Should Leaders Have Friends at Work?

Recently, a colleague asked me the question "Should Leaders have friends at work?"  He went on to say "Relationships are essential, the core of the commercial world yet it's not uncommon for executives to avoid 'friendships' with co-workers. They often fear that having personal relationships in the workplace might compromise their ability to make tough decisions. So should Leaders have friends at work?"

As a few of my clients are currently living the ramifications of befriending someone at work in one case and bringing in a friend to work in her department in another, which has caused a meltdown through the ranks, I thought it not only relevant but important to start a discussion on this topic.

In all my experiences working with leaders, having friends at work does not serve them or the people who they befriend. For a point of clarification the leaders I work with are political leaders (federal), government leaders, corporate leaders and business leaders. Each area has different dynamics and chemistry so to speak. Whenever a leader befriends someone in the organization, it impacts the other individual especially in areas of trust both from their colleagues and the staff. It also identifies that person as "leader's pet' which brings up a whole new set of issues.

Staff wants leadership, direction, empowerment and growth from their leader.  They do not want a best friend, at least those who want to evolve for the right reasons.

"Leadership is not magnetic personality-that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people"-that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." - Peter F. Drucker

Nowhere in there, nor in any other words of wisdom does it ever state that leadership is being staff's best friend.