Image via Wikipedia
I am often accused of placing too much emphasis on the value of friendship in the persona of a leader. Perhaps the reason is that I worked in the advertising agency founded by Leo Burnett in Chicago. One of my favourite leadership quotes comes from the great man who said: “It seems axiomatic that you have to make a friend before you can effectively make him a proposition.”
He was referring to potential customers when he made this remark, but, if you think about it, the same logic applies to anyone whom you want to ask to do your bidding.
And leaders are asking others to do their bidding day in and day out, so it seems to me to make sense to make friends of those whom you wish to do your bidding.
I have noticed that most outstanding leaders have a knack of making friends of the people in their teams without losing their respect.
To study more of the words of wisdom of outstanding leaders visit our leadership quotes page.
