Can Good Leaders Afford to Be Cliquish?

When we think of strong leaders, we often think of those individuals who tend to appeal to a large mass of people. Leaders have the ability to inspire and guide but in the "real world" with those leaders who operate on a smaller scale, is it common for them to have a small clique or "in group" of individuals whom they interact with? Does having a small clique interfere with a leader's ability to get things done or to serve as an inspirational leader?

When many of us hear (or read) the word "clique" we assume it is a bad thing. We might have terrorizing memories of high school and not being aloud to hang out with the "in crowd." A clique, however, does not have to be a negative thing and if you think about it, you probably even belong to a clique or two of your own currently. For a leader, however, we might expect that he or she will be available to everyone and not have "favorites." Whether it is a leader at work or in the community, is it fair to expect that he or she won't have an "in group" or a group of close friends?

Let us consider a leader in a work environment-the supervisor of a department may, in fact, have subordinates within that department that he likes better than others; those that he prefers to work with or socialize with. If a supervisor socializes outside of work with a few people from his department, does this undermine his ability to lead the entire department? Maybe. If a leader shows preferential treatment in the work environment or plays favorites, he will definitely be viewed as less competent, but if he can keep his social life separate and be fair and impartial at work, his leadership may not be called into question.

It is probably best for a leader to be as egalitarian as possible within the context of the work she is doing but it is unreasonable to expect that she won't have close friends, advisors, and confidantes that make up her own "in group." Having good friends is not the same thing as being partial, playing favorites, excluding people or being cliquish.