No positive feedback?

A leader must walk a fine line between humanizing her/himself through displays of emotion and personality and tightly controlled behavior. I have always said that leaders “don’t have the luxury” of losing their cool in front of their team. With the team members taking their cues from us, it is important that we keep our behavior in check, particularly when reacting during difficult or stressful times; if we lose “it’, then it subconsciously gives our team permission to do so as well.

Celebratory occasions call for less “controlling”of behavior certainly, and most employees will gain a feeling of “bonding” with their boss during such occasions. A leader who is too remote and seemingly detached during this time loses an opportunity to build rapport. I personally have witnessed managers who have refrained from including positive feedback in their leadership tool bag, as “it makes them harder to fire” if the need were to arise, in fact, they urged me to do the same!

It’s hard to imagine the leader of a team who would think this way would EVER have much success, but they exist, and are more common than most of us would like to believe.