Leadership as a friend

 To understand the term of “Friendly Leadership” and what it means to me I would like to share my definition of a real friendship with you first.

When I ‘m talking about real friendship, I am not just talking about the old definition that comes to your mind when you hear the word ,,Friendship”.

It is so much more than just being there for each other and helping each other when someone is in need.

It is having fun and being excited, while making something happen together. It is being there for each other, even when the other person is in a crisis and prove what real friendship means.

So now you know more about my definition of friendship. But how can I now connect my definition of friendship with leadership?

I’ll answer this question with two words: Friendly Leadership.

This would mean:

• Almost all the time, dealing with you is fun and excited
• You accept swinging moods, irritating phases, sadden withdrawal etc. just like friends do
• You do have “blurred lines” to jump into personal topics
• You crack jokes, but accept jokes on you with equal magnanimity
• You are not afraid to question inconsistency or bad behavior
• You are happy to see progress of colleagues and are not afraid to show it
• Colleagues are happy to celebrate and throw a party for you for good news at work but equally for good news in private life
• Take great enjoyment in pulling legs, teasing quirky colleagues and mimicking styles of leading colleagues

While I wrote all this, I realized that it sounds more like the things we did, when we went to school or college. 

But let’s face it, everyone says it was the best time of his or her life.

I am not sure if you all can say the same about your time at work.

Do you?