#### [[Its lonely at the top]] --- > “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” > <div class="signature"> - Henry IV - Shakespeare </div> When one moves from employee to leader that undergo a shift in their working relationships. Many people prefer good working relationships and work-friendships over higher pay. This makes sense as it's worth lower pay to be happier with your work environment than to have a bad environment^[[[Self Estrangement]]] and higher pay. The money would be spent on coping and decompression activities. When moving to a leadership role one loses the closeness that prior work relationships had for a variety of factors: - People can't trust you in your new authoritative role - You're not "The Boss" not longer on equal footing - You don't know if you're just being used for material gain or professional advancement so you cant trust the staff [[#^9bc2fb]] - You are responsible for the outcome of your team and their work where as the team members are responsible only for their work, this is an unequal level of stress loading - People don't want to appear to be a "suck up" by befriending "the boss" (discourage nepotism) - Leaders are looked to and scrutinized to a higher degree than their subordinates, they have to exude a higher level of excellence and professionalism - People may deal with their own shortcomings^[[[Insecure Attachment]]] by idealizing the leader and insulating them from truth by being "yes men" so that the leader is no longer to test their own perceptions about the health of the organization. All of these factors cause leaders to feel a vacuum where their prior relationships once were and a desire to fill it. Many succumb to less healthy methods of coping with these feelings. Ultimately, the path to leadership is a lonely one that has its perils as well as its rewards. Leaders no longer have the strong ties to their coworkers that they once did as they now have this new barrier of “professional aloof-ness” to maintain and with greater levels and requirements of leadership this begins to cause a shortage of time for personal relationships to fill that need thereby causing the depredation of those relationships in favor of professional advancement. ^6c4cc6 When one “ascends” from an analytical/technical role^[[[The four stages of work structure]]] into that of a more leadership type position, there is this new “wall” of “professional aloof-ness” as you are no longer “one of us” you have become “the boss of us”. Once you ascend to a level of leadership this “barrier” is something that must be maintained for others to respect and follow the chain of command in an organizational hierarchy. --- > **Queen Phillippa of Denmark:** Look around that table last night, and look at the faces of the men seated at it. I can feel this calm of which you speak. I do believe they wish you well. But I also see that they have their own kingdoms behind their eyes. Do you understand what I say? I’ve been away too many years, and I’m now to return to Denmark. But I have, in my time in that court, been privy to its commissions. I have seen there, again, and again, that no one ever speaks true, wholly true. Choose your steps wisely, dear brother. > *-- Netflix's The King * ^9bc2fb --- Tags: [[Leadership]] - [[Work]] - [[Lonliness]] - [[Coping]] - [[Alienation]] Reference: [[( Why It’s So Lonely at the Top]] [[& 2021-01-08 Leadership and Loneliness]] Related: