Last week the Effectiveness-lab discussed certain effective-leadership archetypes and accompanying behavioral traits. Leaders grapple with a critical challenge – when to be ‘friends’ with the ‘led’ and when to be the boss that says and does stuff that isn’t music to the ears of those they lead.  Getting the balance between friendship versus keeping the right distance between you and your direct/indirect reports right, is no mean feat.

You are a leader and you want to be loved, get a dog!….this is our Jonny!!

It’s hard for leaders to play the chameleonic-leadership archetype: i.e., turn into the ‘real-leader’ and crack the whip against the friends of yesterday and tomorrow.  Colleagues have shared that in doing so, they feel a knot in their tummies and go home feeling like traitors.

In certain parts of the world, certainly, Uganda, where we come from, being friends with others, demands that we do not…