How you market and sell is a success differentiator in business – but besides sales, what is the single biggest success capability you can have in business?

People think that we use visual models to drive sales, and it’s true, they are a sales superpower.  However, well before we sell to the customer, we need to sell to an even more important group of people … our team!

Visual models are really a system for elevated thinking and accelerated influence and if we can do both these things with our teams, we become leaders worth following.

You don’t become a leader because you give yourself the title and you certainly don’t become a leader because you study leadership!  You become a leader when people follow you with heartfelt commitment and creative enthusiasm.

Those two things require that your team think for themselves and perform to their highest potential … your job is to elevate that thinking and influence that performance.

We first found the game-changing potential of visual models when we showed leaders in large organisations how to use models to become the leader their people wanted to follow.

So, this brings me to the point of the post …

Your effectiveness as a leader is NOT indicated by what your people do or how much they get done.  It is indicated by HOW MUCH YOU CAN TRUST THEM to do what must be done, when it needs to be done … or perhaps even to do more than expected, sooner than expected!

Here’s what I see in many organisations …

Too many managers REPLACE TRUST WITH MEETINGS to make themselves feel more confident about what they’re team is doing.

When you’re confident about how you’re leading, you can REPLACE MEETINGS WITH TRUST …

And watch the whole game change in your favour!

This is just one insight I had years ago about leadership versus management – I’d love to know what your biggest insight has been.