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Leadership Aspects of NeedsTeams and the Members’ Need PolesManagement Aspects of DistanceLeadership Aspects of UniquenessLeadership Aspects of FreedomLeadership Aspects of ClosenessLeadership Aspects of SecurityLeadership Aspects of BelongingDistance Incompetence and LeadershipStress Factors of Distance in LeadershipUniqueness Incompetence and LeadershipUniqueness Stress Factors of LeadershipFreedom Incompetence and LeadershipFreedom Stress Factors of LeadershipGuiding Process Regulation of NeedsGuiding Process Team PreservationTeam-member orientationOrganisation-orientatedStress Factors for Closeness in Management
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Stress Factors for Closeness in Management

It is challenging for managers, due to their role in the organisation, to manage their need for closeness. Employees are the wrong focus for this, because, as a manager, one must not openly talk with them about one’s own need. That would be a similar mistake as when the mother speaks to her daughter about the problems in the relationship with the father. In addition, ‘confidants in the team’ create a dysfunctional inequality and with it, envy and jealousy. Colleagues on the same level are usually competitors and can almost always be excluded as confidants. Even their superiors are only suited as confidants to a limited degree, because they decide over promotion and dismissal. Therefore, it is very important for managers to be well provided with closeness in the private sphere. Having good friends is thus essential. On the other hand, collegiate circles with people from other firms in similar positions, networks via clubs, universities, professional associations and cross-company peer groups are worth their weight in gold, if they are then used for an exchange about truly personal matters.