One of my favorite quotes regarding acceptance comes from the great Martin Luther King Jr.:
The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
Often in coaching and training sessions I am the youngest person in the
room. Of course, I need to be accepted by the people I coach in order to
get meaningful results.
But how do I get experienced leaders to accept me on eye-level?
You might be in a position where you need followers or the acceptance of your team and I’m curious to hear how you do it! Feel free to share in the comments section below.
For me, there are many steps involved, so let me share only some of them in order not to make this blog post too long…
- First of all, I accept all possible doubts they might have against me. I virtually go in there expecting to be doubted. To be honest, when I’m presented with someone I should follow, I’m very skeptical myself. Why would others be different?
- Secondly, I know what I’m good at and what not – and I speak openly about it. In my experience, people value honesty and will find out anyway when you don’t say the truth about a skill or experience. To show you’re of integrity creates trust. Both are important values to me.
- Thirdly, I do what I’m hired for while taking the people involved with me. As leaders we need to be someone who is interested in others simply because we need them to get the job done. So why not empower them along the way? Ideally, every leadership scenario is a scenario where both can benefit from.
Let me know what you do to make sure you’re really accepted as a leader!