable or popular does not always earn you the respect. Trust starts with respecting. There are differences between likeability vs. respect. vs. trust.

From a leadership perspective, the liking has to be qualified and be able to garner respect: Otherwise, a leader who just likes to be liked can be detrimental and indicative of someone trying to compensate for leadership and technical deficiencies. Therefore, for the leaders, you need to surround yourself with people who can complement your skills, with independent thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking capabilities, who may challenge your status quo at some point, it could mean the higher level of respect since the homogeneous setting and like-minded leadership team will execute with blind spots. Same as likability, the people's communication or interaction need to enhance the value such as time/energy management or mutual trust, no need to give up the principle for likability.

Doing the right thing at the given circumstances will earn leader respect: When a leader or a professional consistently makes sound judgments and takes the right decisions and is perceived to be fair over the longer term, she or he earns the respect and is also liked by the majority. Earning respect comes first, liking eventually follows. People may have different value systems for trust, leading in such an environment requires acting in ways that follow the golden rule to treat others as you want to be treated, provide clear reasons to respect different POVs and decide to trust.

Trust starts with respecting: Mutual trust is that linchpin without which leadership is hollow and ineffective. The more we understand its vitality and the anatomy, the better will be our ability to lead in different situations. From talent management perspective, there are so many things employees will not tell their managers what's in their mind, and unfortunately, there are not so many things that are positives. It is an indication of a lack of trust. Communication is the very way to build trust, and lack of trust is an often overlooked barrier to communication as well.

Trust is based on credibility: Credibility is not the same thing as being likable. Credibility requires competence as one of the factors that encourage where credibility emerges. It is a perceived quality that others assign to you based on the interplay of a number of elements, such as integrity, competence (expertise), sound judgment, relational sensitivity, and likeability. Likeability and Credibility are two complex qualities that emerge from a handful of factors.

Mutual trust, mutual respect: No blind trust or trust too little. Leaders need to show staff that you respect them, first, understand what they care, trust them in a safe environment, help them not to fail, and if they do, show yourself to be trustworthy by supporting them. That will motivate them more than just throwing out some platitudes about trust as the opposite of micro-managing.

Overall, as a digital leader or professional being respected with fair value, it is important to make effective decisions for the organization and majority of people, also live fulfilled life with the energy and consistency, be athletic, learning agile, build professional capabilities, and keep the positive emotion flow.

Posted in: Connecting Dots