I have been very fortunate through the years and had many people take the time to lead and mentor me during my career. Each person has helped me develop into the person I am today and I am eternally thankful for the time they spent investing in me. One of the key things I have learned as the years have gone by is the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn.

One of the first mentors I had (besides my father) met me when I was in my early 20ies and the way he communicated with me was mainly by saying something he knew I wouldn’t understand and walking away! He told me many things throughout the years but this particular saying stuck with me and encapsulates the general ideology that guides me when leading teams and what I study to become better every day at leading.

What he said was In order to be a leader people must want to follow and he told me this when I was having a challenge getting my team to execute and perform. He simply walked up to me, looked at me, said it and walked away. Frankly at the time he said that I pretty much thought to myself “no kidding” and went about my day. A few days later he sat with me and asked me about my thoughts and when I told him what I thought he politely laughed and then gave me a story. He said, if only you and your sergeant are in a warzone and there is a very dangerous objective and the sergeant states that the two of you will take it would you do it?

With that information I thought to myself what would have to exist for me to willingly take this objective to the best of my ability. I would have to trust he knows what he is doing, have faith in our ability to execute, understand why we need to do this among many other factors. Frankly the key in all of this is fully trusting that sergeant because why else would I be willing to risk my life. In there I understood that the most important thing I can have with my team is trust and studying how to develop this trust would greatly increase my team’s willingness to achieve and surpass our goals.

I’m by no means an expert at leadership but by focusing on developing trust within my teams their performance has always increased. The main areas I use to develop trust are:

Never ask them to do anything I would not do.

If my team needs to work 12-15 hours a day I will take on the same or more workloads so they know without a doubt that I will be there with them to accomplish the goal and not simply point and demand of them what I am unwilling to do myself.

Provide them a clear vision and understanding of “why”

I believe the most important question I can get from my teams or people I lead is why? I have found that engaging in conversation and allowing feedback along with being open creates trust and understanding.

Help them.

Always be ready to help, coach, guide and mentor. This takes many shapes, some of it is doing a particular task for them, teaching them something new, taking the time to coach them. But it is critical to give of yourself and your time to make their life better.

Make sure to learn from them and appreciate them.

Trust is a two way street and if you do not trust them they will absolutely not trust you. Think of the people you trust the most and how you listen to them in contrast of how you listen to others.

There are many more aspects to this then I can write in this little post or even know and personally believe one of the key aspects of any long term success is due to someone’s leadership capabilities. Leadership is not a title because effective and productive teams that accomplish above expectations does not happen by force but by desire. To lead people must want to follow is such a simple saying but understanding how to accomplish that can easily be a lifetimes work.