“I was wrong.”

“Thank you.”

“I need your help.”

How often do you hear (or say) those words at work?

As a manager, you are expected to have full command of technical abilities, operational expertise and strategic goal-setting. But are you equally skilled at and invested in, connecting with, motivating and appreciating your reports?

Your team is directly affected by you — how motivated, fulfilled and functional they are and whether or not they like you (yes, likability is a leadership quality and a major aspect of persuasion and influence).

When your emerging executives (because that is how junior reports think of themselves and how you should think of them) dislike, distrust or basically don’t respect you, all leadership is lost. And when trust and respect are absent, disdain and dissatisfaction set in, and you may not hear about it until you are told by top management or human resources, which are the people employees go to when they don’t feel they can bring their unhappiness to you.

As you might imagine, that scenario is painful, public, career-threatening and more and more common as newer professionals become more assertive and outspoken with their ambitions and expectations.

New professionals have their own criteria for success and satisfaction in the workplace and while some of those expectations may seem excessive or presumptuous (thus earning millennials the “entitlement” label), those desires and preferences actually provide management with a leadership opportunity.