Young Leader // People Won’t Follow You Until They Trust You

As young leaders, we often get the idea of leading and influence wrong.

Somewhere along the line, we’ve been convinced that leading means we tell people what to do and they follow willingly. We have this concept in our head that they’ll follow us because they have to or because we have a title.

The result of that thinking is that we fail to really lead people from a place of influence and care, only from a place of being their boss and them having to follow us.

As we know, real leadership is influence. Influence never comes without trust.

So, instead of us spending time convincing people they have to follow us, we should invest time in building trust in the people we’ve been stewarded with leading. Sure, it will take longer for people to “fall in line,” but once they do, them trusting us will accomplish so much more than if they’re being told they have to.

Spend time building trust and influence, not in getting people to do what you want them to do.

That’s what it’s really all about anyway. It’s not about us or our agenda, it’s about other people and how we can help them succeed.

The Law of Leading: Relationship > Trust > Influence > Leading