Everyone likes to be liked. Some will say they don’t care, but I don’t believe them. We feel better when people like us.One of the biggest challenges of leadership is making the right decisions, even if that means that people won’t like us. If you are making decisions primarily so that people will keep liking you, you are most likely making the wrong decisions and losing respect at the same time.

Leaders who choose ‘likership’ will feel warm and fuzzy, that everyone thinks they’re a great guy. They will have followers but not for the right reasons. You don’t want people to support you only because they like you. You want support because they respect you and what you are doing.You may not like to hear this, but leadership takes courage, lots of it. The courage to do things, every day, that you don’t want to. Like making decisions that you know are right, but you also know that people aren’t necessarily going to like them. You make them anyway. You choose leadership.

Go for respect first, like second, every time.