Two-Sided is Best

The other day I read an article offering tips on how one can be the better worker at their job. One suggestion in-particular jumped out at me as it had to do with the boss. It pertained to dealing with a boss who is not pleasant. Specifically, how can one be a good and productive employee if their boss is not someone easy to get along with? The suggested answer for workers revolved around looking for ways to like their boss. Workers, so said the article, should identify one aspect of their boss that is likeable or admirable and focus on that. By developing a "like" for their organizational superior, workers will be more apt to feel better about their job and, as a result, be more productive.

No question about it. There is a logic to this thinking. After all, ideally, who doesn't want to be more productive just to feel better about themselves? Of course, such a suggestion especially works especially well for the boss. This is the man or woman with all the power. This is the person with the biggest salary, most perks and ability to make the lives of their subordinates pleasant or not depending upon their own whims, vision or priorities. And now workers, in addition to trying to meet their responsibilities in the hope their job will remain secure, should add finding ways to actively like their boss to their to-do list?  

The problem with this tip, however, is that it is too one-sided. What about the actions of the boss? Should not they too be identifying some aspect of their workers they like or admire in order to have warmer and fuzzier feelings about those who report to them? Would not this help make those organizational superiors be more productive, too? For relationships, even professional ones, to be most healthy and beneficial to all parties, all participants must actively seek ways to bring out the best in the other. A relationship without a mutual commitment on the part of all parties is, at best, weak and on a path to be short-lived. Two-sided is best.