What do you do when you don’t respect the leader?
Maybe you believe that she’s incompetent..
or maybe you just don’t see eye to eye..
or you just have a hard time accepting the leader in his new role.
Perhaps a colleague of yours was promoted and you’re uncomfortable reporting to him now.
Do you have options and what are they? What do you do if you’re in a situation you can’t change at the moment?
When Elizabeth I became Queen of England in the 16th century, she was one of the few women who ruled England in her own right. What I mean by that is that in most cases, the Queens were consorts who did not have real power. In the case of Elizabeth I, since she never married, she was subservient to nobody, in effect she was Queen and King of England.
During that time women were not viewed as capable of handling roles outside the home. They were considered weak, inferior and inadequate for rule. They had to be quiet in the presence of men and had to obey their husbands and fathers. Elizabeth was not a feminist and supported these same beliefs.
When she inherited England, she had to work on changing her personal self image from being a woman to being comfortable in the role of monarch. She believed that it was God’s will to have put her in that role. This gave her the confidence to put aside her gender and confidently take on the challenge of ruling England.
When she made her famous speech to her army prior to fighting the Spanish Armada, she mentioned in her speech that she had the body of a weak woman and the stomach and heart of a King. She did not respect herself as a woman but respected the position she was in as Queen of England.
When we work with someone who we don’t respect it is important to figure out how to work, support or deal with the leader in a constructive way. By detaching the person from the role they’re in, we’re able to look at the situation from a different perspective.
This makes it easier to separate our perceptions about that person and focus on the position they have in the organization. If you don’t respect your leader, respect the postion they’re in and it will be a little easier to work with them.
How do you gain respect for the leader when you do not respect the person?
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