Since I was a kid I was told to treat others the way I wanted to be treated by them. It always felt like a great advice and a common wisdom worth following. And so I lived by this motto for a long time. Until I didn’t.
Common wisdom
The fallacy of this statement is in the assumption that we are all the same, have the same wants and needs. But we don’t. Each of us is different and only because I like something it doesn’t mean you will like it too. By treating you the way I want to be treated I’m forcing you to accept my world view and I don’t respect you as an individual.
For example, I’m a internally motivated introvert. I don’t need external praise. In fact, I feel very uncomfortable when I’m getting one and often don’t know what to say in response. I definitely don’t like being put on a pedestal to the spotlight and having songs sang in my name. Because of that mindset, I always struggled to praise other people in my team. I appreciate what they are doing, but I had to be reminded to express this so they know that I know. It just doesn’t come naturally to me because I don’t have the same need. However, some people really enjoy when you express your gratitude in words and in public. I know this and that means I shouldn’t treat them the way I want to be treated.
Let’s look at this scenario. Each of us has a different expectations from life. We have different needs and various stages of our lives. Because of my educational background, and my life journey I put huge emphasis of continuous education and believe that one should never stop learning to be better and better at his profession. I believe each of us should have it as one of the priorities in life. But guess what. I don’t have kids and if you do, chances are that your priority might be to give the best education possible not to yourself but to your kids. If I’m your manager and treat you the way I want to be treated I’m putting you to a position to choose between yourself and your kids. Ouch.
While the “treat others the way you want to be treated” maxim works reasonably well on the general level, for example, we all want to be treated fairly and with respect, it may not work that well when you get down to smaller more specific details.
Treating others the way they need to be treated
If you are in a leadership position, the next step in evolution is to realize that your job as a manager is to help your team grow. You need to treat your team the way they need to be treated. What I mean by that?
Let’s look at this example. You have a team member who is not doing a particularly good job. Since you like it when people are nice to you, and you want your team treat the same way, you will be nice to this person. You will try to give him feedback about his performance in a “nice” manner, avoid conflict, make sure he doesn’t feel bad. Chances are that you will be sugar coating your feedback so much that the person will never get the message. Did you help him? Not really. What that person needs is for you to be “brutally clear” with him about what he needs to work on to get better.
Treating others the way they want to be treated
And the final step? What about treating others not the way “you” want to be treated but the way “they” want to be treated? To be a good manager and a leader you should do you best to understand your people. You should understand what is important for them, and why it is important. You should know what they need, and why. You should also know what their life ambitions are and help them to reach these. Only when you know them, you know how they want to be treated and you can make your best effort to treat them that way. Why? If you do that, your team will know that you care and they will care back.
Now you can see that treating others the way you want to be treated is flawed. But is it really so useless? Not necessarily. It is a great thing to do when you meet someone for the first time. If you don’t know anything about other people then treating them the way you want to be treated is the best and least risky approach. Just keep in mind that your goal is to learn more about them and ultimately treat them the way they want to be treated.
What’s your take on the topic? Do you treat others as you want to be treated or as they want to be treated?
Photo: geralt / Pixabay.com
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Categories: Leadership, Life
The Geeky Leader 
Both approaches are extreme niether treat people the way you wanted to be treated nor treat people they wanted to be treated
You take one the best principals for life and completely display you do not understand this principal at all. Its about treating people with respect, decency and common kindness. You have no right to except others to treat you with any of those when you don’t treat others as such, period.
Has Nothing to do with forcing others to become you. Sad such a simple rule for life is so contorted.
The other posters here clearly missed the point. Yes, we treat everyone with kindness, respect and decency, but that looks different to each person based on their upbringing, life experiences, personality, etc.
I have been thrown into an internal battle with myself because of this very maxim, and this article gave me great perspective on the subject. Thank you.
I agree with you, i have been journaling about the same thing after an unpleasant conversation with one of my friends. I think it is all about how emotionally intelligent the person is, this will help in understanding people and treat others as they want to be treated. And of course kindness and compassion are very important. Thank you
I think the key that the golden rule does not acknowledge is asking. People get so, well, I get so nervous wondering how to treat others and if I’m doing it in a way that is respectful and needed by them, but it is as simple as asking them directly, how can I help? Do you want help? It’s about observing, emotional intelligence and open communication.