The best leaders evolve to recognize a simple but important truth: We have influence with others proportional to the influence they have with us.
When others feel they can influence you, they become much more open to your influence. When a leader finally understands this working principle, how they interact and engage with others begins to change, and a marked quality in their relationships takes shape.
Following this pattern, great leaders will also give trust to get trust. They will show vulnerability so that others feel free to expose their true ideas and feelings. They act with loyalty so as to encourage loyalty from others.
This human reciprocity always begins with the leader and ends in relational difference. This may be the most difficult principle to both explain and teach to leaders, as it requires an enormous about of experience to recognize the patterns of true leadership influence.
Jump the learning curve and look for the evidence all great leaders display. No one cares what a leader thinks before they know that leader cares. Mutual influence is the truest form of leading by example.
