From Trust to Influence: How Great Leaders Inspire Teams

John Maxwell has a leadership truism, and it reads, “Leadership is influence.”
He’s 100% right. Leadership is using your influence to get the team to where you want
them to be. Whether that is telling stories to inspire and cast a vision of what the future
could look like or building the confidence of a team member. A leader uses their
influence to make the team better and to achieve a destination.

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But there’s a step before influence and it’s one leaders can quickly forget.
That step is trust.

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The team must trust the leader if the leader wants to have any influence over
them.

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We should pause here and clarify that some leaders don’t care about trust. Their
influence comes from inserting fear into team members and ruling with anger and being
an authoritarian. We’ve all been in those organizations and they’re not a healthy place
to serve.

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Good leaders build trust. They keep their word. They don’t break promises. People are
thanked and coached to correction. Leaders are self-aware when they’re having an off
day and will often limit face time so as not to disrupt the flow and culture of the team. If
a leader has told the team we’re pursuing a certain goal and then the direction changes,
they will gather the team and explain why there’s a change of direction.
You can’t have healthy influence without a foundation of trust.

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What can break that trust that results in little or no influence?

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Breaking your promises. Never thanking anyone but only barking orders and criticizing
the work that has been done. Taking your bad day out on your team. Leaders like this
will yell and scream at employees because it makes them feel better. Never explaining a
new goal or opportunity but assuming the team will figure it out. Not caring about the
person but simply seeing them as an employee ID number.

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Poor leaders expect great influence because they give people a paycheck. Employees
of today want more than money. They want a purpose. Team members need to feel that
what they’re doing is making an impact in someone’s life or making the world a better
place.

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At Ellis Adams Group, we accomplish that by creating experiences for individuals in
the hospitality industry. We train and equip clients to create experiences that lead to
lifelong memories for customers. Those memories include storytelling, adventure and
the feeling of luxury which leads to success for our clients. But the EAG team knows
that what they’re doing is making difference for the clients and the customers of those
we serve.

Evaluate your leadership. Are you building trust? Does that trust result in healthy
influence?

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Maxwell is right that leadership is influence. But you can’t have influence without trust.
Start building that trust and your team will chase the dream with an unrivaled passion.

Intersecting Luxury and Life,
Chris Adams