One of the first responsibilities of leadership is earning the trust of the person you intend to lead. People follow the leader they trust, not the leader with the most authority.
You can be intelligent. You can care. You can have a vision. But if someone has low trust in you, they simply won’t go where you try to lead them.
No matter how capable or experienced you are, you can only lead someone as far as they trust you. Trust is the limit of leadership. The lower the trust, the lower the limit. The higher the trust, the higher the limit.
So, whose trust do you need first? Your own.
You won’t lead anyone else well if you aren’t leading yourself well. And to lead yourself, you must trust yourself. You have all the authority you need, but how much trust do you have?
If your trust is low, you won’t go where you’re trying to lead yourself. If your trust is high, there is no limit to where you can go.
The first responsibility of leadership is earning the trust of the person you intend to lead. And the first person you lead is yourself.
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