Gaining The Respect Of Those You Lead

Being Taken Seriously

Many leaders want to be super serious so they can be taken seriously. They believe the more they have a hard-nosed, get it done at any cost type of attitude, the more they’ll be respected.

This line of thinking is wrong. You don’t gain the respect of your team by being hard-nosed. You also don’t gain respect by having a get it done at any cost type of attitude.

Man wearing a shirt saying respect. Standing in front of a leaf background

Photo by Tiago Felipe Ferreira

There’s a better, more efficient way of gaining respect. One you can do without completely alienating the ones you lead.

But how do you gain the respect of those you lead without demanding respect? You follow what I’ll share today.

Gaining The Respect Of Those You Lead

Great leaders know they can’t push people around and expect them to be respected. Rather, great leaders know they can do a select few activities and be respected.

You Can’t Keep Looking Back

If you want to move forward, you have to give up doing something. That something is looking back. Constantly looking back to the past will hinder you from moving forward.

From becoming a better husband. From being a better husband. And from being a better leader.

You have to stop looking to the past - Woman looking behind her

Photo by Roberto Nickson

It’s hard to look forward and away from the past. There are so many awesome things to look back upon.

You’ve accomplished so much. You’re proud of the time you took your wife to the perfect vacation spot and the time you spent there. Or you fondly recall the time you helped lead your team to win the sales competition in your department.

All good things! All things you should be proud of. But what happens when you constantly look back?

Stop Living In The Past

It's okay to visit but not live there

I’m a huge proponent of using your past to help propel you towards your future. You have a long list of victories you’ve accomplished in your past.

From the first client you landed for your organization to the process improvement you suggested which saved the business millions of dollars to helping out on the shop floor so production could keep going. There are so many great victories in your past. And it is okay to revisit your victories.

Old van from the past with text of stop living in the past

Image by Dillon Klassen

Yet you can’t live there. You can’t live in the past. Not in your victories and ESPECIALLY not in your defeats.

I’ve recently experienced a bout of living in the past. It’s the recent past but the past none the less…

Pam and I recently purchased a used Kia Soul. We really liked the look and feel of the vehicle. And the price seemed great at the time.

Who Are You?

Throughout our lives, we have multiple identities. We may be fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, leaders, businessmen, athletes, and the list goes on.

We have title after title. We have position after position. We have responsibility after responsibility.

The crazy thing is, we can get lost and easily forget who we are.

We don't always know our identity

Image by Hape Gera

That’s one of the reasons why I loved watched the beginning of CBS’s CSI: Miami. The theme song for the show was The Who’s Who Are You song.

Who Are You is a catchy song that, at the beginning, simply asks Who are you? Who, who, who, who?

The question is pointed and it’s loaded.

Do you know who you are? Do I know who you are? Who are you?

There’s a good reason this resonates with me. It should resonate with you.