If you haven’t, consider this example where opposing styles both produced success. One leader achieves success by persuading his followers to respect him. By contrast, retired U.S. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led American forces in the 1992 Gulf War, found that success depended on him loving his troops, and them loving him in return.
So, which style is right? The tactics of each are quite different. So what’s a leader to do? Conventional wisdom says that a business leader shouldn’t get too friendly with his or her employees. We’ve all heard leaders say, “I don’t care if they like me or not. I just want them to respect me.” Indeed, respect promotes productivity. In a similar way, according to recent studies conducted by the Gallup Organization, productivity improves when an employee feels cared about and close to his manager.